Attorney representing SU students in Theta Tau case withdraws request for preliminary injunction
Kai Nguyen | Photo Editor
Theta Tau was permanently expelled from campus on Saturday.
A lawyer who’s representing Syracuse University students involved in the Theta Tau videos on Thursday withdrew a request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the university, court records show.
Karen Felter, a partner at the Syracuse-based Smith, Solvik, Kendricks & Sugnet law firm, told United States Magistrate Judge David Peebles that the withdrawal means it’s unnecessary to present oral arguments in a hearing that was originally scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday. Both the plaintiffs’ counsel and SU’s counsel were initially going to attend the hearing.
The preliminary injunction was requested in an attempt to stop the university’s student judicial proceedings, court records show. SU has removed 18 students from “academic participation” as the Theta Tau investigation continues, officials have said. All five students are named as “John Doe” in the lawsuit.
Four prospective members and one current brother of Theta Tau anonymously filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against SU, claiming that the university rushed to label them as “criminals” in an attempt to “malign the students personally” to salvage SU’s reputation, court records show.
The Daily Orange obtained and published videos last week showing people in Theta Tau’s house using racial slurs and miming the sexual assault of a person with disabilities.
Syverud described the videos as, “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities,” in a campus-wide email sent last Wednesday morning. In his email, Syverud announced the initial suspension of Theta Tau. The professional engineering fraternity was permanently expelled from campus on Saturday.
“I want to say that I am shaken and deeply disturbed by what is on them, as I would hope anyone in the community would be,” Syverud said of the videos last Wednesday afternoon in Hendricks Chapel.
MORE COVERAGE:
- Second Theta Tau video shows mimed sexual assault of person with disabilities
- SU will not publicly release names of students in Theta Tau investigation
- Complaints filed against 18 people present at Theta Tau event
- Multicultural Greek organizations find inspiration for activism in Theta Tau videos
Published on April 26, 2018 at 9:13 pm
Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek
