The bitterness of UCF Student Government politics hit a new level Friday night, with fallout from Darren Kaplan’s failure to be confirmed as Comptroller spilling over into a barroom brawl at Devaney’s, multiple sources told KnightNews.com.
Kaplan’s Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers got confrontational when they ran into SGA senators who voted against confirming Kaplan as SGA Comptroller, SGA sources told KnightNews.com.
Kaplan failed to get the necessary votes to become SGA Comptroller hours after KnightNews.com broke a story exposing how he’d be the chief financial officer over an SGA where nearly 10 of his fraternity brothers would have collected a paycheck. No other fraternity has that many on payroll, prompting concerns among some in SGA of a conflict of interest.
UPDATE: KILBRIDE’S SGA DODGES QUESTIONS OVER THIS CONTROVERSY
A Devaney’s staff member is among the sources who confirmed the altercation broke out in Devaney’s that night, which resulted in at least one patron being thrown out. None of the sources wanted to be identified, given the physical nature of the allegations.
Multiple SGA sources told KnightNews.com that SGA Supervisor of Elections Shane Meckler — a brother of Beta who has served as chapter president — was removed by a bouncer, who had to grab him by his neck in order to get him outside once things got heated.
Moments before Meckler was ejected, our sources say two separate confrontations broke out against two separate senators who voted against confirming Kaplan.
We’re told the first confrontation involved Meckler, Kaplan and SGA Chief of Staff Joey Femia teaming up against one of the senators who voted against Kaplan, and stopped short of becoming physical. We’re told Meckler instigated it by getting into the senator’s face and asking questions about how he voted, with Femia right next to him. Then, we’re told, Kaplan, who is currently a senator, approached the senator who voted against him and said, “F*ck you!”
Minutes later, the second — and physical — confrontation broke out when Femia and Meckler confronted the second senator who voted against their fraternity brother and started pushing him, the sources said. That’s when we’re told the bouncers noticed the commotion and hauled Meckler outside.
KnightNews.com has confirmed the identity of the two senators who voted against Kaplan — the alleged victims during the confrontation. When one was reached by KnightNews.com on the phone Friday, he declined comment and asked his name not be published for fear of future retaliation.
No one was reported injured during the incident, the Devaney’s staff member said, pointing out how it was handled quickly by bar security and didn’t cause a big deal to the crowd of customers enjoying the bar that night.
But the allegations of pressuring a senator over how he voted could cause big problems for Meckler’s status as a campus leader — especially with senators already suspicious of his ability to remain unbiased as Supervisor of Elections, should a member of Beta or someone close to the fraternity run for SGA President.
A senate Elections & Appointments Committee chair announced in December how some of her committee members wanted him removed. However, during the meeting where the discussion to remove him was scheduled in January, it lasted a mysteriously short four minutes with no one speaking out against him.
KnightNews.com stopped by the Beta Theta Pi fraternity chapter meeting Sunday night to try and ask Meckler and his fraternity brothers about the alleged barroom confrontation.
Kaplan and Femia admitted to KnightNews.com they were present at Devaney’s bar that night, but would not confirm any confrontation went down. Different brothers answered KnightNews.com’s questions about what happened in different ways.
Femia flat out denied that any confrontation happened at Devaney’s or that Meckler was kicked out of the bar.
“No. We never got kicked out of a bar,” Femia said. “I went to Knightlynx bus, rode the bus, watched out for the bus, made sure people were cool on it. … It was a normal day at Devaney’s, I left on the bus.”
KnightNews.com then approached Kaplan, who was walking with SGA Senator and Beta brother Cortez Whatley, and asked him about what “happened Friday over at Devaney’s.”
One of the brothers at first can be heard responding by saying, “We don’t… we’re not discussing this.”
Kaplan then took the questions instead.
“Devaney’s?” he asked, “What, the bar?”
When pressed further, Kaplan denied there was a confrontation, but did admit he was at Devaney’s that night. When asked whether Meckler was kicked out of the bar, unlike Femia, he wouldn’t give a straight answer.
Kaplan was asked: “Shane Meckler didn’t get kicked out of the bar?”
“You can ask Shane Meckler,” Kaplan responded, later adding, “If you have a question for Shane you can ask him.”
KnightNews.com couldn’t find Meckler after the Beta meeting let out, so we called his cell phone left a voice mail, and later sent a text message, both of which were not immediately returned.
Aside from the criticism Meckler faced for his handling of the Fall senate elections — where his fraternity brother Drew Pope’s ticket faced very few opponents and complaints of poor election advertising were raised — Meckler may face new questions over his handling of the Spring presidential elections.
KnightNews.com filed a public records request nearly four weeks ago, asking for SGA records proving Meckler met requirements to advertise the Spring Presidential Elections as required by statute. KnightNews.com still hasn’t received them from SGA.
It appears no advertisements for how to run for Spring elections were placed in campus news sources traditionally used by SGA members, and even the SGA website is vague about when petitions will be available. The day before February begins, the website still only lists that petitions will be coming available in “February” but fails to list what day. Only SGA insiders — filled with Meckler’s fraternity brothers — are likely aware of the exact date to be ready to mount a campaign.
Aside from SGA, Meckler serves as a member of President John C. Hitt’s President’s Leadership Council. It’s not clear what, if any, impact the controversy could have on his position in the organization regarded as prestigious by UCF administrators.
In light of this most recent SGA barroom controversy, KnightNews.com is releasing photos we were sent a few weeks ago, which appear to show Femia, Student Body President Mike Kilbride’s top cabinet official, in an unflattering state outside Devaney’s. To be clear, these photos were not taken last Friday, when the alleged confrontation took place, but were sent to us about three weeks ago — and we made an editorial choice not to run them at that time.
KnightNews.com refrained from releasing these photos back when we first received them because we deemed them not newsworthy. But in light of discrepancies between Femia’s statements about Friday night’s alleged confrontation when compared to other accounts we received, KnightNews.com deemed the photos as newsworthy because they show that Friday’s incident wasn’t the first time those Kilbride appointed to SGA appeared to behave inappropriately at Devaney’s.
Some top SGA leaders are paid more than $1,000 a month, courtesy of student fees. They’re also considered role models at the university. All of that, along with the fact Friday’s incident was the second complaint we received about Femia at a bar, was taken into account when deciding to publish the photos.
After conducting the video interview with Femia, KnightNews.com later reached Femia by phone to ask him about the photos we were sent a few weeks ago and whether he thought it was acceptable for a student leader to behave that way — apparently crawling around on the floor outside a bar.
“No, it’s not,” Femia said. “I wasn’t crawling around on the floor.”
Femia then refused to comment further, hung up the phone and did not answer when called back.
KnightNews.com will seek comment from the Kilbride administration during its normal business hours on Monday.
UPDATE: Kilbride’s administration responds to story, click the next page link to see what the SGA PR office released.
