David Robb '94 pleaded not guilty last week to charges of hazing a Beta Theta Pi fraternity pledge, said Darcy Stearns, the clerk for Hanover District Court. His trial date has not yet been set.
Judges in Hanover are in the process of transferring the trial to Lebanon because they say they have a conflict of interest with the case, Stearns said.
Nate Cook '94, who was also charged with hazing the same pledge, requested that his arraignment be postponed, Stearns said. His case is also being moved to Lebanon and no arraignment date has been set, Stearns said. Cook and Robb are both members of Beta.
Stearns said last Thursday that she will send the paperwork for the transfer to Lebanon this week.
Robb retained Lebanon attorney Mark Larsen to represent him in the case, Stearns said. Larsen could not be reached for comment.
Hanover Police Sgt. Frank Moran, one of the prosecutors for the two cases, said he was not sure why the judges requested a transfer of cases, but said the request was not unusual.
Hanover Judge Kelly Dasch-bach said he did not know off-hand why the trial will be moved, but called the request "routine." Hanover Judge John Boswell declined to comment.
Daschbach said conflicts sometimes arise because a defendant is being represented by a member of the judge's law firm. Hanover has two judges that convene court two days each month. Both judges are private attorneys who practice law in the Upper Valley.
Hanover Police arrested Cook and Robb on Feb. 27 and charged them with violating New Hampshire's hazing law.
Police alleged that Cook and Robb hazed Oge Young '96, who was a Beta pledge Fall term, by forcing him to drink unsafe levels of alcohol during a fraternity initiation process.
"The pledge became intoxicated to the point that his personal safety was put into jeopardy," a police statement said.
Hanover Police Detective Richard Paulson said Young returned to his dormitory intoxicated after a pledge function, and talked to people in the residence hall about what had happened at the fraternity that night.
A student who overheard Young told administrators in the Office of Residential Life about the possible violation of the hazing law. ORL passed the allegation to Dean of the College Lee Pelton.
Under New Hampshire state law, colleges and universities are required to report hazing incidents to police officers. Pelton informed Hanover Police of the alleged incident.
Hanover Police officers approached Young near the end of November with the allegations, and police said Young corroborated the details of the story.
This will be the first time an alleged violation of the New Hampshire hazing law, which went into effect last July, will come to trial.
Cook and Robb could not be reached for comment.
