A 19-year-old man was charged with third-degree assault Friday for hitting a University junior in the jaw at Delta Tau Delta fraternity on University Avenue.

According to the criminal complaint, Michael Antwon Smith broke Steven Beno’s jaw after an early-morning argument Friday.

The complaint stated Smith and a group of men entered the house and accused fraternity members of assaulting a friend.

Beno said last weekend the same group – except for Smith – was kicked out of a party at the same house, although he would not elaborate.

When the group came back Friday and began to argue, Beno tried to calm them down, he said. But when he turned around, he was hit from the side and his jaw broke.

According to the criminal complaint, Smith was found between cars after the assault, taken back to Delta Tau Delta and identified by another fraternity member.

Smith said fraternity members were drunk and he is wrongfully accused.

In other police news:

ï A University graduate student placed a man who allegedly stole a stereo under citizen’s arrest last Wednesday.

The student followed the suspect, Harvey Joseph, out of Amundson Hall, onto a city bus and finally to a wooded area bordering the Mississippi River where Joseph was apprehended by University police.

Eric Cochran, a graduate student in the School of Chemical Engineering and Material Science, said he noticed two men walking down the stairs with his friend’s stereo. Signs posted in Amundson Hall warned of two suspicious men who had been seen in some of the building’s offices; Cochran said he thought the men he was pursuing matched the descriptions.

As he followed the men, Cochran used his cell phone to call the stereo’s owner, who was in an office upstairs, but reached only graduate student Travis Bailey, who agreed to help confront the men.

One of the men fled as Cochran confronted the man holding the stereo.

Cochran said he then followed the man onto the bus while Bailey tried to pay both fares. “When he realized I was following him, he decided he didn’t want to be on the bus,” Cochran said.

He said as he followed the man off the bus and toward the river, the suspect repeatedly told him it was not necessary to involve the police.

The police arrived shortly after and put Joseph in handcuffs.

Since the police did not actually see the crime or see Joseph with the stereo, Cochran said he had to place the man under citizen’s arrest.

Cochran said he went to the police car and said, “I place you under citizen’s arrest.

“It sounded almost Scooby-Doo, but I guess that’s procedure,” he said.

ï A smoking copy machine was removed by firefighters from the Variety Club Heart and Research Center on East River Road last Wednesday.

Dr. Edward Cheng and residency coordinator Marcy Woods said as they left work they noticed a noxious odor and a slight haze in a hallway.

Cheng said, “(The copy machine) looked like a chimney.”

He unplugged the machine and called the fire department. Firefighters extinguished the machine and brought it outside.

Tim Sturrock welcomes comments
at [email protected]