UC board to consider making Cloyne Court drug-free

A banner over the door at Cloyne Court reflects residents' reaction to a proposal to transform it into a "substance-free" academic residence. A banner over the door at Cloyne Court reflects residents' reaction to a proposal to transform it into a "substance-free" academic residence. Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close UC board to consider making Cloyne Court drug-free 1 / 19 Back to Gallery

In the four years since John Gibson overdosed at the Cloyne Court cooperative at UC Berkeley as housemates delayed calling 911, he's lived at his parents' home in San Diego, unable to speak, walk or think clearly.

Now, after a near million-dollar settlement with Gibson's family, the Berkeley Student Cooperative that runs Cloyne Court will decide on Thursday whether to transform the co-op's artsy, drug-tolerant community into the "Cloyne Court Substance-Free Academic Theme House."

To the 150 students who live in the brown-shingled, three-story mansion built by architect John Galen Howard in 1904, the idea is as unthinkable as suggesting that Google take up residence at Yasgur's farm in Woodstock.

But the leadership of the Berkeley Student Cooperative, which runs 20 residences for 1,275 students, says Cloyne's misdeeds now threaten the entire co-op system at UC Berkeley.

"The settlement puts the BSC on notice that a perceived drug-tolerant culture exists at Cloyne, and further drug-related harms on Cloyne property must be avoided," Michelle Nacouzi, a Cal senior and president of the Berkeley Student Cooperative, said in an e-mail. A future lawsuit "could result in increased insurance rates and/or termination of our leases with the University of California."

'Please save Cloyne'

Residents of Cloyne, perhaps the largest student co-op in the country, aren't going quietly.

"I beg of you. Please save Cloyne," a woman says in a plaintive voice at the end of an 8-minute video at SaveCloyne.com that portrays the co-op in a loving, wholesome light: students cooking together, playing music, studying, and painting the vivid floor-to-ceiling murals inside Cloyne that show off the students' talents and communal sense of fun.

Gibson's mother, Madelyn Bennett, rejects the image of clean-cut innocence suggested by current "Clones," as residents are known.

"The next time there's an overdose of any sort, I will be there," warned Bennett, who sued the Berkeley Student Cooperative in 2012 on her son's behalf. "And I'll be sure that those people file the lawsuit to end all lawsuits."

Bennett and her husband say they spend $250,000 a year to care for their son. They agreed not to disclose the amount of the settlement, but said it was just under $1 million and that $560,000 goes to the health insurance company that covers her son, though the family has paid its premiums. A separate suit against the UC regents was dismissed on technical grounds.

A Chronicle review of police records reveals what some members of the Berkeley Student Cooperative hope to prevent in the future.

In the five years before Gibson overdosed, police visited Cloyne 325 times. While most visits were for security checks and loud music, there were also 13 reports of grand theft, eight burglaries, three fights and five "injuries or illnesses" - the category Gibson's overdose was filed under.

In 2006 alone, there were three rapes reported at Cloyne, a sexual battery, 16 students sent to the hospital after eating pot brownies, two drug arrests and the death of a former Cloyne resident, Fre Hindeya.

Police found Hindeya, 26, dead of an overdose in a bedroom at Cloyne.

Four months after Gibson's overdose in March 2010, another man overdosed at Cloyne and was treated at a local emergency room.

In the past year alone, paramedics have been called to Cloyne three times for injuries or illnesses caused by drugs or alcohol. In each case, students landed in the hospital.

The events "do in fact suggest that Cloyne as a whole has tolerated drug use and may continue to do so," the nine-member leadership team of the Berkeley Student Cooperative recently told residents in a letter urging support for the proposal to dismantle Cloyne. "BSC leadership has made attempts in the past to address the perceived drug culture at Cloyne, but to no avail."

Yet the leadership's view may not reflect that of the full board: 27 students, one employee and one alumnus.

The board will vote on whether to whitewash Cloyne's murals, bar current residents as of next fall, and ban drugs and alcohol.

"Even if you are over 21 and it's in your room," laments a woman wearing a maroon blazer in the Save Cloyne video.

"They want to make sure any evidence of us existing, having lived here, having created a space is completely gone," a male voice says on the video as it pans over muraled walls and focuses on a huge Picassoesque painting in black-and-white that climbs up a wooden staircase in the historic building.

A woman in a Cal Bear sweatshirt gets to the point: "The John Gibson overdose took place in 2010, and all of the current members had nothing to do with that. No one lived here in 2010."

Inside 'The Pharmacy'

Back then, Gibson took full advantage of the freedom to consume drugs and alcohol at Cloyne. In depositions taken for Bennett's lawsuit, one former resident said Gibson and his roommate had painted "The Pharmacy" on their door and did a brisk business selling ecstasy and LSD.

As Bennett and her lawyer, Charles Kelly, have pieced it together, Gibson went to bed in the predawn hours of March 18, high from the ketamine, cocaine, pot and alcohol he had consumed at a party in his room.

Around midday, a woman who lived across the hall knocked on the door to get math help from Gibson's roommate. She told Kelly that no one answered, so she entered the unlocked room and woke the roommate. They noticed Gibson lying askew on his bed looking pale and breathing quickly. When they couldn't rouse him, the woman went searching through the large house for another student who might know what had happened.

Kelly asked why she didn't call 911.

"I think I was really scared," she said. "I had never seen anyone overdose. You know, I was 19, and I think I just was really scared and panicked."

Another student arrived and tried CPR. But no one called 911 until 1:06 p.m. By then, Gibson had had a heart attack and his brain had been deprived of oxygen long enough to cause permanent damage.

The surprise was not that people were doing drugs at Cloyne, Kelly said. "I mean, it's college."

Lack of policy blamed

He blamed the Berkeley Student Cooperative for having no "Good Samaritan" policy at the time to protect students from discipline if they became embroiled in a drug incident by calling police. Nor was there a trained health worker or even an adult guardian living in the house at the time, he said.

Those things changed after Bennett sued.

But she believes that little else has.

After the overdose, Bennett adopted her son's Facebook identity. She said she has learned a lot while prowling the private Cloyne pages Gibson had access to, reading posts and examining photos taken inside the co-op that look nothing like the cozy images on SaveCloyne.com.

"If they were not into drugs and alcohol, they wouldn't care if it turned into an academic house," Bennett said. "But they care deeply about that."

The Berkeley Student Cooperative would not allow a reporter to visit the house or interview residents.