Chico State Pi Kappa Phi hazers pay $500,000

[hoosier]

July 16, 2002

'CSU', CHICO FRATERNITY SETTLES HAZING LAWSUIT

OROVILLE (AP) - Eight fraternity brothers have agreed to pay a combined $500,000 settlement in the drinking-related death of a Chico State University freshman after a fraternity initiation ceremony.

A judge will now decide whether both the national and local chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity will go on trial Aug. 19 in the lawsuit filed by the parents of Adrian Heideman.

Attorneys for the East Coast-based fraternity, which has asked the judge to dismiss the case, said Heideman alone is to blame for his death, and that the fraternal organization cannot be expected to supervise day-to-day activities of a frat house 3,000 miles away.

The local Pi Kappa Phi chapter, which was dissolved after Heideman's death, argues it can't be sued because it no longer exists.

Lawyers for Heideman's parents maintain there is 'ample evidence from which a jury could conclude that Pi Kappa Phi was fully aware of the risks to Adrian and had the legal power to prevent those risks ... (but) made a conscious decision not to do so.''

Heideman, 18, of Palo Alto, died after apparently choking on his own vomit after a night of alleged hazing at the fraternity on Oct. 6, 2000.

The suit alleges that he was forced to drink beer and blackberry brandy and that when he passed out, he was left to die in a basement room while his fraternity brothers were upstairs, watching hired strippers.

Local Pi Kappa Phi fraternity officers Brandon Bettar, Richard DeLuna and Samuel Dobbyn drew 30-day jail terms after pleading ŒŒno contest'' to criminal charges related to Heideman's death.

They and three other fraternity members, Mark Bates, Nicholas Sutton and Theodore Bloemendaal, have agreed to pay the Heideman family $75,000 each in return for being dropped from the suit.

Two other Pi Kappa Phi members, Daniel Santos and Benjamin Hopfer, settled for $25,000 apiece.

Butte County Superior Court Judge Roger Gilbert is hearing the case.