Detroit Man To Stand Trial In Attacks At Campus Melee

Detroit man to stand trial in attacks at campus melee

By WILLIAM B. TREML
NEWS STAFF REPORTER

A 19-year-old Wayne County factory worker who police say used an aluminum crutch to batter into unconsciousness two celebrators of Michigan’s national basketball championship earlier this month was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on three felony charges.

Scott R. Fouch of Detroit is to be arraigned on May 2 in Washtenaw County Circuit Court on a charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and two counts of felonious assault.

In a hearing Wednesday in 15th District Court, Scott Grieger, 20, a former Eastern Michigan University student from Ann Arbor, and Jeffrey Burger, a 19-year-old Garden City resident, testified that they were knocked unconscious during a wild melee outside the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity house, 556 S. State St., at about 1:30 a.m. April 4.

Hours before the incident, the U-M basketball team had defeated Seton Hall to win the NCAA national title.

Grieger said he was a guest at the fraternity house party. He said he went outside to watch the milling crowd and spotted a man brandishing a single crutch.

“Then I was hit,” said Grieger. “I woke up in the hospital the next morning. I don’t remember who hit me. I had contusions, a bleeding of the brain, blood in an eye, a tooth knocked out. I now have memory problems. I had to drop out of school. I can’t concentrate.”

Burger said he and two friends were in a crowd outside the fraternity house and they saw Fouch swinging a crutch.

“Then I was hit from behind,” Burger testified. “I didn’t see who hit me but the defendant was the only one next to me. I was hit in the jaw with a crutch. I blacked out. The next thing I knew I was in the street. They took five stitches in my jaw.”

Under cross examination by Assistant Public Defender Craig Pollard, Burger said he saw several men with single crutches around the Alpha Delta Phi house that night.

Marcus B. Shull, 19, a member of the U-M fraternity, told the court that he saw Fouch swinging a crutch. “I tried to grab the crutch,” said Shull. “He swung it at me as he was backing away. I blocked the blow with my arm. Then the police came.”

Ann Arbor Police Officer Christopher Heatley also testified, and said Fouch was holding an aluminum crutch when he was arrested. Heatley said he had to stand between Fouch and several youths who were shouting that Fouch had assaulted their friend.

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