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UConn fraternity president accused of assaulting new member during initiation hazing

Kellie Love, Hartford Courant on

Published in News & Features

HARTFORD, Conn. — A president of a University of Connecticut fraternity is facing charges following an investigating into a hazing incident in February.

David Vallejo, 23, of Willington was recently arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, third-degree assault, third-degree strangulation/suffocation and second-degree unlawful restraint in connection with an alleged assault that took place during the fraternity’s initiation process, according to the Connecticut State Police.

A person went to Troop C in Tolland and asked to speak with a trooper about an alleged assault that happened on Feb. 8 and 9, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Troopers learned that the victim was a University of Connecticut student. It was alleged that on Feb. 8 and 9 during the initiation process, the victim was assaulted by Vallejo who was head pledge master and president of the fraternity. It was alleged that during the initiation process “hazing” happened and the victim was physically assaulted, the warrant affidavit said.

The victim provided details of the incident to state police. According to the victim, on Feb. 8, the fifth day of the initiation process, he and another pledge were picked up at his dorm on the UConn campus by Vallejo, the warrant affidavit said.

The victim told state police Vallejo was driving a Honda Civic and allegedly brought the pledges to a house on the Tolland Turnpike in Willington. The victim alleged that they went inside the house and were lined up “military style,” according to the warrant affidavit. The victim alleged that the other pledge masters were standing in front of the pledges as the pledges repeated what they were saying, the warrant affidavit said.

 

The victim alleged that he and another pledge kept making mistakes and were not reciting what they were saying correctly. The pledge masters then allegedly told them to get down and do pushups while repeating what they were saying, according to the warrant affidavit.

The victim told state police he started to get exhausted, his arms started giving out and he began falling to the ground, the warrant affidavit said. “Every time one of us would fall to the ground, they would make us restart from the beginning,” the victim alleged.

At that point, Vallejo allegedly started to get angry and was yelling directly at victim because he kept falling to the ground. “I could not do any more pushups,” the victim claimed, according to the warrant affidavit. “He grabbed me by my uniform shirt that I had to wear, and he threw me across the room into wall.”

After that, the victim alleges that Vallejo started to yell at him to “speed it up,” the warrant affidavit said. When he stood up, Vallejo allegedly took his right forearm and pressed it against the victim’s throat and started to yell at him.

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