PANAMA CITY BEACH — A University of Florida investigation has found evidence that members of UF fraternity Zeta Beta Tau behaved badly in Panama City Beach during Spring Break, but found nothing to indicate their behavior was intentionally aimed at disabled veterans at the same resort.
From interviews with more than 60 students, veterans and their spouses, hotel workers and guests, UF officials gathered a picture of Zeta Beta Tau students getting drunk, playing loud music into the early morning hours and other unruly behavior typical of Spring Break.
By their own admission, one student grabbed an American flag while intoxicated but returned it after a veteran yelled at him. Another popped open a bottle of champagne that might have accidentally spilled over the balcony onto guests below.
--- DOCUMENT: READ THE PCBPD REPORT»»
Veterans said they were blocked from entering elevators and bumped while walking down hallways with their service dogs.
The university has charged the fraternity with three counts of violating the student conduct code: causing harm or potential harm to others, obscenity, and public intoxication.
Officials met with fraternity members and their representatives Tuesday to explain the charges, their options and the procedure that follows.
“It was a very pleasant, collegial, open and sort of explanatory conversation where UF laid out the charges, the procedure, options and evidence and acted in very good faith,” said Lee Teichner, a partner with the Holland & Knight law firm in Miami.
Teichner, a UF alumnus whose son is a ZBT member, represents about 80 parents of UF ZBT members. He said the fraternity is weighing its options.
“Based on my review of the report, I do not see conduct on the part of the UF ZBT students that meets the charges levied against them,” Teichner said.
The fraternity has until Friday to decide if it will accept or dispute responsibility for the charges. If it chooses to dispute the charges, ZBT can request a panel or administrative hearing, UF officials said.
“The result of the conduct process decides what happens to the organization moving forward,” said Janine Sikes, assistant vice president for media relations at UF.
The fraternity has already been placed on probation twice, most recently for a hazing incident last fall involving sleep deprivation. ZBT likely will be suspended if found responsible, Sikes said.
“If they are found not responsible, then from UF’s perspective, they would be eligible to reopen,” she said.
The investigation was launched after allegations appeared on social media that ZBT fraternity members from UF and Emory University chapters insulted and harassed a group of disabled warriors at Lakewood Wharf in Panama City Beach the weekend of April 17.
About 600 students from UF and Emory were holding their spring formals the same weekend that 60 disabled veterans with their families and caregivers were attending the biannual Warrior Beach Retreat.
About 4,000 people were at the resort that weekend.
Facebook posts by the wives of two veterans alleging mistreatment by fraternity members went viral and sparked a national media storm. UF President Kent Fuchs also received emails urging an investigation into what was termed the “disrespectful and disgusting” behavior of the students.
UF immediately suspended the chapter pending the outcome of its own investigation.
Fuchs sent a letter to Linda Cope, head of the Warriors Beach Retreat to apologize for the alleged behavior, and Vice President David Kratzer, a retired general, said he was disgusted by the reports of how students allegedly treated the vets.
The National Headquarters of ZBT suspended both chapters and expelled three students from the UF chapter.
Within a week, UF and the national headquarters of ZBT agreed to close the UF chapter and evict the students from its house on Fraternity Row during final exams following dozens of death threats and anti-Semitic comments directed at the fraternity.
UF officials said they made the decision after university police in consultation with the FBI determined a safety risk to fraternity members, the Greek community and the university community as a whole.
UF and ZBT conducted independent investigations while the Panama City Beach Police Department conducted a criminal complaint into allegations of petit theft, simple battery, criminal mischief and launching a deadly missile.
Panama City Beach police last week decided not to file charges after finding no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, although it concluded that students had committed “vulgar acts of moral disrepute.”
PCBPD Capt. Robert Clarkson wrote that police did establish vulgar and inappropriate conduct by the fraternity members toward the veterans, but couldn’t identify members involved because of lack of cooperation.
In the police report, Cope said veterans told her that fraternity members had yelled at them, spat on them, tore flags off their cars and threw beer bottles at them.
