$1.5 Million Awarded in Hazing Death (SUNY Plattsburgh)

[exlurker]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wi...,1285687.story

Brief excerpts from article:

The parents of a fraternity pledge who died after 12 days of hazing and torture were awarded $1.5 million in a wrongful death suit . . . .

According to the Times Union of Albany, John Burnius was ordered to pay the family of Walter Dean Jennings III $400,000 in compensatory damages, $100,000 for wrongful death, and $1 million in punitive damages . . . .

[the parents] filed suit in 2004 against Burnius and 13 other members of the Psi Epsilon Chi fraternity at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. All but Burnius settled out of court.

Jennings was a freshman . . . when he died on March 12, 2003. He had been deprived of sleep for days, repeatedly forced to drink alcohol until he vomited, consume drinks that had been urinated in, and sit in a sweat box after he was forced to do calisthenics.

He died of water intoxication after being forced to drink so much water that his brained swelled and he went into a coma.

At the time of Jennings' death, the Psi Epsilon Chi fraternity had been banned from the campus because of alcohol-related incidents dating back to 1998.

Eleven students . . . were charged with dozens of crimes related to hazing. They all eventually accepted plea agreements and were sentenced to probation and community service.