Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story

Mikey pays a $75,000 bond for cocaine trafficking and is released, under the proviso that he not get arrested again or leave the state. His mother drives him to their vacation condo, where Mikey realizes that Rob sold him out to the police because of Patrick Moffly’s murder. 

The day of Patrick’s murder, March 4th, a police officer responds to reports of gunshots. He arrives at 97 Smith Street and finds Patrick lying at the bottom of the stairs, shot, and surrounded by hundreds of GG249 pills. A dying Patrick tells him that “Jordan Piacente and Dollar Tee robbed me” (217) and mentions a red car. Later, officers search the house and find pills, a gun, and drug paraphernalia.

The housemates tell the police that they saw “a young-looking Black man step into the upstairs bathroom” (218). Later, they heard people running down the stairs. Patrick said, “Are you really gonna shoot me?” (21), and then there were gunshots. The pills that Patrick had on him scattered everywhere. While he bled out, his housemates started cleaning up the pills around him. They finally called 911 and kept destroying evidence while they waited for the police to arrive.

While the police search the house, they find the lease agreement to the Treehouse. They take Patrick’s housemates in for questioning. Police find the red car, described by an eyewitness. It belongs to a young Black man called Charles Mungin III. They arrest Mungin and find his phone number stored in Patrick’s phone under the name “Tee.” They quickly charge Charles with Patrick’s murder on mostly circumstantial evidence. They do not arrest Jordan Piacente.

Police raid Zack’s Treehouse but find nothing except drug residue and a lock for a storage unit. Zack emptied the house of drugs mere hours before. As the investigation continues, several dealers become informants. Police find and search Zack’s storage locker and arrest him for the possession of “two pistols, a laser sight, a black Cadillac CTS, 27 grams of cocaine, 25 grams of molly, a military-style assault rifle, an attachable grenade launcher, 169 grams of alprazolam powder, and 6,947.62 grams of alprazolam pills” (229). Zack becomes an informant and is released.

In April, when Rob delivers the cocaine from Mikey to Zack, Zack has a hidden mic and camera in his car. The police use this evidence to arrest Rob and convince him to inform on Mikey. Marshall asks his oldest friends if they would inform on him to avoid jail time. They confirm that they would, despite their friendship. Marshall realizes that he would do the same. Rob tells the police everything he knows about the drug ring at C of C and about Mikey’s connections in Atlanta. The day Mikey is arrested, the police also arrest Russell Sliker and Ben Nauss for drug distribution.

Mikey awaits trial. The Charleston police hold a press conference detailing the arrests of the drug trafficking ring. When describing Zack’s crimes, they do not mention the 6,947.62 grams of alprazolam they seized. KA at C of C goes into crisis, and the chapter shuts down. Another fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, is also shut down when several members date rape a 17-year-old girl and share photos of the crime. The college shuts down several more fraternities before the end of the year. At the end of 2015, it seems that fraternities are on their way out, with many calling for the end of the system altogether. 

Mikey and the other boys face prosecutor Stephanie Linder in their trial. Mikey is in the most trouble, being the only one who refuses to name his sources. He gets his cocaine from cartel-linked suppliers who would kill him if he informed on them. Kulp, Mikey’s lawyer, tries to suggest that Zack may have orchestrated Patrick’s murder. If he can undermine the prosecution’s key informant, the whole case could get thrown out.

The police refuse to investigate Zack because they are confident that Charles Mungin is guilty. They see Patrick’s murder as a robbery gone wrong. Kulp is not convinced, and neither are Patrick’s friends and family, who insist that Patrick was terrified of Zack before he died. When Marshall investigates the case, he discovers that the police did not record any of Patrick’s family’s concerns about Zack. The police dismissed the Mofflys and focused on Charles as their sole suspect. 

Jason Mikell, Charles’s lawyer, does not build a solid case for his client. Charles does not want to take a plea deal for a crime he says he did not commit, so the case goes to trial in 2019. Mikell does not thoroughly cross-examine any of the witnesses, nor does he call any to Charles’s defense. Charles is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years for armed robbery.

A month later, Marshall meets Zack in person for the first time. They briefly discuss the case, but Zack is afraid to talk and refuses an interview. He is sad about what happened to Patrick, and his face remains blank when Marshall tells him that Charles Mungin was convicted for his murder.

In April 2016, Patrick’s parents throw a huge party for his funeral. Patrick’s housemates sell Xanax that they hid from police to “Turtle,” one of Patrick’s friends. Instead of selling the pills for a profit, Turtle starts taking them. He takes all 2,000 pills by the end of 2016.

Mikey starts seeing a psychiatrist who eventually prescribes him Xanax. He works with lawyers to build his defense. When the trials start, the first few boys tried are given light sentences like probation. Zack Kligman is arrested again for possession of drugs and firearms, which violates the terms of his cooperation agreement, but is still only given two years’ probation.

The consequences for the fraternities that were suspended at C of C, like KA, do not last long. By 2019, most return to operation on campus. Most students involved in criminal cases, like the boys charged with assaulting the 17-year-old girl, have their charges dropped. Though boys are now quieter about belonging to fraternities than they used to be, there is still record-high enrollment in fraternities and almost 750,000 students are involved in Greek life in the US. The fallout from the 2014 drug bust simply teaches students that being “one of the boys” (265) means consequences are few and far between.

When Mikey goes to trial in 2019, Linder is unwilling to suspend his sentence. She offers him a sentence of 10 years without parole in exchange for a guilty plea. Mikey agrees and is given two months to prepare to go to prison. Before he drives to prison, he takes two Xanax and three Percocets. He goes through withdrawal in prison. Marshall begins his phone calls with Mikey only six months into his sentence. During their calls, Mikey correctly predicts the outcome of Rob’s trial. Rob is given a Youthful Offenders sentence, which is usually reserved for 18 to 25-year-olds. At 26, Rob is sent to a prison reserved for young inmates and serves less than 24 months of his six-year sentence. Upon his release, he gets a job at a medical supply company.

Mikey wonders if Rob ever feels guilty for informing on him. Mikey and Marshall discuss the deaths of friends due to overdoses, and Mikey eventually opens up and reveals how bleak prison is. He has already witnessed what he calls a “bloodbath” and knows that if he gets out alive, he will need therapy. He tells Marshall that sometimes he regrets not becoming an SAE when he joined a fraternity.