Ex-SMU pledge testifies in man's frat hazing trial Dallas: He says he was made to guzzle water; defense denies force

Dallas Morning NewsJune 22, 2006
By ROBERT THARP / The Dallas Morning News

The "water night" ritual at a fraternity member's northeast Dallas apartment began with orders to guzzle salsa and hot sauce.

Then, Braylon Curry testified Wednesday, he and other pledges to Southern Methodist University's Alpha Phi Alpha chapter were peppered with fraternity trivia questions and forced to perform dances and sing fraternity songs. Mistakes were rewarded with demands by fraternity brothers to guzzle water, he said.

Mr. Curry said he drank 3 to 5 gallons of water that evening in 2003. He collapsed, had seizures and spent 10 days in the hospital as a result of the near-death experience.

Raymond Lee, 26, is on trial for aggravated assault in the case and faces to to 20 years in prison if convicted. Prosecutors say Mr. Lee, who had already graduated from college at the time of the incident, was the ringleader in the hazing.

"He was pushing the jug up to my mouth and slapping me on my arms and torso – it was pretty forceful," Mr. Curry testified Wednesday during Mr. Lee's trial.

"He did most of the hitting," prosecutor Josh Healy said during opening statements. "He was the most aggressive, and he forced most of the water down Braylon's throat.

"Mr. Curry, now 23 and enrolled at Howard University, said he still suffers from memory loss and concentration problems as a result of the hazing.

After he collapsed, fraternity members began frantic Internet research on the effects of "over hydration," Mr. Healy said. They didn't call for an ambulance until Mr. Curry began having seizures, he said.

Attorneys for Mr. Lee suggested that Mr. Curry and other pledges voluntarily subjected themselves to the initiation ritual because the fraternity had an alternative method of acceptance that only involved a written application.

Attorney Ray Jackson also said that Mr. Curry was not under duress and could have stopped drinking the water at any time.

But Mr. Curry testified that fraternity members who did not go through the rituals were treated with ridicule. He said he drank the water because Mr. Lee forced the jug to his mouth.

"I got to the point that I was incoherent and had trouble standing," he said.

Four students were expelled after the incident, and Alpha Phi Alpha was banned from SMU's campus.Prosecutors said in court that it wasn't the first time Mr. Lee had been accused of going too far with fraternity pledges.

As a University of Texas at Dallas student in 2001, Mr. Lee was accused of hazing and suspended from Alpha Phi Alpha. For punishment, he was ordered to perform community service and write a paper on the dangers of hazing.

"Hazing is an act of power and control over others," he wrote at the time. "It's victimization."Testimony in Mr. Lee's trial is to resume today.