Frat member denies alcohol enema charge

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 3 (UPI) -- A Tennessee fraternity member spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday, denying police charges that he engaged in alcohol enemas.

University of Tennessee student Alexander Broughton told reporters at a press conference Wednesday he did not receive an alcohol enema, otherwise known as "butt chugging." Broughton was brought to a Knoxville, Tenn., hospital Sept. 22 with a potentially lethal blood alcohol content of 0.4 percent and doctors found evidence of what they thought was sexual assault, WBIR-TV, Knoxville, reported.

When ingested anally, alcohol has a much swifter impact because it bypasses the liver's filter and goes directly into the bloodstream.

Broughton lawyer Daniel McGeHee denied university police accounts his client had anally ingested alcohol. Broughton said he was playing a drinking game called "Tour de Franzia" drinking boxed wine and passed out. He said his fraternity brothers put him in the shower to wake him up and in the process left the bruises doctors thought may have been sexual assault wounds police later laid to the alcohol enema.

Broughton told reporters he had never heard of alcohol enemas before police said it's what he had done.

"I never heard it before, until I woke up [the next] morning and was told they thought I was doing that," Broughton said.