Suspects identified, charges pending in fraternity vandalism
Two male suspects in the vandalism of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house over the weekend have been identified and charges against them are pending.
Matt Betzen, chief of the Vermillion Police Department, said Tuesday afternoon that both suspects are students at USD. The case has been referred to the South Dakota State’s Attorney’s Office and Betzen said the identities of the suspects won’t be released at this time.
“They (the suspects) claim it was because they got kicked out of a party,” Betzen said.
Members of Phi Delta Theta woke up Sunday morning to graffiti spray-painted onto the side of their fraternity house.
In large letters on the side of the house that faces North Dakota St. the words “We date rape” were spray-painted in yellow paint on the red, brick wall.
The words have since been washed away.
Tyler Isackson, president of the fraternity, said he believes the vandalism occurred sometime between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.
“We saw it at about 9 a.m. and tried our best to get it covered, then we washed it away,” he said. “It probably took an hour and a half or so. There’s still some stains but hopefully we can get that taken care of.”
Isackson said he thinks this vandalism might be related to the vandalism of Greek cars that happened this past fall. He added that no witnesses saw who did it. The fraternity house has no security cameras that could have captured the incident — something he said might have to be changed in the future.
“That’s maybe something that we’re going to look into in the future. Right now we really have no clue who could have done it so we’re just kind of hoping word of mouth just spreads,” he said Sunday.
The initial mood of the fraternity members was one of confusion, Isackson said. After reporting the incident to their graduate assistant and Laura Roof, the coordinator of sorority and fraternity life at USD, the fraternity reported the incident to VPD.
“We really didn’t understand why someone would vandalize our house,” Isackson said. “(We were just) in a panic mode with us trying to get it taken care of. Right now we’re pretty calm with the situation and we just hope that we can possibly find the person who committed the act.”
In a statement released by the university Monday, USD President James Abbott said USD is cooperating with VPD in its investigation of the vandalism.
“We take actions like this very seriously,” Abbott said.
Kim Grieve, the dean of student services, said USD has received no reports of sexual assault and doesn’t know why the fraternity was targeted.
Laura Roof, the coordinator of Greek Life at USD, said she’s been helping the fraternity collaborate with VPD in its investigation of the vandalism.
“I’m very concerned with the men of the fraternity’s well-being and making sure that they have the support and the resources necessary to go forward,” she said. “I’m helping them to work in collaboration with the Vermillion Police Department so that the Vermillion Police Department can go forward with their investigation.”
Roof said while she strongly encourages all fraternities and sororities to have security systems in place, the choice is left up to each individual house. She added that Greeks shouldn’t be fearful of being targeted with acts of vandalism.
“I don’t think this is something that should necessary rock the Greek community to its core or make them fearful in any sort of a way,” she said.
While alcohol intoxication and sexual assault training is done at the beginning of the year for members of the Greek community, the university has never required that a certain percentage of the chapter be in attendance — something Roof said might be required of the community in the future.
“We’ve talked a little bit about how while this incident is not indicative of the behavior of men of Phi Delt, they could definitely withstand some education as everybody in our community can about sexual assault, and so having them be forerunner in that education and really encourage people to get that education and be in attendance,” Roof said.
