Trial Opens on Fullerton Bid to Oust Frat Houses

High-decibel fraternity parties, late-night carousing and a wild snowball fight that ended in the splattering of an unmarked police car all came under scrutiny in court Monday as the city of Fullerton and several local fraternities clashed in the latest installment of their years-long feud.

In a trial that will continue through the week in Superior Court in Newport Beach, the city is seeking to throw out of their houses three Cal State Fullerton fraternities that do not have residential permits under a new city regulation.

But the fraternities counter that the regulation unfairly singles out college fraternity and sorority members for special restrictions that do not apply to other residents.

‘Some Problems’

“Obviously we’re not going to try and show that young guys going to college are ideal neighbors,” attorney Ron Talmo, representing the fraternities, said during a break on the trial’s opening day. “Students are going to cause some problems because of their non-traditional life styles.”

“But if people are disturbing the peace, the way to deal with it is to arrest them for disturbing the peace; these regulations are not the way to go,” Talmo said.

The current controversy is rooted in a Fullerton city ordinance that requires fraternities and sororities to apply for a conditional use permit from the city to maintain their off-campus houses, which number more than a dozen.

Approved in 1985

The City Council, prompted by years of noise, parking and unruly behavior complaints from neighbors of the city’s Fraternity Row, approved the permit review process in 1985 and began enforcing it last year.

But three Cal State Fullerton fraternities, described by city officials as particularly troublesome in their past activities, are now operating without permits and have challenged the plan as a violation of their First Amendment right to freedom of association.

They are Sigma Alpa Epsilon, Sigma Pi and Tau Kappa Epsilon. Combined, the three houses have about 50 live-in members who could be affected by the dispute.

Superior Court Judge Betty Lou Lamoreaux, hearing the case without a jury, must now decide the issue. Testimony is expected to continue today and will probably end by next week, lawyers in the case said.

First-day testimony on Monday from two fraternity system advisers and two fraternity members explored aspects of fraternity life ranging from study habits and personal relations among the house “brothers,” to raucous parties and allegations of potentially illegal conduct.

In his early line of questioning, Talmo sought to demonstrate what he later called “the benefits and personal growth for these young men of living together” and also to show that the three fraternities in question, after a history of admitted problems, are now making an earnest effort to clean up their acts.

“Like a family” was a phrase heard several times as the four fraternity members past and present discussed their experiences in their houses. “Living in the house, you get to know everybody a lot better,” said student Brad Elder, a member and past president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

But as staunchly as he and others defended the benefits of fraternity life, they were hit by several hours of questioning from M. Katherine Jenson, representing the city, who sought to expose the fraternities as a haven for disruptive and perhaps illegal conduct.

‘Final Word on Partying’

Jenson, who argued in her opening statement that the city has a clear right to regulate the houses, took the fraternity members down a litany of past incidents in which police investigated complaints of excessive, late-night noise, broken windows, and the pummeling of an unmarked police car during a frenzied snowball fight, among other problems.

Drawing particular attention on Monday was Sigma Alpha Epsilon, which recruited potential members in a campus newspaper advertisement by telling readers, “Join or Die,” and declaring itself “the final word on partying, road trips . . . and the hottest Little Sisters on Fraternity Row.”

At Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Elder acknowledged that police have been called to the house three or four times so far this year, but he said most of these incidents involved baseless complaints from embittered neighbors. “Neighbors just usually point a finger at whoever they want,” he said.

Asked about any incidents of violence among fraternities in his three years in the house, Elder said he had witnessed “a lot of shouting matches and pushing matches, but I hadn’t really seen any full-fledged fistfights. . . . Sometimes, tensions are running high between different fraternities.”

Elder acknowledged that his fraternity has in recent years been placed by the college on temporary probation several times in connection with complaints ranging from excessive noise to trespassing and the hazing of a “little sister.”

‘All in Fun’

A fellow fraternity member, Thaddeus Bennett, said in later testimony that the hazing incident involved a a sexually suggestive contest during a party at the house. Bennett said that the contest “was all in fun” but that one female student objected when asked to participate. Talmo said later of the incident: “The point is that what they were doing was not a crime. . . . It was private, legal conduct in their own house.”

While acknowledging some abuses, the fraternity members denied other alleged improprieties put forth by attorney Jenson in her questioning--many centering on the use of alcohol.

Both Bennett and Elder said they did not see much evidence of excessive drinking at the house. They denied, for instance, that members played a drinking game that ended only when some of the participants passed ou, or that pledges seeking membership in the fraternity were required to steal beer for the house.

Bennett did acknowledge, however, that he had often seen students under the age of 21 drinking alcohol at the house--perhaps as many as 100 times during his three years there.