Much Ado About Hazing

Hazing 101: Welcome to Greek Life
by Brittany Roberts



Hardly ever does a person not think of hazing when they think of a fraternity or sorority. These terms seem synonymous to most people when they enter college.

“Thank you sir, may I have another!” and “Toga! Toga!” are popular quotes from National Lampoon’s Animal House, a movie that embodies the quintessential stereotypes of Greek life in college. This movie popularized the idea of hazing within fraternities and sororities, and brought it to light to the general public.

Once you get to college, you generally become familiar with seeing Greek letters across campus, whether it is on shirts, buildings, houses, or banners. Most colleges and universities across the United States have Greek life on their campus. So how big is the problem of hazing within fraternities and sororities?

Hazing is illegal in 44 states of the U.S. It is also against most colleges’ Greek life codes, and most importantly, it is banned by the national levels of each fraternity and sorority within the United States.

The North American Interfraternity Conference (also known as IFC) has mandated that each sorority and fraternity include a no-hazing education during the time between when a member joins and when a member is initiated—commonly known as the pledging period.

"Whenever we hear that there is any kind of hazing, we get to the bottom of it—if it doesn’t stop, we report it to the chapter in question’s national headquarters,” said Meredith McCrea, head of Greek Life at High Point University.

This doesn’t mean that hazing doesn’t occur, though. Chapters of these national Greek organizations are still being shut down, with one occurrence happening as recent as April 16, 2009 with a chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

“In my brother’s fraternity at UNC Chapel Hill, the new members have to sit on a bench in front of their chapter house, not talking the entire time. But he’s told me about rumors of the other fraternities making their pledges stay in closets and be urinated on,” says Amy Will, a sister of Phi Mu Fraternity at High Point University.

Hazing ranges from emotional to physical abuse. One of the main types of hazing includes the consumption of a lot of alcohol, often accompanied by drinking songs to make the brother or sister drink.

Most people who endure hazing are afraid to admit that they have suffered from it. It is a humiliating process and people are not proud of what they have to do when being hazed.

“I heard a rumor about one of the fraternities on campus that they make their pledges do push-ups with your elbows on bottle caps, and also that they have some kind of physical pain inflicted upon them when listening to a specific song. When they hear that song from now on, they always want it to be changed,” says a member of one of the fraternities on High Point University’s campus.

According to anonymous survey statistics from Inside Hazing, 54% of the respondents say that extreme consumption is an important part of initiation rites. Out of fraternity and sorority members, this drops to 29%--but the fact remains that the 54% of the anonymous survey could have included members of Greek life afraid to admit to hazing.

On college campuses since 1970, there has been at least one hazing-related death per year. Although not all hazing deaths are related to alcohol, 82% of them were. The National Headquarters of most fraternities and sororities have a strict anti-hazing policy, and all of them include no forced consumption of alcoholic beverages. Along the same lines, most colleges have implemented anti-hazing policies within their conduct codes.

Anonymous Survey of Fraternity and Sorority Members

Hazing at High Point University

The “H” word is a taboo word within the sororities and fraternities on the campus of High Point University. Rarely do you hear Greeks talking about hazing with Greeks from other organizations—unless it is about how they don’t haze.

The High Point University Conduct Code says this about hazing: “Organizations found guilty of hazing should expect to have their charters withdrawn, and members of the organization, individually or collectively, should expect suspension or expulsion.”

Rumors of groups hazing run rampant on this campus, though. At the beginning of freshman year, all of the potential rushees—people who are thinking of joining (or rushing) a sorority or fraternity—hear all of the rumors.

“Within my first few weeks here, I knew which sororities hazed and which didn’t. I knew that one group made their girls sit by the spirit rock during their Initiation week—to make sure it stayed ‘theirs’—and that another group stripped you to your underwear and circled your fat,” says Courtney Adamo, a junior at High Point University and a member of a social sorority.

Other fraternities on campus are known for either hazing with drugs, extensive alcohol consumption, physical abuse, or emotional abuse.

“During [one fraternity’s] Hell Week, they used to shave their members’ heads,” says Derek Forrester, a senior member of one of the fraternities on campus. “Another fraternity used to make their members wear these hideous green jackets all week—in all weather—without showering.”

