SMU Student Sues Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority over Secretly Recorded Racy Video

DALLAS, March 23, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A senior at Southern Methodist University has filed a "Jane Doe" lawsuit against the national Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority after she and other members were secretly recorded on video in their underwear while inside their Dallas sorority house.

The lawsuit filed in Dallas County Court at Law No. 1 includes claims against the Columbus, Ohio-based sorority; Collett Rangitsch, Kappa Kappa Gamma's national Director of Standards; and Sandy Ammons, Alumni Advisor for the Dallas chapter. The student is asking the court to require the sorority to put the video in the hands of a neutral third party and disclose who has seen it since it was secretly recorded earlier this year.

According to the student's claims filed by attorney Rogge Dunn of Dallas' Clouse Dunn LLP, the SMU chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma has a long tradition of requiring senior members to perform a song and dance in their underwear as part of an organized ritual for newly accepted pledges. Members are told not to discuss the ceremony, which has been largely secret for years.

The lawsuit says the plaintiff and other seniors participated in the ritual in January only after the all-female group of fellow sorority members turned over their cell phones so no video could be recorded. Unknown to the plaintiff and other participants, a camera was installed in the same room and recorded the event without their knowledge or permission.

"You would think the recent news about the court decisions in the Erin Andrews and Hulk Hogan cases would make Kappa Kappa Gamma approach this differently," says Mr. Dunn, who has practiced law in Dallas for decades. "Not only did Kappa Kappa Gamma require my client and her sorority sisters to participate in this ritual, they secretly recorded a video and then showed it to others without their permission, which is a clear violation of Texas law."

Mr. Dunn says the sorority has refused to turn over the video to a third-party for safekeeping or tell him who has seen it so he can make sure it hasn't been copied or posted online. To learn more about Mr. Dunn and his practice, click here: http://www.cdklawyers.com/rogge_dunn.html.

The lawsuit says Kappa Kappa Gamma began an organized campaign to try to cover up its knowledge and endorsement of the ritual by launching an investigation led by Ms. Rangitsch and Ms. Ammons, both adults, to determine who was included in the secretly recorded video. As part of that process, the 5- to 6-minute video was shown to an undetermined number of people, the lawsuit states, and the national chapter has refused to disclose who saw it so the plaintiff can determine whether copies were made.

The student who filed the lawsuit and 17 other SMU Kappa Kappa Gamma senior members were dismissed from the sorority earlier this month based on their participation in the ritual. The sorority also put 10 senior members on probation for the same incident.

The case is Jane Doe v. Kappa Kappa Gamma, et al., No. CC-16-01420.

For more information, contact Bruce Vincent at 800-559-4534 or [email protected].

SOURCE Clouse Dunn LLP

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