Police tie booze to violence at WSU

Days after he arrived on the Pullman campus of Washington State University, Atuanya Priester found himself curled on the pavement outside his fraternity house under a maelstrom of bodies, fending off a barrage of punches and kicks.

The first blow was the worst. It landed squarely on his jaw, relieving him of one tooth and splintering two others. A friend drove him to the emergency room as blood gushed from his mouth.

Three weeks later, Pullman police are still sorting through conflicting witness accounts. Some have Priester being jumped by a group of 10 men; others depict a confrontation between Priester and a member of a rival fraternity escalating into a melee as people tried to break it up.

Minority groups have raised concerns that the assault was racially motivated. Priester, an 18-year-old freshman from Seattle, is African American. His alleged assailants are white.

But police suspect the underlying cause was booze, not race, highlighting a problem police say is behind a surge of violence this year in the student-populated neighborhoods around campus.

In the first month of school, reports of alcohol-related violence have jumped more than 100 percent from the same period last year in the two most populated student residential areas - Campus Commons North and College Hill, which includes Greek Row, where the Priester incident occurred.

Police have received 45 reports of violence: 14 for assaults, 17 for fights and disputes and another 14 for belligerent behavior. Police estimate 95 percent of this year's reports were alcohol-related.

There were 19 such calls over the same period last year.

Add in noise disturbances, malicious mischief, thefts and other alcohol-related offenses, and the total number of police calls to the areas rises to more than 430 - about 70 more than during the same period last year.

"It's dismaying," said Pullman police officer Carew Halleck, of the increased numbers.

Dismaying for police, disastrous for university officials who have been trying to rid the school of what they say is an unwarranted reputation as a rowdy party school.

Halleck, who walks the College Hill beat four nights a week, has experienced the violence firsthand.

On the night Priester was assaulted, Halleck suffered a concussion when an attempt to question an underage drinker turned into a scuffle.

"It seems to me we respond to a fight up on or around Greek Row every other day," Halleck said.

Police and school officials say the trouble often involves visitors, non-WSU students who show up on College Hill with backpacks filled with booze looking for a party. Students call them "randoms."

WSU faculty and administrators have taken to walking the College Hill streets this year to encourage students to behave responsibly.

They also are working with fraternities and sororities to develop a more rigorous set of academic and social accountability measures. Based on a model developed at the University of Maryland, the Greek Alliance is expected to go into effect in January.

"It's a whole different ballgame than we've had in the past," said George Bettas, WSU associate dean of students. "These students want to cooperate."

Birthday celebration

Priester, son of prominent Seattle jazz musician and former Duke Ellington trombonist Julian Priester, had recently pledged the Alpha Kappa Lambda (AKL) fraternity and was celebrating his 18th birthday the night of the assault.

Priester declined to discuss the incident in any detail. But Aaron Keat, a former Seattle high-school classmate who was visiting him, said the two had spent most of the evening in the AKL house. At some point, Priester and Keat became separated. When Keat next saw his friend on the bustling street outside the house, he was in a confrontation with a group of men. That's when one of them rushed forward and punched Priester in the mouth, Keat said.

"The next thing I know he was covered under a sea of guys, at least 10 of them," said Keat, who tried pulling bodies off his friend. "They were trying to get whatever kind of blow in on him they could."

Witnesses said many of the people involved had been drinking, including Priester.

Police initially thought the melee was the result of a long-running feud between the AKLs and their neighbor, Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike) fraternity. Priester had rushed both houses but chose AKL. The one suspect arrested so far in connection with the incident is a Pike member. But fraternity and school officials say the incident was the act of individuals.

"There's so much misinformation about this it's incredible," Bettas said.

Violent outbursts

Priester, who required stitches for a torn lip and may need dental reconstruction, is expected to write out his full account of the incident for the first time for school officials this weekend, Bettas said. The matter then will be heard by the university conduct board.

Violent outbursts are not new. Last March, a different pair of feuding fraternities took golf clubs to each other, injuring one student and resulting in several arrests and the suspension of one of the houses.

That same month, a 20-year-old man, who according to the school was not a WSU student, suffered a fractured spinal column when he was allegedly pushed off an apartment balcony at Campus Commons.

The most infamous event occurred in 1998 when a beer-fueled riot broke out on Greek Row, injuring 23 police officers.

University officials insist the school is safe. Pullman has not had a homicide in four years.

The Priester case, however, has raised another issue with campus minority groups, who have brought attention to racial tensions they say have been ignored for too long at the predominantly white school.

A few days after the incident, a group called Black Men Making a Difference put on a peaceful demonstration in front of Priester's fraternity. Another group held a rally, waving hand-lettered signs that read: "Administrative Silence, Symbolic Violence."

The demonstrations prompted a forum last week between students and university officials, including new president V. Lane Rawlins, to discuss issues of campus safety and cultural diversity.

"I think these undercurrents of protests are less because of the possibility of racism in the attack than in the quick denials that racism could have been any part of this," said Victor Villanueva, chairman of the English Department.

"My own way of thinking about this is that race is an issue," Villanueva added. "OK, I'll accept that race wasn't the first thing on anybody's mind, but of all the fraternity brothers to find to beat, why the black one."

In a brief conversation with The Seattle Times, Priester didn't discount the idea that race might have played a role. "I don't know," he said. "I honestly can't answer that."

Back in Seattle, meanwhile, Priester's parents have been frustrated by the school's slow investigation. And they now wonder what kind of school they've entrusted their son to.

"Can you imagine starting your college education like this," said his mother, Nashira Priester.

Ray Rivera's phone message number is 206-464-2926. His e-mail address is rarivera@seattletimes.com.