However, most of these rumors have been debunked within the past few years. They still circulate, though, and will probably continue to circulate among every new class of freshman that enters the hallowed halls of High Point University.

Facts on Hazing

A Weekend of Possible Hazing

The beach is crowded with young men and women, most of them holding some kind of beverage; and as the day goes on, there are chants, singing, and the usual beach sports, like ultimate Frisbee and volleyball.

Most of the people there have been drinking since before they got to the beach that morning—and some of them since they woke up. It’s a tradition for this weekend.

That weekend is a short vacation that one of the fraternities on campus has annually at Cherry Grove Beach, S.C.; it is a weekend of camaraderie, long days at the beach, and—to put it bluntly—alcoholism.

The brothers of this fraternity are close. It is almost as if they were true brothers rather than just fraternity brothers. It’s not hard to see that they have had “bonding” experiences.

“We don’t make them do anything that we haven’t done, and none of it is humiliating. We don’t call them pledges, and we don’t make them do anything they don’t want to do,” says one of the brothers, putting a positive light on the way his fraternity works.

The Friday night of the beach trip involves arrivals and many drunken people on the beach. It also involves a broken window when one of the alumni brothers thinks he can fit through a window open maybe eight inches.

Saturday starts early, with brothers encouraging other brothers to drink beer—in the name of fun. The beach has people who are in various states of public drunkenness all day. The night has a dinner and awards ceremony for the brothers.

Everyone leaves on Sunday, but not without an experience to remember—or an experience that others help them relive.

Related Links

Hazing Statistics

StopHazing

MSNBC Statistics on Hazing

Human Sources

Meredith McCrea -- High Point University Faculty/Staff
Courtney Adamo -- High Point University student
Derek Forrester -- High Point University student
Amy Will -- High Point University Student

(images are linked to their source)

High Point University Goes Green!

The New Green Initiatives

Sidebar: The New Green Building

By: Abby Wood

One simple action can make a big difference, and for High Point University, that one action is a concern for the environment.

For the first time since this campus has been established, the idea to take care of our environment is a new prospect that will be carried out by students.

“The students are the ones who will make it happen,” said Roger Clodfelter, Director of WOW at High Point University.

The Green Team made its big kickoff on April 7th, when it offered the new Primo water bottles and flyers to students in the Slane Center. The effort was an attempt to get the Green Team’s name on the campus, and to persuade students to go green.

According to David Bryden, Director of Library Services, about 40 students were on the initial list to become members of the Green Team.

The projects to make High Point University a more environmentally-friendly campus will be created and carried out by students, who will give their ideas in a free open discussion at the designated meetings.

Currently, students have a blue recycling bin in their dorms, combined with a larger bin for recyclable items of that dorm provided to them in the laundry room.

So every week students take out the trash, they can recycle as well.

Senior Jen Hastings said, “We want to do more than recycle.”

Student organizations like the Greek societies, Campus Crusades for Christ, and Service Fraternities will have the opportunity to get involved with projects to make the campus green.

In the future, they will be able to elect a student representative to go to the Green Team meetings.

Junior Jamie Hendrix says, "I think it's a great idea."

The efforts to start the green projects will be underway when students return in the fall, and will continue into the future.

“Right now,” Clodfelter said, “We are putting the agenda together.”

Goals of the Green Team

High Point University’s Green Team is composed of faculty, staff, administrators, Budd and Food Services personnel, and couple of students.

“The team’s purpose is to educate and advocate issues with the environment. This is a developing and emerging concept; we are doing the best we can with the knowledge we have today, and learning as we go,” said Associate Professor of Communications Dr. Judy Isaksen.

Isaksen is one of the professors who has worked at High Point University since 2001, and since then, green initiatives were not mentioned.

“The thoughts now about going green are more mainstream,” she says, “but before thoughts were not so big.”

Isaksen says the team talked about introducing the programs at the start of orientation in the Fall Semester 2009.

She says they plan to have activities for students when they come back, a large Earth Day celebration, an effort for Greeks to Go Green, and other related activities.

Isaksen says what she wants to see most is “a shift in the entire culture at High Point University, and the ideas going and thinking green will become the norm.”

Better Water Comes From Primo Bottle

Efforts like the newly- owned Primo water bottle, recycling containers, the tray-less dining program in the cafeteria, recyclable napkins and straws made from corn are just the beginning of the green initiatives.

