Opinion ID: 791462
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Deltas and the Kappas

Text: 2 This case stems from a long-standing rivalry between two college fraternities — Delta Kappa Beta (Deltas) and Pi Kappa Phi (Kappas) — at SUNY Cortland. Defendant Andre Logan was a student at the college and a member of Delta Kappa Beta. The Deltas leased a fraternity house at 50 Tompkins Street in Cortland, New York, from its owner, William McDermott. The Deltas were not model tenants: they caused structural and interior damage to the house, failed to keep the premises clean, and did not pay the utility bills they incurred. The Deltas also failed to pay the rent agreed upon in the lease, and were responsible for the cancellation of the insurance on the building due to excessive claims. As a result of their conduct, in June 2001 McDermott demanded the Deltas vacate the premises. McDermott had meanwhile concluded a lease agreement with the Kappas the previous November. 3 Upon learning they were losing their fraternity house to the hated Kappas, several Deltas began threatening a variety of retributory acts against the Kappas and the house. A statement on the Deltas' alumni website threatened to burn the house down and commit acts of violence against the Kappas. Logan and other Deltas, including Dumas Gabbriellini and Leo Gordon, discussed several possible courses of action, including destroying the house with chain saws, throwing fecal matter on the walls, and burning down the house. Gabbriellini told other Deltas that if it came to burning the house, he and Gordon would establish an alibi by purchasing tickets to a New York Mets baseball game, having their tickets punched at the gate, leaving the game and returning to Cortland, burning down the house, and then returning to New York before anyone realized they were gone. Shortly after the Kappas signed the lease, Logan told a group of Kappas that they wouldn't have the house long because [i]t would burn down. 4 The Kappas took occupancy of the house in July 2001. On August 3, 2001 Cortland police found a smashed Molotov cocktail in the street in front of Logan's home at 24 Clayton Avenue that appeared to have been thrown from Logan's house. Police also found puddles of lighter fluid on defendant's property, but Logan denied having any knowledge of the Molotov cocktail or the puddles. The next day, Logan and two other Deltas forcibly entered the fraternity house at four o'clock in the morning and woke the sleeping Kappas by marching through the house singing fraternity songs. Following this incident, the Kappas installed new locks, deadbolts, and bars on the doors. 5 On the evening of August 10, 2001 several Kappas left the fraternity house and went to a neighborhood bar called the Dark Horse. Only one Kappa, Matthew Rich, remained in the house, sleeping. Around one o'clock on the morning of August 11, Rich was awoken by a crash. He stayed in his room and listened as he heard footsteps moving throughout the house. The footsteps left the house a few minutes later and Rich opened his bedroom door. He was confronted with flames and smoke. He escaped from the building and ran to the Dark Horse bar to find his friends. Rich summoned help from a police officer near the bar, but by the time he returned to the house it was engulfed in flames. Investigators subsequently determined that the fire had been deliberately set, caused by igniting a combustible liquid in several areas of the building.