BATON ROUGE, La. – A new fraternity of sorts has moved in on the Greek row at Louisiana State University: the FBI.
About 50 New Orleans agents displaced by Hurricane Katrina will be living in the brick home once occupied by a fraternity exiled for hazing violations.
“They’ve been jokingly referred to as Phi Beta Iota,” Special Agent in Charge Jim Bernazzani said Monday. “We even had T-shirts made up.”
The home has been empty since the Sigma Nu fraternity lost its charter in 2004 after an investigation into hazing. The fraternity has been barred from campus until fall 2006.
The FBI spent $90,000 renovating the house, which had been vandalized.
The federal agency’s New Orleans headquarters building was severely damaged by Katrina. Repairs could take as long as eight months.
With a lot of the agents suddenly homeless and housing space hard to find in Baton Rouge, the agency jumped at the offer of the fraternity house.
Men charged using 1846 law that bans dueling
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. – Five years into the 21st century, an 1846 anti-dueling law is being used to prosecute two cousins accused of getting in a knife fight.
“The 1800s are alive and well in Mount Clemens,” joked Dean Alan, who heads the Macomb County prosecutor’s office warrants division in Michigan. It issued warrants Tuesday.
Police say the cousins, ages 19 and 31, disagreed Monday over a $30 dollar debt. The older man brandished a knife and challenged the younger man to fight outside their Mount Clemens home, and the younger man accepted, said Sheriff Mark Hackel. The teen was stabbed in the stomach.
“He could’ve done any number of things,” Hackel said. “He could’ve called police, he could’ve fled the area. But he took on the challenge and became part of the problem.”
A lawyer specializing in criminal defense said he has never represented anyone charged with dueling, but said lawyers for both men could use the same strategy – self-defense.
“If it’s a mutual fight, it’s kind of hard to say it’s one guy’s fault,” said Steven Rabaut. “And just because you’re the injured party, that doesn’t mean you were the good guy.”
From Herald news services
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