[shadokat]

UPDATE!

Associated Press
July 7, 2004

Woman's family sues university, students over death

CONCORD, N.H. -- The family of a Plymouth State University student
killed
during a suspected hazing incident last year is suing the school and
members of a sorority, accusing them of negligence in the woman's
death.

Dan Duckett, lawyer for the family of Kelly Nester, said his clients
are
frustrated by the lack of criminal charges filed in the case, and with
the
level of cooperation with authorities by the women who were with Nester
the
night she died.

"They don't believe the truth has come out," Duckett said Wednesday.
"They're unsatisfied with the information provided by the driver and
the
(sorority) sisters. The police can only do so much and they're relying
on
these witnesses."

Nester, 20, of Coventry, R.I., died Oct. 20 while pledging the Sigma
Kappa
Omega sorority. She and nine other women, some blindfolded, were riding
in
a vehicle that went off the road and flipped. Nester was thrown from
the
vehicle.

Though authorities investigated the crash as a possible hazing, no
charges
have been filed. In May, Grafton County Attorney Rick St. Hilaire
complained that the women involved were not cooperating.

Police have said that just before the crash the driver of the vehicle,
Nicole Dalton, of Rochester, may have been driving erratically, rocking
the
car back and forth and jamming the brakes.

"I have not seen the lawsuit, but I can tell you that the
investigations
that have been done have all determined that Nicole Dalton did not
engage
in any hazing or reckless operation of the motor vehicle," Dalton's
lawyer,
Gerard Boyle, said Wednesday. He has said his client was taking the
group
to buy snacks when she lost control of the vehicle on wet leaves.

The Nester family's lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Grafton County Superior
Court, accuses the school, Dalton and three other sorority sisters of
failing to ensure the safety of Nester and other pledges.

The lawsuit accuses the school of failing to control the sorority,
saying
it knew the sorority hazed potential members, but ignored it. Schools
officials had not seen the lawsuit Wednesday afternoon and would not
comment.

The sorority sisters, who also include Olivia Lucca of Mount Vernon,
Maine,
Heather Haigh, of Ridgefield, Conn., and Nicole Little, of Londonderry,
are
accused of coercing the pledges into "illegal pledging activities," and
of
failing to ensure their safety by blindfolding them and forcing them
into
the back of the vehicle.

No telephone listings for Lucca, Haigh and Little could be found.
Lawyers
for the women either did not return calls seeking comment or had not
seen
the lawsuit and would not comment.

The lawsuit also accuses Dalton's parents, James and Peggy Dalton, of
negligence for allowing their daughter to use their vehicle even though
she
had a record of speeding tickets and one accident.

No telephone listing was available for the Daltons.