The campus was united.

Several months after six Asian or Asian American students and one white student were denied service and beaten in the parking lot of the Denny’s on 2863 E. Erie Blvd., student groups with diversities ranging from LGBT pride to student government came together to voice their opposition to an investigation they believed to be unfair.

Ten years later the site of what has become commonly known as the ‘Denny’s Incident’ sits unspectacularly near two empty restaurant chains. The events of April 11, 1997, shook the Syracuse University community while igniting sweeping cries of racism and corruption that culminated at the office of the District Attorney.

‘That was our way of reacting to a huge injustice,’ reflected Amnat Chittaphong during a recent interview. Chittaphong was the former Asian Students in America president and one of the most vocal students at the time. There were ‘a lot of ticked off people that found out, after months of investigation, nothing happened that night.’

Chittaphong and the approximately 100 students protesting in Schine Student Center were especially angry at District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, who just days before had announced his office’s decision to drop the case.

The opening line of the DA’s report stated: ‘this investigation has revealed no evidence that the students were discriminated against by Denny’s, by the deputies or that they were assaulted as a result of their ethnic origin.’

The report was the result of a five-month investigation by the DA’s office in which Senior Assistant District Attorney Lisa Marie Fletcher and Senior Investigator Carol D. Sacco found negligible wrongdoing resulting in the case’s dismissal.

About half of the student protestors in Schine trekked downtown to let Fitzpatrick know how upset they were. Holding signs accusing the district attorney of racism, the students hoped to present to him a petition that demanded both an apology for his office’s ‘biased investigation’ and the arrests of those responsible for the attacks on the seven SU students.

Anti-Fitzpatrick sentiment persisted into November of that year when signs reading ‘No Hate Crimes,’ and ‘Too Late for Apologies-Justice Now,’ were laid in the Maxwell lobby the day he spoke to Professor Bill Coplin’s public policy class.

Fitzpatrick’s report was also received negatively by some SU faculty. In an interview Monday, associate professor in the SU School of Law Janis McDonald reiterated a stance, first established in her fall 1997 Post Standard editorial, that the District Attorney had overstepped his authority.

‘The prosecutor does have a role of discretion. However, there are appropriate times to bring a case through the judicial process,’ McDonald said. ‘He is not the judge and jury.’

Cries of corruption and racism were abound. Fitzpatrick is still the district attorney in Syracuse and, last Wednesday, seemed resigned to let people have their say but pointed to his introduction of a hate crime bill as evidence to the contrary.

The story attracted national attention, gaining coverage from networks like CNN and ABC, and print sources such as Newsday, the Detroit News and The New York Times.

While much of the SU community hadn’t picked up on the event until the fall semester, Professor Laurence Thomas published an op-ed in this newspaper only 10 days after the attacks, criticizing SU’s failure to come forward with a timely public reaction.

‘How can SU, with its professed abiding commitment to diversity, be so silent in a case such as this?’ he wrote. ‘As with so many American institutions, it would seem that SU has allowed form to take the place of substance and in so doing it is abnegating its moral responsibility.’

That public statement, authored by Buzz Shaw and published in June 1997, bashed the attacks while justifying its response time as a result of properly placed priorities.

‘The attacks were cowardly and diminish us all as Central New Yorkers and human beings. If Asian American students are not safe to avail themselves of public accommodations without being victimized, none of us is safe,’ wrote Shaw. ‘As we devoted our time and resources to providing assistance to our students, we did not pause to issue a public statement concerning the assault.’

Who is responsible and for what, is fiercely debated to this day. In fact, official county documents and descriptions given by the students of the events are filled with inaccuracies, omissions and contradictions.

‘If there was anything clearer in my mind – this is a hate crime,’ said Chittaphong, who currently works as head of multicultural affairs at Sienna College. ‘You can’t kick someone in the head and call them a ‘chink’ and not call that a hate crime.’

The claim is similar in tone to those discovered by independent civil rights monitor Sharon L. Hartmann – a federally appointed official assigned to investigate claims of racial discrimination made against Denny’s. Her appointment was part of a $56 million settlement of two class action lawsuits brought against the restaurant in 1994.

Hartman found that the civil rights of the Asian and Asian American students were violated as defined by Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. She recommended the permanent dismissal of Deputies Ken Adams and Doug Paninski, and restaurant manager Sheri Campney in addition to a two-week suspension of hostess Melissa Kirts.

