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Family sues 14 hazers at Plattsburgh local fraternity
Lawsuits target frat, members
JIM KINNEY , The Saratogian 08/07/2004
BALLSTON SPA -- The family of a SUNY Plattsburgh State University student from Wilton who died after being forced to drink water from a funnel while pledging a fraternity has sued the fraternity and 14 former members for wrongful death.
Walter Dean Jennings III, 18, died March 13, 2003, of acute water intoxication. Besides being forced to drink water, he was also forced to drink alcohol, eat mayonnaise and exercise even after vomiting.
Psi Epsilon Chi members also urinated into an alcoholic punch and had pledges drink the mixture, said Peter Moschetti, the Latham attorney retained by the Jennings family. He said members also urinated on pledges after they'd passed out from drinking.
'It's very depressing to read,' Moschetti said of the boxes and boxes of files he's obtained from Plattsburgh police through the Freedom of Information law. 'Especially if you have a child that age who is going off to college.'
Moschetti said he obtained e-mails written by a fraternity leader after Jennings' death telling the members to 'stick together,' 'buck up' and 'be men.'
'You can read into that what you want,' he said.
Psi Epsilon Chi was not recognized by Plattsburgh State. The university is not named as a defendant.
According to court papers filed Friday at the Saratoga County Clerk's Office, Jennings had asked to join Psi Epsilon Chi March 2 and he was in the last night of a 10-day hazing process when he died. He was a 2002 graduate of Saratoga Springs High School and a freshman at Plattsburgh.
Following Jennings' death 11 Psi Epsilon Chi members -- including Michael J. West, 21, of Saratoga Springs -- were charged with a total of 150 crimes
West, who forced Jennings to eat mayonnaise after he became ill, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in January to three years of probation and 250 hours of community service.
West and nine other students were dismissed from the school. One had already graduated.
The lawsuit names 14 students as defendants, including West and Adam L. Atkinson of Hudson Falls. Moschetti said that's because the burden of proof is lower in civil court, where this suit will be argued, than it is in criminal cases.
'They were all very involved,' he said.
The fraternity has sold the house in Plattsburgh and now operates as an alumni group planning reunions and supporting charities, said John J. Muldowney, a lawyer from Saranac Lake. Muldowney represented Psi Epsilon Chi when it was charged with a misdemeanor in connection with Jennings' death. The corporation pleaded guilty and paid a $5,000 fine.
Muldowney said Friday he had no comment on the suit.
Moschetti wants to know what became of the money from the sale of the house. He said the parents of the other defendants have homeowners' insurance policies.
But it isn't about the money for Jennings' parents Walter and Sue, Moschetti said. The suit doesn't include a specific dollar amount of damages.
'I think they don't want the individuals involved to forget what happened,' he said.
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