Judge Orders Fraternity to Rein In Its Loud Parties

Long Beach’s chief prosecutor has obtained an injunction against a Cal State Long Beach fraternity chapter to prevent its members from “engaging in activities which have terrorized a neighborhood and taxed police resources.”

Prosecutor Bob Shannon said the action stems from a lawsuit filed in December against the Sigma Pi chapter because of its long history of “loud and obnoxious parties” involving hundreds of revelers at its Belmont Heights house on East 4th Street.

“These parties,” he said, “last into the early morning hours, have music played at excessively high levels, and result in the littering of the surrounding neighborhood with beer cans, vodka bottles, cups, party invitations, used condoms and other assorted trash.”

Members on some occasions reportedly hurled footballs and bottles at neighboring residences, smoked marijuana in the streets and mooned police officers.

Representatives of the fraternity could not be reached for comment.

The injunction issued Tuesday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Wright orders members of the fraternity and property owners to cease engaging in such nuisance-related activities.

Failure to abide by the terms of the injunction could result in criminal prosecution, Shannon said.

“The neighbors are mad as hell, and we’re ready to assert their cause,” he said. If fraternity members “don’t clean up their act, we’ll seek appropriate sanctions against them, the most drastic of which would be shutting down the house.”