WUPD issued a report last week saying that a student assaulted two others while at a Halloween party in the Rutledge residence hall on the South 40. The assault was reported to the police on Nov. 2.

A Student Life investigation found that sophomore Eric Potter struck sophomore Michael Biehl as well as another girl at a Halloween party on Oct. 30 in Rutledge.

A police investigation into the assaults found that the conflict started earlier that week during an incident that involved fraternity members and that was possibly hazing.

“It appeared as a result of our investigation there were some practices that some in the investigation indicated were part of sort of historical acts by members of the fraternity,” WUPD Chief of Police Don Strom said. Strom did not discuss which students were involved with the assault or the incident leading up to the assault, what fraternity was found to be connected with the incident, or what the incident was.

Potter is a brother in the Sigma Nu fraternity, and Biehl was at the time in the process of pledging membership to Sigma Nu.

Earlier that week, on Oct. 28, Potter and another Sigma Nu brother mock kidnapped Biehl’s girlfriend, sophomore Michelle Chen, shortly before 9 p.m. at Simon Hall, according to Chen. The two bound her ankles and covered her mouth with duct tape, according to Chen. Chen described the mock kidnapping as a game, and said that she had agreed to participate in it beforehand. Potter and the other student took a photograph of Chen that they intended to send to Biehl.

The two then removed the duct tape from Chen’s mouth and suggested to her that they carry her to the Student Union Senate meeting with her feet still bound. Chen, an SU senator, said she initially laughed at the suggestion, although she was not OK with it. Chen said she did not want to be put into that situation, which she did not think was appropriate. She told the two that she did not want to be dropped off at the meeting while she was being carried to it.

Potter could not be reached for comment.

The two then dropped her off at the meeting, which was in progress, in Simon 113. Chen said that she thought it was possible that there was a miscommunication in the situation.

As she was entering the Senate meeting with her feet bound, Chen fell and was assisted by Senators Robyn Michaelson and Mike Post. Chen then re-entered the room and attended the meeting.

Chen said she considers what happened to have been a prank that went too far.

Sigma Nu President David Ingber said that Sigma Nu investigated the matter internally and found that the students involved with the assault at the Halloween party had relations with Sigma Nu but the assault was an isolated incident that was not associated with the fraternity.

“They [Biehl and Potter] were freshman roommates,” Ingber said. “Whatever happened between them is much bigger and larger than anything that happened at Sig Nu. There is a clear distinction between the events that occurred and Sigma Nu in the fact that they are separate entities and separate things.”

Chen said she does not feel what happened reflects on Sigma Nu as a whole, and she does not blame the fraternity for what happened.

Strom said that because the incident leading up to the assault was possibly hazing, the case will be reviewed per standard protocol by the county’s prosecuting attorney office in January.

“I think most people who’ve looked at it have said, ‘It’s kind of a close call,’ and I think that’s what people really want to delve into a little further with it,” Strom said.

Ingber noted that Sigma Nu was founded on a principle of no hazing.

“That statement of no hazing is something that we as a house and organization take unbelievably seriously,” Ingber said.

Ingber said he was not aware of any incidents involving mock kidnapping occurring in the past.

“This is nothing I have ever heard of in the past, and nothing that we have done, or ever done to my knowledge,” Ingber said.

Because the students who were assaulted at the party are not requesting prosecution, WUPD has referred further handling of the case to the judicial administrator.

Senior Kevin Smith, president of the Interfraternity Council, said that the Greek Life Standards Board is not investigating allegations of hazing by Sigma Nu.

Director of Greek Life Michael Hayes could not be reached for comment and left town to go on vacation on Thursday, but a representative from the Greek Life Office said that the case had been discussed.

Biehl recently stopped pledging Sigma Nu. Biehl said this was not related to the assault or the incident leading up to it, and he made the decision that Greek life was not for him independently of what happened.

While the SU meeting was momentarily stopped by Chen’s unusual entrance, the meeting proceeded as normal.

“I had no idea what was going on,” Speaker of the Senate Chase Sackett said. “It was confusing.”

“It seemed like the general consensus was it would be taken care of, and she came back in a few moments anyway,” freshman Senator Mamatha Challa said.

