Witness reports show details of the alleged Theta Chi hazing incident in September. The statements, collected by University Police Department, were obtained by The Houstonian through a Freedom of Information Act request.
According to the statements, senior criminal justice major and Theta Chi member Eugene Martinez “hazed” two freshman pledges of the fraternity, freshmen engineering technology major Bradley Holifield and kinesiology major A.J. Welebob, by making them do pushups, planks and marches. Holifield said if it were not for the help of another brother, Martinez would have made him walk over broken glass as well.
An investigation was opened by UPD, but it is not under active investigation. Holifield and Welebob have so far declined to press criminal charges.
“To my knowledge, we are currently not actively investigating this incident,” UPD Chief Kevin Morris said. “With any incident involving student conduct, we do share information with the Dean of Students’ Office.”
However, parties responsible are still accountable to the student code of conduct, which is enforced by the dean of students’ office. Dean of Students John Yarabeck said Theta Chi is still in the judiciary process and will likely see a conclusion as early as next week.
Martinez declined to provide additional comment. Calls to Welebob and Holifield were not returned.
The following statements are unedited and presented as they appear in UPD records:
Eugene Martinez: At about 2:00-2:30 AM I told AJ if he could pick up Brad, a new member who had lost his manual for Theta Chi. The reason I told him to pick him was to have a talk to him, and talk to him about stuff his pledge brothers were saying about him. Multiple pledge brothers had to me he had not been participating in many of stuff that they were involved in as a pledge class in whole. I wanted to tell him that he needed to start working with his pledge brothers more, and to start getting closer to them. Whenever we got to the house I talked to him about what he had done and I told him he needed to get together, thats how he would make it through pledgeship. Accomponing him was his pledge brother AJ and he heard everything I was telling him. I brought up how he had lost his manual and that many brothers were disappointed in him. After I talked to him I brought up again that I was not telling him all that because I waned to sound mean but because he needed to know that he had to get his stuff place in the right place. I told him I was going to do pushups with them. And that I was not going to do anything to them that I wasn’t going to do as well. I thought them the correct way to do military stance and the way they would go down to do push ups. I was with them whenever we did push ups. It was a short while while we did that. Whenever I stopped I addresse do both AJ and Brad that the reason I had done that is for him to know that I wanted him to make it through pledgeship together with the rest of his pledgclass and that he wasn’t in trouble. To get his head right and just keep going so that he could successfully become a brother of my fraternity. The reason I called Brad was to adress wat had been happening and make him aware that he needed to unite more with his pledge brothers. I did not in any way mean to harm or hurt any of the new members, to both AJ and Brad.
Bradley Holifield: I was woken up by a call from one of my pledge brothers telling me Eugene wanted me to come outside so I could go to the house. Once we got there Eugene told us to go up stairs and change into shorts he provided. After we put our shorts on he yelled at me a lot then made me do planks (push up position) for a while. Then he made A.J. do the same. After we were done in the bathroom we went out back to the “tracks”. He was trying to get me to walk across broken glass until a brother helped me. He then made us do push ups along with yelling at us and teaching us how to do military faces and how to do proper military push ups.
Anthony Welebob: I was the DD and was almost finished dropping everyone off. Eugene then wanted me to call Brad because he was pissed about Brad losing his manual. We went to get him then got back to the house and went up to the bathroom. Ray, Jeremy and Ashton was there (he was protecting me). Plus an alumni guy. Brad was mostly yelled at and was forced to do planks. Soon after so did I. After a while in there we went behind the house to the “tracks” and we did military marches and pushups. A lot more informational than physical. I was promised nothing would happen to me but I was forced to do those things. I didn’t think it was to horrible, just a warning what is to come if we kept doing bad.
Ashton Cudd: On the night of September 27 approximately 3:30 AM I was woken up to the sound of yelling and footsteps outside my door. I walked out side went downstairs and did not see any one then proceeded to go up stairs and entered the bathroom where hazing was occurring involving Eugene Martinez. I tried to intervien and stop the situation and was ignored. The hazing proceeded which involved push ups, marching, and standing at attention. I personally showed the pledges how to do what was asked of them so they knew how to do it and could get the situation over faster and continued to make sure the pledges were safe and were not harmed by the intoxicated brothers.
Pierce Davila: My name is Pierce Davila, Chapter President of Theta Chi. I was approached by several of my members regarding an incident that had occurred Sept. 28th, 2014. I was not a witness but I heard that Eugene Martinez had taken two pledges, AJ Welebob and Brad Holifield, back to the Theta Chi House. I heard he was heavily intoxicated and that he made the pledge march in place and do pushups. As for my chapter, we have instituted a strict policy on hazing and do not expect it to occur, with this isolated incident, I was advised to report it immediately, as I did.
Patrick Baker: On September 28th, Pierce Davila texted myself and espi. stating “Brother Eugene Martinez took it upon himself to take pledge Brad and AJ to the tracks and conduct some corrective training while heavily intoxicated. His ass is getting put up on standards.” I had no prior knowledge of the events that happened. The events according to Pierce and AJ happened on the night of the 27th/morning of the 28th.
Joshua Taylor: On the morning of Sunday, September 28; 2014, I was approached by Ashtom Cudd about an invident that had occured the previous night (Saturday). Asthon proceeded to inform me that a brother (Eugene Martinez) had summoned two of the chapter’s new members to the fraternity house, where he made them do pushups and military style punishment. It was also noted that Brother Martinez was heavily intoxicated at the time, and was in the company of 3 other brothers (2 suspended and one from the chapter at SFA). These brothers were also intoxicated, but only watched Brother Martinez’s actions. Brother Cudd tried to stop the events, but was outnumbers four to one.
Mason Chirigos: On the 29th day of September of 2014 I was notified by Pierce Davila that there was an incidence involving multiple new members being hazed. I was not involved or in the area at the time. I had no knowledge of the incidence until the 29th of September.
Jeremy Linzer: AJ drove myself, Eugene, Scott, & two girls to the OX house after being at the Jolly Fox. I was outside of the house on the phone for about 15 minutes & when I entered the house Brad and AJ were in the bathroom with Eugene. When I walked in Eugene was screaming at AJ & Brad about something that had happened earlier in the week. From the bathroom we went behind the house and Eugene proceeded to keep yelling. It was obvious that he was highly intoxicated. Eugene was drunkenly teaching AJ & Brad how to stand at attention and how to march. We were back there for maybe 20 minutes and it consisted of AJ & Brad doing push ups & standing at attention while getting yelled at occasionally. Then we walked back up to the house & got a ride back to my place where I stayed for the night.
Reymundo Lara: Around 2:18 am on 9/28/14, I woke up to Eugene Martinez yelling. I got up to see why he was yelling, doing so I found him in the restroom upstairs with two new members and two other brothers. He was yelling at the new members about one’s manual being lost. Therefore, Eugene was making both of them do pushups and telling them the meaning of having a manual. Afterwards, he processed to take them outside to the backyard. Once outside, he was showing them different sound offs in the military. During this time I and Ashton were making sure the new members didn’t get hurt. However, Eugene did the pushups with the new members and continued to show military drills. He was drunk and was loud, Ashton and I made sure his drunkness didn’t make him go overboard.
