Phi Delta Theta fraternity has no-alcohol policy; national office is investigating case

A UA student who died in a Labor Day motorcycle collision was operating his motorcycle under the influence of alcohol, police said - and that might not bode well for his fraternity, which has a no-alcohol policy.

James Thomas Haley, a 19-year-old aerospace engineering freshman, had a blood alcohol content of 0.102 percent - two-thousandths of a percent over Arizona's legal limit - at the time of his death on Sept. 4, said Sgt. Judy Altieri, a Tucson Police Department spokeswoman.

Haley was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, which banned alcohol from functions at the University of Arizona chapter house, 1745 E. Second St., in 1998.

If Haley is found to have been drinking at the Phi Delta Theta house before he died, penalties could possibly be levied against the 17-member fraternity, said Chris Cortina, director of risk management and housing at the national Phi Delta Theta headquarters in Ohio.