‘Torturer’ frat rats arrested

Nine members of an unrecognized upstate SUNY college fraternity were busted Thursday for illegal hazing and torturing a rat to intimidate dissenters, police said.

The men, including six current and three former students at the College at Brockport, “basically tortured [a] rat as an example of what would happen if somebody came forward or tried to leave the organization,” said Brockport Police Lt. Mark Cuzzupoli.

“A hammer was used in one instance and a fist in another,” Cuzzupoli said. “It’s nasty. It’s despicable. It’s disgusting.”

The group, whose members called themselves the Delts, lived in a house bordering the campus west of Rochester.

They face various misdemeanor counts, including hazing, criminal nuisance, assault and alcohol-related unlawfully dealing with a child and animal cruelty, police said.