High Point University’s partnership with Primo Water Corporation has given the university the opportunity to enjoy fresh, cool water with much less impact on our planet, according to the new Green Team flyer.

According to the flyer, “the Primo water bottle is made from plants grown on American soil, not crude oil,” and “will bio-degrade in 90 days in a commercial composting facility, and can be recycled.”

Which means even if you don’t recycle the bottle after 90 days, it will decompose to corn minerals and carbon, according to Bryden.

According to the 2009 Statistical Abstract, in the year 2007, 530 million barrels of crude oil were imported to the United States from Saudi Arabia.

Crude oil, otherwise known as a petroleum product, is mixture of comparatively volatile liquid hydrocarbons that occurs in the Earth's crust and is extracted for use as fuel and various petroleum products, according to the encyclopedia Britannica.

The common denominator of the Primo bottle: America would save one billion gallons of gasoline per year if all plastic beverage bottles were made from these Primo bio-resin bottles, according to the flyer.

The First Green Building

As an already-thought-of construction plan for the new Brayton School of Education building, Roy Epperson, Director of Special Projects says the building will be the first new green academic facility on campus.

Epperson says the education building will be the first LEED building to be built on campus.

LEED, according to Epperson, stands for:

• Leadership

• Environment

• Energy

• Design

To get started in the process, the steps to take are:
1. Learn
2. Register
3. Become an expert
4. Educate
5. Collaborate
6. Celebrate

According to the U.S. Green Building Council website, “LEED is an internationally recognized certification system that measures how well a building or community performs across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.”

In order to achieve certification, several points on the factors must be completed.
Epperson says there will be several things that will make the building green.

The toilets will be timed to save water.

Natural light will be used in the lighting system, and will have motion-detection censors placed in them to save electricity.

Materials for the building, which have yet to be determined, will not be traveled a distance longer than 500 miles to the campus.

Epperson says these are the initial starting point steps, the next step is the consultant.

“A year from now we will hopefully be finished,” Epperson said.

Eco-Products Costs

Food Services is a big member of the team, represented by Pete Mandalo, who is dedicated to make the food in the cafeteria as well as utilities more eco-friendly.

Mandalo has been very active in the project for more than a year now, and began his efforts with the tray-less dining program, which reduces client environment footing, pollution, and conserves water.

The biggest issue, Mandalo says, is the cost of buying new eco-products.

“The eco-products are very costly. I hope to see the prices come down so that they could be affordable,” he says.

Mandalo says they are in the process of shopping for new vendors for food products, and those that are made locally to fit the growing demand to be more regional.

“If a lot of green products were available, I would like to see prices come down. It’s what the customer is willing to pay,” he said.

The understanding of this challenge is that the product is hard to produce, therefore it costs more.

Gas and Carbon Dioxide

Besides costs on eco-products, the emissions of gas and carbon monoxide and dioxide are another challenge environmentalists have.

The emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that are dispensed in the atmosphere causes pollution.

Carbon Dioxide is a chemical compound which emits from oxygen and is a natural gas that exists in our atmosphere, according to Britannica encyclopedia.

According to the description by the authors Philippe Rekacewicz, Emmanuel Bournay, UNEP/GRID – Arendal, emissions of carbon dioxide have soared significantly from the past.

“Since pre-industrial times, the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases has grown significantly. Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration has increased by about 31%, methane concentration by about 150%, and nitrous oxide concentration by about 16% (Watson et al 2001). The present level of carbon dioxide concentration (around 375 parts per million) is the highest for 420,000 years, and probably the highest for the past 20 million years.”

Past and future CO2 concentrations

Another graph made by the source UNEP/GRID – Arendal, says the emissions of gas from the years 1970-2004 were an equivalent of a thousand million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Emissions of Gas

The idea of converting diesel engines into biodiesel engines would be a benefactor for the environment because it is a non-toxic gas.

David Bryden says the project to convert diesel to biodiesel engines in the university vehicles, trolleys, and shuttle buses sounds like a good idea to the administration.

In order to contribute and face the challenges the green team is facing, the ultimate goal is to get many students involved.

A Professor Speaks to Students

Associate Professor of the Physical Education department, Dr. Martie Bell says she believes the students are the ones who have the voice, and need to be involved in the efforts.

