Zeta Chi: "A grubby, drunk, messy set of irresponsible underachievers"

ZX
This harsh description of the brothers of the Zeta Chi Fraternity at UNH-Durham, appears in a May 22, 1997 opinion issued by the Supreme Court of the State of New Hampshire. The Court's 1997 decision affirmed the 1995 convictions of the fraternity (as a corporation) in Strafford County Superior Court on one felony count of selling alcohol to a person under the age of twenty-one and one misdemeanor count of prostitution. But gentle readers, the colorful language in the title of this post describing the brothers of Zeta Chi is found not only in the opinion issued by the hallowed judges of the NH Supreme Court, but amazingly it originated in an appeal to the Court filed by the very attorney hired by the brothers to defend them.

But let's start at the beginning. Here's how the Supreme Court described what happened that fateful night in 1994:

On February 21, 1994, the defendant, a New Hampshire corporation and fraternity at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, held a "rush" at its fraternity house to attract new members. In order to encourage people to attend the rush, the defendant hired two female strippers to perform at the event. Fraternity brothers encouraged guests to give the strippers dollar bills so that they would continue to perform. The brothers also told guests that the more money the strippers were given, the more that they would do. One of the members of the fraternity was providing change for larger bills. As part of the performance, the dancers lay on a mattress brought out by members of the fraternity and simulated ...

OK, I will stop there, as the ACR Blog is a PG-rated family blog. And PG doesn't mean Preston Gates. You can use your imagination, or click on the link above to read a summary of the salacious details yourself. Now on to the alcohol-related charge:

In addition, Andrew Strachan, a nineteen-year-old guest at the fraternity party, testified that at some point during the evening he learned that beer was available from a soda machine. He made his way to an apartment in another part of the fraternity house where the machine was located, waited in line with three or four other people, and purchased three to five cans of beer. Strachan also testified that he noticed someone making change for the machine. The fraternity's secretary testified that the fraternity members voted not to provide alcohol at the rush and that they moved the vending machine that contained beer to a separate apartment in another part of the fraternity house for the rush. He also testified, however, that the fraternity had control over the vending machine and its proceeds and that only fraternity members would have an interest in making change for the machine.

Well, since I mentioned Preston-Gates above, do any of my readers wants to guess who was living in that "separate apartment" where the jury found the illegal sale of alcohol occurred? Yes, our old friend Todd Boulanger. Amazing, isn't it? But while the identity of the person living in the apartment was not disputed, in fairness to Mr. Boulanger here's what the attorney for Zeta Chi had to say about Mr. Boulanger's personal involvement in this case:

[T]he man who lived in the apartment, Todd Boulanger, said he locked it when he left at dinner time and found it open when he returned from work at midnight. Thus, it is likely that either Mr. Strachan is mistaken about buying the beer at Zeta Chi Fraternity rather than at some other location, or that he did not buy beer at Zeta Chi Fraternity on that evening rather than on some other occasion.

In short, the attorney for Zeta Chi said the fraternity was not liable for the selling of alcohol to a minor from Mr. Boulanger's apartment because Mr. Boulanger had locked the door and went to work that night. He didn't return until midnight. When Mr. Boulanger returned, he found his roommates there with the door unlocked, and well, clearly Mr. Boulanger was innocent of any wrongdoing as well. The ACR Blog obviously is in no position to judge the credibility of witnesses in a 15-year-old case, but the jury empowered to do so found the fraternity guilty as charged. Neither Mr. Boulanger nor any of the brothers were charged in the case, the fraternity faced charges as an organization. Apparently, at least according to the defense attorney, a big part of the reason for the verdict was that the State had confronted and impeached three Zeta Chi brothers who testified at trial "with a record book which was the fraternity secretary's minutes of fraternity meetings (held) during 1993."

Directly contradicting the sworn testimony of two of the three brothers who testified at trial that it was the fraternity's policy not to serve alcohol to people under 21, the prosecution cited specific passages in the January 1993 and February 1993 Zeta Chi minutes that appeared to describe precisely how the boyz planned to circumvent the law. Here's an exchange with one of the brothers under oath (pg 34):

Q: Now, Mr. Flanders, isn't it true that at that meeting (the February 1993 meeting) you explicitly, your organization actually made plans to sell liquor to people under 21?

A: That -- that -- like, that statement's not -- those minutes say that, but, like I said, I do not remember that. That was a year and a half -- I was not an officer then.

Oops. Oh, and did I mention that Mr. Boulanger was the other brother who testified under oath and had to deal with these same minutes? My readers will certainly want to hear what Mr. Boulanger had to say in his testimony (pg 36-37):

Q: Okay. And you (Mr. Boulanger) were a member back in 1993, right?

A: Yes.

Q: Were you present at the -- at the meeting where the official fraternity policies were discussed relative to deceiving the police?

[objection, question rephrased]

Q: Were you present in January of 1993, the meeting where the official policy was to prevent the police from receiving information about underage drinking?

A: I can't remember.

Q: Were you present in the February meeting when the organization conspired to sell alcohol to people under 21?

A: I can't remember.

Q: So, -- but you were a member then, right?

A: Oh, yes, I was.

Q: Okay. You don't remember that? You don't remember that?

A: No. I don't remember that.

Now the ACR Blog finds this passage even more amazing. For as you will recall from a previous post, the former President of Theta Chi¹ wrote in a January 1993 letter to the UNH student newspaper that as a result of the group losing its charter, the brothers were busy re-organizing as Zeta Chi. Meaning the January and February 1993 Zeta Chi minutes would have been among the very first minutes of this new fraternal organization, right? In a article that appeared in 2002, nearly a decade later, Todd Boulanger would be referred to as "a founder" of Zeta Chi. If we accept both of these items as fact, then we must conclude that Mr. Boulanger has no recollection of attending the founding meetings of the fraternal organization he founded. How's that for credibility? It makes the ACR Blog wonder just what his pledge to cooperate with the DOJ really means ... never forgetting to say I don't remember? And what role - if any - might Mr. Tessimond have played in this event that led to two criminal convictions for the fraternity? Recall that Mr. Tessimond claimed in his NH Directory of Elected Officials bio that he was the President of Theta Chi in 1992-1993, which would have immediately preceded the re-incorporation of the brothers as Zeta Chi. ¹

In closing, I want to thank an anonymous reader/commenter for the leads that led to the additional work uncovering these events. Further research has confirmed that the timeline in Frat Boyz N the Hill and the facts provided by the ACR Blog's reader were not inconsistent. There were two separate events involving the same group of frat boys. Theta Chi did lose its national charter in Fall of 1992 for insurance-related reasons; it subsequently reorganized as Zeta Chi in early 1993, and the salacious events described in this post (that I was not aware of prior to my anonymous tip) occurred on February 21, 1994. Judicial proceedings finally ended with the NH Supreme Court's decision in 1997 upholding the two felony convictions against Zeta Chi decided in the lower court in 1995, and subsequently Zeta Chi faced a number of sanctions and other penalties.

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¹ Shane Tessimond, in this bio, is listed as the President of Theta Chi Fraternity in 1992-1993. However, the letter to the editor of the student newspaper at UNH-Durham (The New Hampshire) dated January 29, 1993 is signed by a different individual also claiming to be the President of Theta Chi (neither his name nor a .pdf of the letter is included to protect his possible innocence). The ACR Blog cannot reconcile these differences; it is possible Mr. Tessimond's term ended earlier than planned as the brothers sought fresh "leadership" on their path to reorganization as Zeta Chi under "founder" Todd Boulanger.