The Cleveland County District Attorney's office is issuing subpoenas to numerous individuals who are refusing to cooperate with investigators in the Blake Adam Hammontree case, said Tim Kuykendall, Cleveland County District Attorney.

The subpoenas will require the individuals to testify in front of the Oklahoma Multi-County Grand Jury beginning next week, Kuykendall said.

"This is not something we do often because usually witnesses are cooperative in our investigations, but this is not the case in this investigation," he said.

Hammontree, an OU freshman, was found dead Sept. 30 in the Sigma Chi fraternity house. Hammontree died from alcohol poisoning, with a blood alcohol level of 0.42.

Some of the witnesses are Sigma Chi fraternity members.

Kuykendall said the Sigma Chi national organization said it told local members to cooperate with law enforcement, "but it is quite obvious they are not," Kuykendall said.

In front of the grand jury, the subpoenaed individuals will either testify or invoke their Fifth Amendment right and refuse to testify on grounds of self-incrimination, Kuykendall said.

The witnesses do not have to testify if their answer would be self-incriminating, Kuykendall said.

"Many of the questions we ask these individuals are getting to the facts of what happened," he said. "We are not asking them to incriminate themselves."

If they plead the Fifth, then the witness will have a hearing before a judge, who will decide if the individual has to testify or not, he said.

"If a judge orders them to testify and they refuse to do so, they could face being held in contempt of court," Kuykendall said.

If someone is ruled in contempt of court, they could face fines or incarceration, he said.

At least one Sigma Chi fraternity pledge said there was some pressure from members to drink alcohol on Sept. 29, the night before Hammontree was found dead, according to an affidavit, written by Det. Jim Parks of the Norman Police Department, for a search warrant.

The pledge told at least one investigating officer that "there was some pressure and encouragement for the pledges to indulge in quantities of alcohol," the affidavit stated.

Daniel Carter, senior vice president of Security on Campus, Inc., read a copy of the affidavit and said in an e-mail that it "[paints] a picture of out-of-control underage and binge-drinking culture that is all too common in fraternity environments, and on campuses in general across the country."

"The active, older members put pressure on the younger ones to emulate their behavior in order for them to fit in and be a part of the culture," Carter said. "While the actives usually have built up a resistance to high levels of alcohol through years of rampant abuse, the pledges often are not able to handle extreme quantities of alcohol as well. If taken too far, or if the pledges are left unmonitored, they may die as a result."

From the information provided in the affidavit, Carter said it is unclear if there was actual hazing going on at the Sigma Chi house.

"In most hazing situations, the hazed individuals 'voluntarily' go along with whatever they are subjected to in order to fit in," Carter said. "The situation in this case is no different. The culture of high-risk and underage drinking and indifference to human life led to death."

According to Oklahoma Statutes' Title 21, Section 1190, hazing is defined as "an activity which recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental health or physical health or safety of a student for the purpose of initiation or admission into or affiliation with any organization" that operates in an institution of higher education. Endangering physical health includes forced consumption of alcohol, the statute states.

Any hazing activity described in the statute "shall be presumed to be a forced activity, even if the student willingly participates in such activity."

Kuykendall said that without more specific facts than what are revealed in the affidavit, it's hard to say if hazing was going on at the Sigma Chi house when Hammontree died.

"Forcing pledges to drink alcohol would be hazing, in my opinion, under Oklahoma law," he said. "Just providing them alcohol would not in and of itself be hazing."

At OU, hazing is defined as "an activity participated in or encouraged by student groups, or any members, or associates of a group, in which prospective members or pledges are subjected to or imposed upon to do onerous, denigrating or hazardous tasks," according to the OU Student Code.

In the case of a hazing violation, individuals or entire groups can be held responsible, the code states. Inter-fraternity Council President Omar Zantout said the issue of hazing is "tricky." He would not speculate if what happened at Sigma Chi was hazing.

Brian Burbrink, the managing director of undergraduate services at the Sigma Chi national headquarters, defined hazing as "anything a brother is asked to do that is not constructive to his initiation and is detrimental to his mental or physical well-being."

Burbrink said he did not feel comfortable commenting on the information revealed in the affidavit because he had not read it himself.

However, he said the national headquarters is prepared to hold OU's Sigma Chi chapter accountable to all of Sigma Chi's policies.

On the night of Sept. 29, Hammontree was attending a party following a big brother/little brother ceremony. Police have learned that there was "a lot of alcohol" consumed at the party, the affidavit states.

The affidavit states that prior to the party, more than one member of the fraternity made a "liquor run" and asked other underage members for orders and money to pay for them.

During the party, the alcohol was served out of members' rooms, the affidavit states.

At the party, Hammontree drank both beer and schnapps, and several individuals described him in an "obviously intoxicated state." Hammontree had to be assisted to the bathroom where he repeatedly threw up in the toilet, after which members helped shower and clean him up, according to the affidavit.

At about 1:30 a.m., Hammontree was taken to the room of his big brother, OU sophomore John Frame, where he was placed on a sofa because he was about to "pass out," according to the affidavit. Approximately nine hours later, at 10:30 a.m., members checked on Hammontree and found him to be "cold, stiff, purple and beyond resuscitation."

The affidavit also states that members then talked among themselves and made numerous phone calls before calling 911.

One pledge was contacted by other fraternity members and told to leave Norman, contact an attorney and "quit talking,"the affidavit states.

Although there have been no arrests made in connection with Hammontree's death, Cody Barrington, a 21-year-old business sophomore, was arrested on charges of furnishing alcohol to a minor who attended the same party as Hammontree.

The spokesman for Sigma Chi fraternity, Justin Shearer, declined to comment.

Additional reporting by Christopher Terbrueggen