“For now,” she said, “we are trying to do as much as we can.”

Bell believes a lot of things need to change, and that this undertaking will be an educational or learning experience.

“We need to be aware of things, and get to the point of knowing what we are doing to the earth,” students should be involved and take responsibility,” she said.

Bell said she is frustrated with Chick-fil-A in the Slane Center right now because of the Styrofoam cups they use, and wishes there was a way for prices to be reduced on the costs we spend to have our green products.

Mandalo from the Food Services agreed, “It’d be cool to get students involved.”

Clodfelter says the administration wants to ensure that student interests are being responded, and the health of our environment is a responsibility we should all care about.


For more information, visit these external links:

LEED: LEED Certification Information
U.S. Green Building Council
Campus Articles: Making a Splash

Extensive Measures
Other statistics: 2009 Statistical Abstract

Abby's Green Video

Do You Know Where Your Food Has Been?

Housing Mix-Up: Students Agitated

Housing Mix-Up: Students Agitated

By: Liz Welborn

The panic started on March 26, 2009.

Students were excited to see the e-mail titled “room reservation confirmation.” However, when they read its contents they were far from happy.

Students were shocked to find that strangers were listed as their roommates for the fall '09 school year. Some students even got placed into buildings that they did not even put on their preferred list.

“I only found one or two people that didn’t have a problem with housing,” Sally Fowler, a sophomore at High Point commented.

It was chaos.

Students piled into Student Life demanding to know why they got placed into the Village when they asked for York, and complaining about the people randomly listed as their roommates for next year.

The problem stemmed from Student Life who was using a new method for housing application this year. Student Life has a whole new online system for housing application called StarRez that is supposed to make the housing process easier for those all around. So why wasn’t it?

Troubled Students

Fowler has never had a problem with the housing until this year. She went to Student Life personally to request a single room and she told them that the building did not matter.

When she received the infamous e-mail she says, “I was very surprised to find that I had a roommate when I so adamantly requested a single.”

The roommate that Fowler had been placed with was someone she did not get along with at all. She went to meet with Student Life a second time only to be told that they would fix it as soon as possible.

A couple of days later, “I still had a room in Yadkin with a roommate. It was like Student Life wasn’t even listening to me.”

Fowler met with Student Life for the third time, requesting anything but the arrangements that she had now. “It took meeting with them three times to finally get myself heard.”

Fowler is not the only student to feel unheard. Rachel Lewis, a junior at HPU, squatted her room in the village for next year.

Since two of her current roommates were leaving the suite, she put two new people on her preferred list for roommates.

Lewis was shocked to find two other people as her roommates for next year. “The new system put in two other people that I did not request.”

Student Life said that they could not fix it because the people who were accidently placed there did not want to leave. “They did not want to leave because it is a balcony room. It was either we move out and live with the people we want to, or stay and live with strangers.”

Lewis ended up having to leave her squatted room because of the other roommates who would not leave.






Students who did meet with Student Life have complained that they were met with rudeness when stating their complaints.

“I was upset, I had been promised a single when I didn’t get it, they didn’t seem to care that they had broken their promise,” Fowler said. “They could’ve at least been polite.”


Lewis has a theory as to why Student Life was rude to her. “I think they were pressured because of all the students who were dissatisfied and they were getting snappy. They made me think that I was being the rude one, when I wasn’t at all.”

Student Life Explains



Sarah Haak, Director of resident life, says that she found out that there was a housing mix up that she “notified the entire campus within 20 minutes which has never been done before in such a short amount of time.”

Although Haak does admit that there was a mix up she denies that it was the new housing software. “We had the StarRez representative fly in from their Australia headquarters to look over the software; he confirmed that what caused the mix up was likely a miscommunication between the students.”

Haak goes on to say that the computer software program is “very literal. If the students do not put all the same requests down as their friends the computer won’t understand it.”

Student Life claims that students either put too many people down as potential roommates (for example, putting four people down when it is only a two person dorm), or they didn’t communicate to their friends the order of the dorms they wanted (one put York as first and the other put Yadkin first).

Students who communicated correctly with each other did not have a problem with their housing. Emily Galloway, a junior, got the room she wanted. “I think it was because all of my roommates for next year all put the same room down.”

