Former fraternity members sentenced for assault
Two former members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity at the University of Missouri were sentenced Monday to five years of probation for assaulting a pledge.
Nikolas Childress and Zachary Barabasz pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and fourth-degree assault in September. The two pledges who said Childress and Barabasz assaulted them also filed a civil suit, alleging Childress and Barabasz beat them, resulting in a traumatic brain injury and facial reconstruction for one of them.
In the lawsuit Sean Freihaut and Benjamin Poss say the fraternity did little to stop its members from breaking rules about alcohol, drugs and hazing. The civil case is still pending.
The Sigma Phi alumni council closed the University of Missouri fraternity chapter in September 2017, pointing in a letter at the time to incidents that “illustrate that membership is not committed to living by our values.”