The University hazing policy states, “Any activity organized by a student organization, or members of a student organization, which involves a member in practices which are injurious, or potentially injurious to an individual’s physical, emotional, or psychological well being (as determined at the sole discretion of the University) shall be immediate cause for disciplinary action.”

Dan Woznica, Michelle Merlin and Perry Stein contributed reporting

Seniors Regis Murayi (left) and Jordan Roberts (right)wear the same pair of jeans. Murayi was told he could not enter a Chicago bar because he violated its ban on baggy jeans. He then switched jeans with Roberts, and Roberts was admitted into the bar. Murayi says the bar discriminated against him because he is black. (Courtesy of Fernando Cutz)

Complaints about alleged race discrimination by a Chicago bar against six black Washington University students have prompted state and federal investigations and a likely lawsuit to be filed by the students against the bar.

The developments came in the week after the incident, which occurred during a senior class trip night out at the Original Mothers bar in a popular nightspot downtown. Senior Class Council had made prior arrangements with the bar for some 200 seniors to go there.

The investigations, which include an FBI inquiry, are a result of complaints filed by Regis Murayi, one of the students denied entry into the bar on Oct. 17. Murayi, treasurer of Senior Class Council, filed complaints with the Chicago Commission on Human Rights, the Illinois attorney general’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice.

In the complaints, Murayi alleged that the bar’s refusal to admit the students constituted discrimination under the Chicago Municipal Code, which prohibits places of public accommodations from discriminating against clientele based on race. Race discrimination is also a federal offense under Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Murayi said the manager of Mothers told him and the other students that they could not enter the bar because they were violating the bar’s ban on baggy jeans. But Murayi said the manager admitted white students wearing baggy jeans. To prove this, Murayi changed jeans with senior Jordan Roberts, a white student, and Roberts was then admitted into the bar wearing the jeans.

Murayi said he thinks the six were discriminated against not because of their jeans but because they were a large group of black men.

“The bar racially discriminated against us and automatically assumed that we were dangerous,” Murayi said.

Representatives from Mothers declined to be interviewed this weekend by Student Life but said in a news release that the bar “does not discriminate against guests or patrons on the basis of race, and would never tolerate discriminatory conduct.” Mothers said it is conducting an investigation into the case and will take disciplinary action if necessary.

Mothers representatives also told the Chicago Tribune Friday that the students were rejected because of security concerns, not racism. Mothers’ human resource manager, Dan Benson, said a security photograph showed that two of the students had been wearing backward baseball caps, which are associated with gangs. Benson said gang violence is common in the area near the bar.

Murayi disputed that his clothing suggested he was in a gang. Murayi said he was well dressed, wearing a peacoat, loafers and a button-down shirt. He offered to show his Washington University IDs as proof of enrollment.

Benson also noted in the Tribune that other black patrons had been admitted into the bar. Murayi said this does not change his opinion that the bar discriminated against the students on the basis of their race.

“In and of itself that’s racial in that they automatically assumed that we were a gang,” Murayi said.

Now, Murayi and the other five black students are preparing to take legal action against the bar. Murayi said a number of lawyers have offered to take up their case for free, and the students are currently working to select a candidate.

Murayi and the others are seeking to be compensated for out-of-pocket, emotional distress and punitive damages, as well as the suspension of licensing to Mothers.

“We want to hurt them financially moving forward,” Murayi said.

University officials and students are also taking action against the bar.

Chancellor Mark Wrighton wrote a letter to Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday in which he expressed his “most intense disappointment” about the incident.

“I can only imagine the humiliation and discouragement these six young students felt last weekend when they were turned away from this establishment because of their race,” Wrighton wrote.

Wrighton called the incident a “setback for the City” of Chicago and requested that Daley respond.

Student Union also issued a resolution last Wednesday condemning Mother’s actions and urging further on-campus discussion. The Association of Black Students, Connect 4 and the Senior Class Council organized a town hall forum that will feature professors, students and others at 8 p.m. Monday in Lab Sciences 300.

With additional reporting by Michelle Stein and Johann Qua Hiansen