What happened in the Alpha Epsilon Pi house in April was inhumane, prosecutors said Friday, an act that left five stripped-down Boston University students covered in honey, hot sauce, coffee grounds, and fish sauce, and peppered with red welts.

One of the students, however, described it as something different: simply a tradition.

I didnt feel victimized at all because it was a rite of passage and a choice that all five of us made together, and we knew that we could walk away from it at any time if we chose to do so, said Tim Barranen, 19, a freshman, in a phone interview Friday, moments after three of nine defendants briefly appeared in Brighton District Court to answer to charges of failure to stop hazing.

Barranen said he would not tell investigators anything that would incriminate the nine defendants who allegedly meted out the hazing.

Arraignments for Jonathon Katz, 22, Alexander Nisenzon, 21, and Kyle Shevrin, 21, were postponed until June 27 during Fridays brief hearing, but new details emerged in a police report contained in court records.

On April 9, Boston police investigating a noise complaint found Barranen and four other Boston University students, all 19 years old, in the basement of 24 Ashford St. in Allston, taped to one another at the wrists and wearing only underwear.

The students were covered in honey, hot sauce, coffee grounds, fish sauce, and mustard. They were shivering and appeared to be horrified, police said in the report. They also had red welts on their backs and some had portions of the backs of their heads shaved.

Katz, Nisenzon, and Shevrin belonged to the 30-member chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, which drew most of its members from Boston University.

In the wake of the police investigation, national leaders of the fraternity shut down the Boston chapter. The fraternity had no official ties to BU, officials have said.

According to the police report, Katz and Nisenzon were found in a second-floor bedroom where they and three other defendants were lying in a bed together, faking that they were sleeping.

Shevrin tried to run out the front door but was stopped by police.

All three men and their attorneys declined to comment after the proceeding.

The other six defendants will also probably be arraigned on June 27, according to the Suffolk district attorneys office. Spencer Davidson, 21; Jesse Kay, 20; Cyrus Nazmiyal, 20; and Jonathon Toobi, 22; were all charged with hazing, failure to stop hazing, and assault and battery. Robert Rappa, 22, and Lawrence Rosenblum, 19, also face charges ranging from hazing to keeping a noisy and disorderly house.