Streakers may face punishment from Indiana University

(U-WIRE) BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A week after eight freshmen were arrested near Indiana University’s Bill Armstrong Stadium for public indecency, the Office of Student Ethics will examine the case and decide whether to pursue the incident as possible hazing.

Six of the eight students arrested were freshmen on the IU men’s cross country team. They were the only freshmen on the team, raising suspicions about the stunt.

IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger said some of the students involved admitted they derived the idea for the stunt on their own.

Dean of Students Richard McKaig said the admission does not mean the matter will be overlooked.

“In almost every case,” McKaig said, “the initial response is, ‘We wanted to do this.’ Sometimes that’s not the case; sometimes it is. We will need to collect all the pieces of the puzzle to find out what happened.”

According to police reports, the students were spotted around 9 p.m. Aug. 27 running along Fee Lane wearing only athletic supporters. An IUPD officer confronted them near the spectator entrance to Bill Armstrong Stadium, but the students ran into the nearby wooded area. The officer followed on foot, and upon the arrival of more officers, the students were found hiding in the wooded area.

The students were taken to IUPD headquarters, cited and released.

Minger said this case was not similar to typical incidents of hazing.

“Sometimes the information is apparent to you. In this case, it was not something that would be considered dangerous,” Minger said, “although it could have risen to the level of hazing.”

Family hires Cochran firm to investigate NYU student’s death

(U-WIRE) NEW YORK – The family of Tisch sophomore Spenser Kimbrough, who died last week after becoming ill in his dorm, has retained legal counsel from Johnnie Cochran’s law firm to investigate his death.

The family has hired The Cochran Firm to learn more about the circumstances surrounding Kimbrough’s death, said Joseph Rosato, a partner in the firm who is heading the investigation. Cochran became a household name in the early 1990s when he helped defend O.J. Simpson.

In a news conference earlier this week, Kimbrough’s relatives said they were not satisfied with the way NYU handled the death.

“We just want to find out about a young man with a lot of good things happening to him, who had a very tragic death,” Rosato told The Washington Square News. “After the suicides … it just seemed strange what went on here.”

Kimbrough died early in the morning on Sept. 1 after being rushed to NYU Downtown Hospital in an ambulance from his dorm. Friends said he had attended a gathering of students from the Stella Adler acting studio, where he studied, earlier in the evening. When he began to feel ill, he called a friend in the building, who found him vomiting. She then dialed 911 and escorted him downstairs to the ambulance.

An initial autopsy was inconclusive, and the medical examiner’s office said yesterday it is awaiting the results of toxicology tests that may help determine the cause of death.

Though the law firm, which was contacted by Kimbrough’s family, is investigating the case, Rosato said there are no plans for a lawsuit at this time.

“All we’re doing is trying to find out the circumstances: what happened at NYU, what happened at the hospital,” he said. “No one’s talking about a lawsuit.”

-compiled by Michael Barnett and Ryan Holeywell