Coeds charged in case in which minor had .471 percent BAC
The Putnam County Prosecutor’s Office has filed charges against two members of a DePauw University sorority for allegedly supplying enough alcohol to a minor male student that he registered a life-threatening blood-alcohol content (BAC) percentage during a party last fall.
Charged with Class B misdemeanors of furnishing alcohol to a minor are Kappa Alpha Theta members Katherine E. Fredrick, 21, Greencastle, (no hometown address available) and Robin J. Hutton, 21, Indianapolis.
Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter told the Banner Graphic charges were being filed against “two DePauw sorority girls who provided alcohol to an underage student waiter,” calling the Nov. 29 incident at the Theta waiter appreciation dinner “some kind of tradition.”
The victim, Gunter Graham Jaeger, 20, was taken to the hospital where he tested a reported .471 percent, a BAC that can be coma-inducing, according to medical sources.
“He could have died,” Bookwalter told the Banner Graphic.
According to information provided by the DePauw Public Safety Office for the probable cause affidavit, the dinner began with a pre-party event on the sundeck at Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, 504 E. Seminary St. Five or six members of Kappa Apha Theta reportedly met there with six male waiters -- two members of ATO and four from Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Four of the waiters were reported as underage.
ATO reportedly allowed the event to occur on its property with Theta providing the alcohol since the sorority cannot consume alcohol at its house at 904 S. Locust St.
The situation came to light when DePauw Capt. Rick Keller responded to the ATO house “after an ambulance was requested for an unconscious intoxicated person.”
Upon arrival, he found Jaeger unconscious in the front passenger seat of a vehicle parked behind the house. Jaeger was extricated by Greencastle firefighters, and transported to Putnam County Hospital by Operation Life ambulance.
ATO President Colin Donahue advised Keller that Jaeger had been at a “sorority dinner” and had been drinking before and during that activity before being driven back to the house by a fraternity brother. At that point no one claimed to know what or how much he had been drinking, Keller reported.
However, officers were dispatched to PCH later that night after reports of Jaeger being combative and disorderly. However, Jaeger was in bed when officers came to speak with him. Keller asked that he contact ATO and tell his fraternity brothers not to come to the hospital.
“When they came out earlier,” Keller noted, “they attempted to get him to leave but his BAC was still a .36 percent. When he came to the hospital his BAC was .471 percent.”
Jaeger reportedly told nurses he had been drinking alone in the basement of ATO, which is how he became so intoxicated.
However, that story took a sudden turn when Jaeger and his father spoke with DPU Public Safety Director Charlene Shrewsbury and Title IX Coordinator Renee Madison of DePauw on Dec. 4, describing what happened at the waiter appreciation dinner that occurs at the end of each semester.
As they were all gathering for the dinner, Jaeger advised, the waiters are supposed to drink before going to Kappa Alpha Theta to eat. When he arrived on the sundeck, he said he saw a handle of Titos Vodka was being passed around before other Thetas arrived with additional alcohol 15 to 20 minutes later.
Jaeger recalls having a handle of vodka in his hand. When he placed it on the ground, a female student (he did not recall who) picked it up and put it back in his hand, telling him “hands on the handle at all times.”
The waiters were also told to get on their knees, Jaeger told DePauw officials, while Thetas poured chocolate syrup and peppermint-flavored vodka in their mouths, creating “Peppermint Patties.” Jaeger said someone on the deck told him bets had been made that he would be the drunkest of the waiters.
Jaeger also said he was contacted by two junior members of the sorority, Robin Hutton and Katherine Fredrick, before the event to ask what he wanted to drink. He told them to buy rum or whatever they wanted, “just not vodka.”
Hutton and Fredrick reportedly purchased moonshine just for him and he was forced to consume it, Jaeger alleged.
Jaeger said he does not recall leaving the ATO house. However, Capt. Keller was able to obtain university video from the Administration Building parking lot showing Jaeger leaving the ATO house with female members of Kappa Alpha Theta on either side of him. A cellphone video taken from inside the vehicle shows Jaeger sitting in the back seat, singing and dancing to music being played. It is apparent the waiter is intoxicated, the affidavit notes.
Jaeger told authorities sorority members took him to their house when they knew he needed to go to the hospital instead. He further said he believes Theta members called ATO to pick him up so an ambulance would not be called to the sorority house.
Between 4:15 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. Jaeger said he was made to consume so much alcohol that he was admitted to the hospital at 6:25 p.m.
Jaeger’s father also advised that ATO members recall his son saying that he told Hutton and Fredrick he had consumed enough alcohol and did not want to drink any more.
As a result of the incident, Kappa Alpha Theta and Alpha Tau Omega have been placed on interim suspension by DePauw.