Lewis admits that she listed an extra friend as a potential roommate. “I listed one of my friends as a backup roommate just in case one of the other ones did not work out.”

Listing more roommates than needed might have been the reason the computer placed two random people in her apartment instead of who she wanted.

As for the accusations about Student Life being unfriendly Haak answers, “We try to cater to each student because they are who we are working for technically. I have no idea why people would think is uncaring but I feel like sometimes we care too much.”

Haak says that her staff of five resident directors and two assistants is working hard to place students where they want to be. “We are all coming in on the weekends and taking home at night. We want students to be happy.”

Improvements for Next Year

Students and staff at HPU are looking to avoid the same housing crisis from happening next year.

Fowler believes that if miscommunication was really the problem with the housing this year then, “there needs to be better clarification, it needs to specific or have student life e-mail the students about agreeing with each other on where they want to live.”

Some Students like, Lewis, believe that the not using the computer software would be the best thing for next year. “They should have stuck with the old system of just doing the e-mail thing. If they did that this year none of this would have happened.”

However, for Student Life going back to the old ways is not going to happen. Haak says that next year student life wants to advance the housing process by, “giving each student a blueprint of rooms and letting them decide that way.”

Haak also goes on to say that, “I think we will give more in depth instructions than we did this year. That is one thing I wish we had done better.”

Student life wants students to know that if they are unhappy with the room that they have been assigned to “to please come talk to us. We want to meet with you and let you nothing set in stone,” Haak explains.

Both students and faculty agree that the housing process is also a learning process. “This was the first year that we used this new software, we will be prepared for this next year and it will only get better,” Haak says.

Fowler agrees stating, “The school is getting better and better with each year and hopefully the same will be true about the housing applications.”

Only time will tell.




Related Links:

• Residence Suites at High Point University


• Office of Student Life Contact List

The New and Improved Shuttle and Trolley Service

By: Sarah Merriman

Across campus you see a purple and white trolley slowly making its way past Roberts Hall. Suddenly, you see a student ahead of you pick up the pace, and then another student from across the promenade is running full speed toward the Slane shuttle stop.

This sight is all too common at High Point University. The university’s new transportation service has students expressing mixed feelings.

HPU junior, Emily Galloway voices her appreciation and frustration, “I mean I definitely appreciate it, but I have experienced being about five feet away from the doors only to have them close on me and then proceed to wait 20 minutes for the next one to come around."

Other students like senior, Holly Smoot, try to avoid the service.“It gets to the point where I just want to ask some student I don’t know for a ride, just so I won’t be late to class.”

However, sophomore, Christina Wills, compliments the service saying, “I think it has gotten a lot better and as long as you’re out there waiting at least ten minutes before the last one just left, you’re usually fine. “

What's the deal with the shuttle and trolley?

After going through many revisions, the shuttle and trolley service at HPU has finally reached a point that seems to be working for all.

Students can rest assured that the Transportation Department is on their side, working to make the system as efficient and organized as possible.

Depending on students needs, the wait time between the shuttles or trolleys may be longer or shorter. The drivers do their best to communicate with each other via radios.

High Point University Chief and Transportation Director, Jeff Karpovich says that the shuttle service first came to HPU in August 2008. At this time, the shuttle stopped at seven places: The Village, U-Ville, Slane, York, Congdon, the Chapel, and Norcross.

Using what is known as a,“ridership study”, Karpovich says," I started to have the drivers keep daily logs of the times they arrived at each designated stop as well as keeping track of how many students they picked up and how many students got off at each stop."

From analyzing the ridership studies, the Transportation Department decided to remove the Congdon and York stops from the shuttle and trolley schedule. Their reasoning was based on the fact that the ridership logs said that only a select number of students got off at these stops and the delay they were causing the other students was neither efficient nor necessary.

After further ridership logs were examined, the Norcross and Chapel stops were also removed from the shuttle and trolley schedule. The transportation services underwent changes around three or four times in total.

Now, the shuttles and trolleys are still using the ridership logs and use radios to communicate with each of the drivers when they arrive at a stop to ensure that they are about 7 minutes apart.

Meet Linda Sawyer

Students may recognize Linda Sawyer as the woman who drives the trolley on weekends. What they don’t know is

that she also works Monday through Friday for High Point’s own transportation service, Hi- Tran. She then races to the campus of HPU to work her Friday and Saturday nighttime shifts.

