Ten University of Maryland sorority members are facing assault and hazing charges after a girl seeking initiation said she was beaten, paddled and choked by the sorority sisters off campus. The victim, whose name was not released by police, withdrew from Zeta Phi Beta sorority in the fall shortly after the incidents, said Cpl. Mike Rodriguez, a Prince George’s County police spokesman.
“The victim was advised that the assaults on her were initiation to be accepted into Zeta Phi Beta,” the documents state.
Charging documents for the sorority members — who range in age from 20 to 32 — detail three incidents.
The victim told police that on Oct. 15, she was taken to an unknown address near Annapolis Road and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and pushed into a wall, thrown around the room and punched in the arm repeatedly.
The next day, the victim said she was taken to a residence in Bladensburg and paddled. On Oct. 18, she said she was taken to the Adelphi residence of two sorority members where she was again pushed into a wall and hit in the buttocks with an oak paddle.
Those facing charges are Montressa Hammond, 24; Zakiya Shivers, 26; Sheila Jackson, 32; Kandyce Jackson, 20; Ayana Langston, 20; Jamece Hackett, 22; Bridget Blount, 24; Tymesha Pendleton, 26; Monika Young, 23; and Amber Bijou, 22.
Dave Ottalini, a spokesman for the University of Maryland, confirmed that all defendants are current students or alumni.
Rodriguez said the victim reported being hazed to the university, which in turn notified police. In a statement, Matt Supple, the director of the university’s fraternity and sorority life, said Maryland’s chapter of Zeta Phi Beta, a historically black sorority, was suspended when the school learned of the allegations.
Several of the accused sorority members appeared in District Court in Hyattsville on Thursday and were informed of the charges against them.
One defendant, Tymesha Pendleton, stood quietly outside the courthouse while her attorney, James Papirmeister, argued that she was innocent of the charges. He said Pendleton, a graduate student, is “devastated” by the charges. “The idea of hazing is abhorrent to her,” Papirmeister said.
