CORVALLIS, Ore. - A jury has awarded about $41,000 in damages to a homeless man who was shot by an Oregon State University fraternity member in 2006. Dennis Sanderson was in an alley behind the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity in Corvallis looking through a trash container when he was shot by a frat member who claimed he was shooting at the container. The fraternity member, Joshua Grimes, pleaded guilty to assault and unlawful use of a weapon charges in 2007 for shooting Sanderson with a .22 caliber rifle. Sanderson's attorney, Mark McDougal, had sought $175,000 in punitive damages against the Association of Alpha Beta Chapter of Alpha Gamma Rho, arguing the national organization was negligent and allowed "animosity towards the homeless" to be tolerated at the fraternity house. The jury rejected that claim but found the fraternity and Grimes responsible for about $6,400 in medical expenses and $35,000 for noneconomic damages it awarded Monday after a four-day trial last week. Witnesses testified that fraternity members were known to shoot from windows with BB guns, and had talked about shooting homeless people with BB guns. But the organization's attorney, Derek Ashton, said the fraternity followed its policy and had no way of knowing its members had, or would do, anything illegal while taking appropriate steps to respond to the shooting. Police searched the frat house after Sanderson was shot and found more than two dozen firearms. National policy for the fraternity stipulates that firearms are allowed, as long as they are locked up and under "limited access." Grimes was kicked out of the fraternity after his arrest.
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