Phi Delt members to plead

Two of the 10 Phi Delta Theta fraternity members originally charged with furnishing alcohol to minors and allowing minors to drink in their fraternity house last fall will plead their cases at trials scheduled for June 25.

In Washtenaw County Court yesterday, lawyers for Engineering junior Daniel Davis and LSA sophomore Josh Shapiro asked Judge Archie Brown to bind the two over for a jury trial.

The charges stem from a party held Oct. 15 at the Phi Delt fraternity house, where LSA first-year student Courtney Cantor was seen consuming alcohol. Cantor later died after falling from her sixth-floor Mary Markley Residence Hall window. Cantor had a .059 blood-alcohol level and traces of the date-rape drug GHB in her system.

Brown adjourned the pretrials of LSA sophomores Michael Novick, Michael Halper, Evan Frank, Jeremy Bier, Simeon Maleh and Jared Fishman until next month after their attorneys requested a conference with sentencing judge Elizabeth Hines.

DANA LINNANE/Daily A Phi Delta Theta fraternity member stands in the Washtenaw County Courthouse yesterday speaking with his lawyer.

"If Danny was in attendance at that party, it was at the very tail end of it," Shea said. "He was at a Lions game that night. He didn't get back till very late. His connection to the party was extremely minimal or non-existent."

Shea expressed the hope that the prosecution will re-assess the charges against his client before the trial begins.

Shea said he did not know if he and Thomas Cranmer, the Bloomfield Hills attorney who represents Shapiro, will conduct trials for their clients together, although they are scheduled for the same day.

Cranmer argued that the trial date be set for September so the five or six student witnesses he plans to call will not be out of state and consequently inconvenienced by coming back to Ann Arbor for the trial.

Brown denied the request, telling Cranmer he could subpoena his own witnesses if they refused to make the journey to Ann Arbor.

Shea added that he and the other attorneys representing the Phi Delt members had not coordinated their defenses.

Maleh, Fishman and Bier are also charged with purchasing alcohol with false identification. The three defendants were identified by police through a Meijer supermarket video showing them purchasing the alcohol on the day of the party.

03-17-99