Ithaca authorities say they caught the person responsible for an ugly incident on Cornell's campus last month. You'll recall that a group of black students were walking by the Sigma Pi fraternity house late one night when bottles began crashing down around them. The students, who are black, say unidentified individuals on the fraternity house roof threw a bottle of Jack Daniels, an unopened beer can, and other debris at them. When they yelled up to implore their assailants to stop, the people on the roof allegedly shouted, "Come up here, Trayvon!"
Cornell placed Sigma Pi on interim suspension pending an investigation, but the fraternity insisted that the person or persons responsible for the attack was not a fraternity brother, but a guest visiting for a party, and that he acted alone. That story has held up in court: Last week 23-year old Morgan Brabbs of Orlando, Florida appeared in Ithaca court to accept a plea deal. He was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge and fined $250. The Cornell Chronicle reports:
Brabbs, who was visiting a friend in Ithaca and is not a Cornell student, was with a group of about 15 people gathered on a flat area of the roof of the fraternity house... An investigation by Ithaca Police, assisted by Cornell Police, established that bottles, cans and other items were being thrown from the roof throughout the day. According to one statement, those throwing the items were trying to hit a tree on the front yard of the fraternity.
At about 2:30 a.m., some items landed near a group of black students walking by. When one of them walked up the driveway of the fraternity and shouted up to the people on the roof, a person shouted back comments including "Walk away, Trayvon," "Come up, Gary Coleman" and "Tyrone."
In a letter of apology submitted to the victims, the fraternity and the Cornell community, Brabbs wrote, "I deeply regret any negativity that has been bestowed on them due to my actions. The fact that I could engage in such conduct has been a moment of personal awakening for me. ... I hope that by my future actions I can prove to my community that I am and will be a better person." Unfortunately for Brabbs, he's barred from the Cornell campus for life, which is too bad for him because it really is a beautiful campus.
