4 U-M Student Please No Contest In Naked Run Through Sorority House

4 U-M students plead no contest in naked run through sorority house

By WILLIAM B. TREML

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Four University of Michigan freshmen, who city police say ran naked through a sorority house last month, pleaded no contest Thursday to charges of disorderly conduct

Although all four are members of the same fraternity, they said their action was not sanctioned by the Greek group. Instead, they told police, they did it on “a dare.”

The defendants, each 18 years old, are Aaron H. Axel, a resident of Mary Markley Hall, 1425 Washington Heights; and Richard E. Nelson, Jeffrey T. Baron and Scott B. Goldberg, all residents of Alice Lloyd Hall, 100 Observatory Drive.

Ann Arbor Police Detective Michael Schubring said that after tracking down the suspects and questioning them, they told him they stripped and entered the Gamma Phi Beta sorority, 1520 S. University Ave., early on the morning of Nov. 29 on a dare.

A member of the sorority told police one of the men entered her room and asked her to sign her name on his buttocks. When police arrived on the scene the men were outside the sorority house and fled to a parking lot at nearby Angell School. There police stopped them, questioned the four and released them. The four gave false names to the officers, but Detective Schubring discovered their true identities and then signed criminal complaints against them for disorderly conduct.

In Thursday’s arraignment 15th District Court Judge S. J. Elden accepted the no contest pleas after Douglas Mullkoff, counsel for the defendants, presented supporting arguments for the action. Mullkoff told the judge if his clients entered guilty pleas it would be an admission to violating university and Interfrateraity Council rules. Such violations could result in disciplinary measures meted out to the students.

Elden then questioned each defendant individually about his understanding of the no contest plea, explaining that the plea would be treated like a plea of guilty and that the maximum punishment for a disorderly conduct conviction is 90 days in the County Jail and/or $100 fine. All four said they understood the possible consequences of the plea. In accepting the pleas Elden said he felt “the best interest of justice” will be served.

The judge at first set the sentencing date for Dec. 30 but changed that date to Jan. 6 after Mullkoff said that day would fall during the university’s Christmas vacation when the students had planned to return to their New York homes. Axel is from Melville, Nelson from Great Neck, Baron from Dix Hills and Goldberg from East Hills, all in New York.

All are members of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at 640 Oxford Road, but Richard Kamowitz, the “pledge father” for that fraternity emphasized that the naked escapade was neither sponsored nor condoned by the fraternity.

“You should understand ZBT had nothing to do with this incident,” said Kamowitz, who attended Thursday’s arraignment. “It certainly was not a fraternity initiation stunt or prank. These four did this on their own. They’re sorry about it. They realize they made a mistake, and now they’re going to have to pay for it.”