Sawyer admits that although the drivers are supposed to make rounds every 15 minutes,“It’s more like 18 minutes.”

She also says that she tries to look around for students so as not to miss anyone who may be running to catch the shuttle or trolley. “That’s what I’m here for so I will look around to make sure I’m not leaving anyone behind.”

Sawyer loves driving the trolley.“Nobody’s really happy on the city bus…they’re usually going to work or looking for a job.” Though she confesses at 11:30 p.m. on weekends, the students can get pretty,“nasty with the mouth.”

She says that HPU is extremely lenient on dealing with the issue but if a serious problem arises, the drivers can always call security.

Sawyer says that she doesn’t think there is a written policy for alcohol consumption or intoxicated students for the transportation vehicles but she’d,“Love to have a policy and have it enforced.”

Her most amusing story came when she was driving the trolley one weekend, and in between laughs, she shares that, “It was sad but funny because it happened to four or five students. The trolley took a turn and they wer

en’t paying attention and all of them, one after the other, fell right off their seats. I asked them if they were okay but I couldn’t help laughing at the same time.”

Employment process

According to Jeff Karpovich, In order to be employed as a shuttle driver, HPU requires their

employees to have a Commercial Driving License (CDL).

Trolley drivers must have a P-Endorsement along with additional licensing. Also, all drivers must have a criminal background check and a drug screening.

The story of the Transportation Department

Jeffrey Karpovich came to HPU in June of 2008. He found that the university had a security office but no Transportation Department. He was mainly in charge of parking and safety.

As for transportation, security vehicles were being used to shuttle students around as they needed. Karpovich says,"As soon as I came here, I recognized very quickly that the growing campus would need a separate department for transportation, and so I proposed the addition of one."

Until January, the security department had two-thirds of their less than a dozen employees set at part time.

With the new funding from the university and under the directory of Jeff Karpovich, the Transportation Department now has over 50 employees who are not contractors but full time employees of the university, receiving benefits such a workman’s compensation.

The result is what you see every day on campus. A new Transportation Department, branded security cars, new uniforms, and of course the shuttles and the trolleys.

Any complaints from students?

Jeff Karpovich says not really. “Most of the calls we get are from intoxicated students.”

Karpovich recalls one particular experience.“It was 1 a.m, Friday night and a female student had called our Transportation Department and was being boisterous and obscene, shouting that she had been waiting at the Slane shuttle stop for 30 minutes, and ‘where the eff was it?' ”

Karpovich said that, he had just been at the Slane shuttle stop and the shuttle had just left. He went out to search for the caller and found her on West College Street with her intoxicated friend.

Apparently, the girl had never been at the shuttle stop, she had simply tried to flag down a shuttle. Karpovich says, “It’s not safe for our shuttles to just stop and pick up students that flag them down. The city bus wouldn’t do that and neither will we.”

Trolley Service since 1924?

If you've been to the Slane shuttle stop in the past three months, you may have realized a new and controversial addition.

A sign over the Slane shuttle stop enclosure reads: "High Point University Trolley Transit Company since 1924."

HPU was indeed founded in 1924 but confused students are wondering why it is on the trolley sign. Galloway, Smoot, and Wills all agreed on this saying,“It doesn’t make sense. The school may have been founded in 1924 but they didn’t have the trolley or shuttle service back then, so why pretend like they did?”

In response Karpovich says,“Well I suppose we did take some poetic licensing.”

High Point University Department of Transportation

High Point University Shuttle Service

Assault With a Deadly Weapon Charge Cleared

Plead Guilty, Came Out Easy
By Abby Wood

For Mr. Eugene Davis, a stolen good was something not to be forgiven.

On December 23rd, 2007, after spending an intimate evening with his partner – Mr. Goss, and falling asleep on the couch, Mr. Davis did not anticipate Mr. Goss’s intention of stealing his jewelry.

Upon awakening, Mr. Davis found that some of his jewelry was missing, and decided to take matters in his own hands.

While following Mr. Goss to his house, Davis admitted picking up a hammer at a nearby construction site, and then knocking Goss from the chin up after discovering the jewelry.
Today, Mr. Davis pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon, and was represented by attorney Mr. Jack Greene.