Denny’s ultimately terminated all four persons.

What is known is this: According to the investigations reports, a group of six Asian or Asian-American SU students and one Caucasian attempted to be seated at Denny’s restaurant that was in the middle of the early morning ‘bar rush’ – a busy period when local restaurants are filled with hungry bar patrons.

Annoyed by the long wait, one student in the group, probably Derrick Lizardo, confronted hostess Melissa Kirts and suggested that he and his friends were being passed by for white customers who had arrived later.

Soon after complaining, Lizardo was escorted out of the restaurant by the two off-duty deputies.

The Asian group then moved outside where they were approached by an unknown number of white males who had left the restaurant. Words were exchanged and a fight broke out around 2:58 a.m.

Recognizing that the security guards hadn’t tried to intervene, two black students -Antwauene Ponds and Marchelle Woelfel – left the waiting area to break up the fight. When they returned inside the restaurant, they began to complain to employees about the security guards. After a warning, they, too, were asked to leave.

Almost all of the combatants had left by the time police arrived at approximately 3 a.m.

Everything in between is open for interpretation.

The district attorney’s report, for example, depicts Lizardo as rowdy and disruptive inside the restaurant. It also says he was belligerent – frequently swearing and antagonizing the security guards – once he had been ejected.

The Asian group, however, saw the security guards as being physical with an otherwise compliant Lizardo.

The Asian group claimed to have not thrown any punches even while being beaten themselves.

The DA report says otherwise, noting scratches on one of the white males’ neck. It also documents the student’s alleged unwillingness to cooperate with police – a claim Fitzpatrick used during Wednesday’s interview to emphasize his reasoning.

‘I don’t know how you cover something up when the witnesses refuse to talk to you,’ he said.

Christopher Warnock is the only white customer identified, through a photo array and admission, as being part of the skirmish.

The report releases Warnock of any liability given that nobody from the Asian student group was able to accurately describe whom he hit and when.

‘To prosecute one individual who appears to have been involved in a ‘brawl’ would be to simply make a scapegoat of Christopher Warnock, the only person who has been honest enough to admit he was involved in the fight,’ the report says.

A central reason for not making an arrest in the Denny’s Incident was New York state’s definition of assault, Fitzpatrick said.

‘New York is behind the times,’ he said. ‘If I was to walk up to you and punch you in the nose, that would be harassment.’

In New York state, assault is defined as ‘an attack causing physical injury to an individual or group of individuals, which involves physical force such as the use of hands, feet, teeth, weapons, throwing of objects, etc.,’ according to the state government Web site.

While it is unclear about what exactly was said and done, several documents report at least one instance where racial epithets were hurled at the Asian group during the scuffle.

Two Asian students claimed being knocked unconscious, while others walked away with cuts and bruises. The district attorney report indicates that several in the student group had refused referrals to the hospital.

One of the first officers on the scene, Anthony Sobiech, had reportedly told the students ‘this was a drunken fight, and that’s the end of it.’

Most of the Asian or Asian American students admitted coming from the Regatta bar at the Sheraton Hotel, but had denied drinking. No breathalyzer tests were administered.

In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Fitzpatrick said this is standard.

‘I don’t know, looking back, if it would’ve made a difference,’ he said regarding performing breathalyzer tests. ‘I can’t think of an instance where we breathalyzed an alleged victim when it wasn’t related to drinking and driving.’

Further complicating things for the student group was Sobiech’s refusal to file an incident report.

The six Asian or Asian American, one Caucasian and three African American students filed a lawsuit in late August 1997 against, most notably, Denny’s, their parent company and Onondaga County. The lawsuit, which brought 20 causes or justifications for action, accused Syracuse police and court officials of not investigating the event aggressively enough and the restaurant of violating the student’s civil rights.

But a judge determined that they could not sufficiently prove their civil rights had been violated, a decision affirmed on appeal.

What exactly happened that night may remain hazy, but 10 years after the incident, many members of the Syracuse community have not forgotten the aftermath.

‘I’m glad the legacy of this case lives on,’ one of the students’ attorneys said in an ASIA press release. ‘I hope the students today will continue to work with the university and community at large to ensure the respect and civil rights of all people.’

Published on April 10, 2007 at 12:00 pm