Many of the veterans she named as witnesses either did not see the alleged acts or didn’t want to press charges, police said.
One veteran told police he saw “college-aged white males” throw a champagne bottle at veterans from a 19th floor balcony, but backed off after he agreed he couldn’t positively identify them from that distance.
The 147-page UF report was released to fraternity members Monday. The report includes summaries of interviews conducted by student affairs staff with more than 40 students, a dozen veterans and their spouses, a summary of the ZBT chapter’s internal investigation, the PCBP investigative report, and a deposition from the resort’s property manager.
Hotel workers received complaints of students pulling flags off veterans’ cars, throwing marshmallows, pushing a veteran out of an elevator, and using racial slurs.
Students admitted during interviews with UF officials that they were drinking alcohol on the beach and in hotel rooms, and that they had gotten a number of noise complaints Friday night.
Several said they were not aware a veterans’ group was even at the hotel until they got an email from the spring formal organizers. Others said that any mistreatment of veterans, like throwing beer bottles off balconies, must have been by their Emory brothers.
One student admitted to vomiting on his balcony. Another student said he saw a student start to urinate off a balcony for a second, but then stopped.
Another admitted he grabbed a flag while intoxicated but put it back after several older guests yelled at him. Veterans said he was trying to ride the flag like a pony.
One student said he went to the balcony to open a champagne bottle to make Mimosas. “The cork popped and some champagne may have fallen over,” he told investigators.
Students also admitted to playing a drinking game in which they would chug beer, put their forehead on a baseball bat, spin around and then try to hit the empty beer can with the bat.
One veteran said several students blocked him from getting into an elevator and bullied him and his wife. Another veteran and spouse claim they were shoulder-bumped in the hall.
They also reported trash — fast food wrappers, bottle caps and a used tampon — thrown from balconies. One witnessed a young woman vomiting on a walkway and another person vomiting on a balcony above her. The spouse of one veteran said she felt something wet hit her from above and thought it might have been beer or urine.
One veteran saw beer bottles being dropped or passed between balconies, but none fell to the ground.
One veteran who claimed on television that a student spit on him and his service dog declined to talk to UF officials.
But many of the veterans couldn’t identify whether the students were from UF or even associated with a fraternity.
“There was never any evidence that it was us,” said Brett Musser, a chapter alumnus who finished his master’s degree in finance this year and attended the spring formal. “There were thousands of other people at Laketown Wharf.”
Musser also said what the UF students admitted to was “nothing egregious or out of the ordinary in a spring formal trip.”
Musser and Teichner said they felt the national headquarters threw their brothers under the bus because of the intense national media pressure.
“Everyone was just dumbfounded,” Musser said. “They went on a trip to PC Beach with their dates, came back and a week later the whole chapter is shut down.”
Teichner said he hopes that Cope and others who accused the UF fraternity of mistreating vets will apologize.
--- DOCUMENT: READ THE PCBPD REPORT»»
“The investigation by both the PCB police and UF now confirms that there was no evidence of any intended disrespect or harmful or offensive conduct toward any veteran there that weekend,” Teichner said. “I’m hoping that … those who made such accusations will stand up with same fervor and apologize.”
The University of Florida has charged the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity with the following:
- Violation of Student Conduct Code/4(a) Causing Physical or Other Harm to any Person/4a1 — Conduct causing physical injury or endangering another’s health or safety, which includes, but is not limited to, acts of physical violence, assault, and relationship or domestic violence
- Violation of Student Conduct Code/4(d) Obscene Behavior — Conduct or behavior that the student knows or should know is reasonably likely to be considered obscene under the standards of the local community. Such behavior includes but is not limited to public exposure of one’s own sexual organs and voyeurism, including but not limited to video voyeurism
- Violation of Student Conduct Code/4(i) Alcohol Beverages Violations/4i2 Public Intoxication — Appearing at a university activity or on the university campus in a state of intoxication.
Zeta Beta Tau has until Friday to accept responsibility or dispute the charges.