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WINTER PARK, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A FOX 35 investigation reveals that an alleged attack that landed a Rollins College fraternity member in the emergency room on February 19, might have been an act of retribution.
Last week, the Winter Park Police Department closed a case in which three Rollins fraternity members were accused of assaulting a member of another fraternity without filing charges. Police say the alleged attackers went to the student’s off-campus apartment, beat him, choked him, and ransacked his apartment. The student was injured so badly, he went to the emergency room to be check for broken bones.
Now, FOX 35 has learned police received a tip that the beating was an act of retaliation and the student who was badly hurt was one of “five or six fraternity members” who “jumped” a member of another house about two weeks earlier.
According to the police report, the attack wasn’t reported to officers or campus safety officials. The report goes on to say that the victim in the February 19 attack didn’t want to talk to investigators, but his lawyer told officers “he knows [things] could have been handled differently” and “he wants to put this behind him.
In an exclusive off-camera meeting, the Winter Park Police Chief Michael Deal told FOX 35 there’s “no doubt” that if the victim had cooperated arrests would have been made, but as the case stands there’s not enough evidence to take to a prosecutor.
Deal said he doesn’t believe the fraternity members are a danger to the rest of the community.