This may be the answer to stopping hazing: criminal convictions

[hoosier]

(From Fraternal News today)

Newsday
October 9, 2003

Guilty Plea in Hazing Death

By Zachary R. Dowdy
Staff Writer

One of four Long Island men accused of participating in a days-long fraternity hazing ritual, which forced an upstate college freshman to drink so much water that he died, has pleaded guilty to hazing.

Jeffrey Meyer, 21, of Southold, pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree hazing and disorderly conduct, said Plattsburgh Police Chief Desmond Racicot.

Meyer and 10 other members of the Psi Epsilon Chi fraternity, a group that had been barred from the campus of Plattsburgh State University, faced charges as serious as criminally negligent homicide in the March 12 death of Walter Dean Jennings, 18, of Gansevoort. He had hoped to join the fraternity.

Three other Long Island men, Jonathan Bernius of Ronkonkoma, Alex Fischer of Selden and Patrick Stasiukiewicz of Mattituck, who were all 21 at the time charges were filed against them earlier this year by Clinton County District Attorney Richard Cantwell, still face charges. They remain free on bail.

If convicted of criminally negligent homicide, they face a 1-1/3 to 4-year prison term.
--------------------------------------
Associated Press
October 9, 2003

Former Frat Member Sentenced for Hazing

Syracuse, NY- - A former Alfred University fraternity member will spend 60
days in jail and three years on probation after admitting his role in the
beating of another fraternity brother who later committed suicide.

Adam Shain, 20, of Bernardsville, N.J., reached an agreement with
prosecutors in July and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of
first-degree hazing, second-degree unlawful imprisonment and third-degree
assault.

The charges could have brought him up to seven years in prison if he had
been convicted by jurors. The sentence imposed Wednesday by Onondaga County
Judge William Walsh was part of the plea agreement.

Authorities accused Shain and several other Zeta Beta Tau fraternity
members of beating Benjamin Klein during a regional fraternity convention
at a DeWitt hotel in February 2002.

Klein, 21, an Alfred junior from Putney, Vt., was found dead in a creek
behind the ZBT fraternity house Feb. 12, 2002. Police said his body was
covered with cuts and bruises from a beating he suffered three days earlier
while attending the convention. Police determined Klein died of a
drug-overdose suicide.

Three other fraternity members also pleaded guilty in the case.

A month after Klein died, the Alfred University board of trustees voted to
eliminate fraternities and sororities at the campus. Alfred is 65 miles
south of Rochester.