“My guy was mad, he discovered his jewelry was stolen, and only figured one person could have done it,” said Greene.

Prior to the incident, Davis and Goss were reported in the police report to have been drinking and smoking crack while at Davis’s house.

Later on they also had sex, according to assistant defense attorney Don Carter.

After Davis had fallen asleep on the couch in front of the TV, Goss decided to leave and take the fine jewelry he had seen in Davis’s bedroom.

According to Greene, Mr. Davis’s medical diagnosis showed that he suffers from hypertension in diabetes, which increases the risk of a stroke, coronary artery disease, and other related complications with blood pressure, according to a site.

“He takes medication, he is retired from the army, and he just can’t get around why he picked up the hammer,” said Greene in Davis’s defense.

As determined by Judge L. Todd Burk, Davis will serve under probation, which requires him to report to his probation officer as instructed, to be screened for drug tests, and to pay $4,500.00.

“He was upset, admits he was wrong, and pleaded guilty,” said Greene.


Sources:

Jack Greene
336-883-6177

Don Carter
336-885-2247

External link:
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/diacare;27/suppl_1/s65

A Routine Wednesday at the Hall of Justice

A Routine Wednesday at the Hall of Justice
by: Brittany Roberts

The Forsyth County Courthouse is a fairly nondescript building. Located on Main St in downtown Winston-Salem, N.C., its eggshell-colored exterior with small windows looks like any other office building in a small city such as Winston.

When you walk in, the metal detectors and police officers that protect the building greet you. Writing on the wall lets you know that you are in the Forsyth County Hall of Justice. The North Carolina flag and the United States flag are present in the room, near the windows. The fake plants, added for aesthetic purposes, seem to be collecting dust in the musty room with faux-marbled floors.

It is a normal Wednesday morning in the district court, with a list of cases ranging from misdemeanors like running a stop sign and shoplifting to more involved crimes, such as assault, breaking and entering, and drug possession.

In the state of North Carolina, there are three divisions of the courts, according to www.nccourts.org. There is the Appellate Division, the Superior Court, and the District Court. The Superior Court and District Court together are called the N.C. Trial Courts, which are then divided between courts like the business court, family court, drug court, and traffic court—along with others.

“We have a line-up of cases like today’s pretty much every day,” says Yolanda Wright, an assistant within the Hall of Justice. “They tend to be all over the place.”

By all over the place, Wright means that all of the cases—whether they are held in the traffic court, the infractions court, or the criminal court—deal with relatively simple cases.

“Most of the time, cases don’t last over half an hour,” Wright says, a look of concentration on her face as she tries to recall a time when any cases lasted for longer. “I can’t think of any recently.”

The hallways of the inner offices are carpeted a light off-white color, with a few spots that appear to be small coffee stains. Most of the office doors are closed, but one office is open.

An attorney, Alice Spencer, sits behind her desk, which is piled high and messy with papers. She has mostly brown short hair with grey strands—probably brought on from the stress of working as an attorney.

“I’ve been an attorney for 35 years,” says Spencer, sitting back in her chair. “It gets tedious sometimes, but every so often you get a case that makes you work.”

Spencer relates a story where she was the attorney for the defendant on a case of first-degree manslaughter. “It was years ago, but I remember it getting pretty heated within the courtroom. The victim’s family was up in arms about the attack. It was sad, because the victim and my client were best friends before their argument which ended in is the victim’s death.”

But none of the cases in the on the docket for Wednesday are that interesting. Most of the cases are discussed in a small room that looks nothing remotely like that of the courtrooms on television. The actual courtroom is only used for big trials that usually involve a jury.

It is a generally imposing room, with the judge’s stand and the witness stand, along with the area for the jury to sit and the audience seating. There is no trial occurring in the courtroom now, but there are cases lined up for the courtroom for later in the day.

The waiting area where all of the people awaiting trial has a few people who look half-disheveled—wearing their nicest clothes, but looking as though they just woke up before coming to the Hall of Justice.

“This is just a normal day here,” says Wright, waving her hand around the waiting area. “Most of the time, around here, you have to occupy yourself and make things interesting—either talk to an attorney about their most interesting cases or play Solitaire on your computer—it’s a job, though, so I’m not complaining.”