A bottle-throwing incident with racial overtones that aroused uproar across campus resulted in a plea in Ithaca City Court May 30.

Morgan Brabbs, 23, of Orlando, Fla., pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in the May 6 incident at the Sigma Pi fraternity house, off-campus on University Avenue, according to a press release from Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson. He was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge and received the maximum fine of $250. Cornell also served Brabbs with a persona non grata order, which permanently bars him from entering campus. Violating that order or being arrested anywhere on any other charge during the coming year would revoke the discharge and result in resentencing for the disorderly conduct charge, which could include jail time.

Brabbs, who was visiting a friend in Ithaca and is not a Cornell student, was with a group of about 15 people gathered on a flat area of the roof of the fraternity house at 730 University Ave., celebrating Slope Day. An investigation by Ithaca Police, assisted by Cornell Police, established that bottles, cans and other items were being thrown from the roof throughout the day. According to one statement, those throwing the items were trying to hit a tree on the front yard of the fraternity. At about 2:30 a.m., some items landed near a group of black students walking by. When one of them walked up the driveway of the fraternity and shouted up to the people on the roof, a person shouted back comments including "Walk away, Trayvon," "Come up, Gary Coleman" and "Tyrone."

Brabbs admitted to throwing beer cans and to being the source of the racially charged language, according to the release from the district attorney.

""We appreciate the work by Ithaca Police and assisting agencies and the Office of the District Attorney in investigating what happened in the early morning of May 6, 2012, at Sigma Pi," said Susan Murphy, vice president for student and academic services. "We continue to deplore this disturbing episode and the pain it has caused the student victims, the campus and the community at large."

The Sigma Pi chapter at Cornell will remain on interim suspension pending a review of the full police investigation, Murphy said.

Brabbs submitted a written apology to the victims, the fraternity and the Cornell and Ithaca communities with his plea. "I ... deeply regret any negativity that has been bestowed on them due to my actions," he wrote. None of the fraternity members, he added, encouraged or participated in his inappropriate conduct. The incident was a "life lesson," he said. "The fact that I could engage in such conduct has been a moment of personal awakening for me. ... I hope that by my future actions I can prove to my community that I am and will be a better person."