A sorority has paid thousands of dollars to the Nottingham fire department after members caused damages to department's ballroom at an event earlier this month, police said.
The sorority Pi Beta Phi — which reserved the Nottingham Fire Company Ballroom for a March 3 formal — paid $4,155 as compensation for a curtain that caught fire, damages to the floor and a case of stolen wine, according to Hamilton Police Detective Lieutenant James Kostoplis.
"They trashed the place," Kostoplis said.
The formal event was cosponsored by the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, according to students at the event who asked not to be named. Fraternities and sororities are not officially recognized by the University.
Students contacted in Pi Beta Phi and Beta Theta Pi declined to comment.
Arson investigators — sent to the ballroom the morning after the event — concluded that the curtain had caught fire from a candle. Charges will not be pressed because the incident was determined to be accidental, Kostoplis said.
Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Hilary Herbold spoke with a police officer on March 4 after learning of the incident from someone who had reserved the ballroom for March 5.
During that conversation, Kostoplis said, "Dean Hilary Herbold reported to us that a group of Princeton University students acted in a disorderly manner."
But Herbold said, "It is absolutely not the case that I reported anything about students to the Hamilton Police Department."
She explained, "Essentially, [the officer] told me that their police department would investigate it, and I told him that any investigation we might conduct would begin after theirs had concluded."
Herbold stressed that police action proceeds independently of the University. "We do not get involved in the decision about whether off-campus incidents are reported to the police, although if it appears that students may have violated University rules of conduct, the University ordinarily will conduct its own investigation," she said in an email.
Kostoplis said legal action will not be taken because the group has already settled damages with the fire department, and disorderly conduct is a minor charge.
"There is nothing we can do about that. It has to rise to higher level than just acting up at a party," Kostoplis said. "It's settled and that's just fine; as far as we're concerned no crime took place there."
Herbold said University actions would involve the students at the event, not the organizations sponsoring it.
"We treat these things in terms of individuals," Herbold said. "Anytime we find that a student has committed a violation, we treat it on an individual basis. If this did involve a sorority, or any other campus group for that matter, we would still regard this on an individual basis."
She also discounted reports in The Trentonian that placed an associate dean and public safety officer at the scene.
"That's not true," Herbold said. "I've never been to the Nottingham Ballroom. I don't think I would have wanted to be there at that party."
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