LSU ex-pledge sues DX Natl., chapter pres.

[hoosier]

LSU student sues fraternity over alleged hazing ordeal

The Associated Press

An LSU student has sued a national fraternity over an alleged hazing incident, saying he was beaten and forced to inhale rubbing alcohol last year.
Richard Suarez, 20, of Terrytown, claims Delta Chi members covered his head with a pillow case, then doused him with the alcohol before knocking him to the ground and forcing him to roll over thorns and rocks in a remote sugarcane field. Suarez said he vomited blood after the 90-minute ordeal last spring.
"With the pillowcase over my head, that's all I could breathe," Suarez said. "It did knock me out a couple of times."
Ray Galbreth, executive director of Delta Chi, based in Iowa City, Iowa, said Saturday that he hadn't seen the lawsuit and could not comment.
The LSU chapter of Delta Chi was removed from campus in December after the university completed an eight-month investigation into hazing allegations, said Victor Felts, LSU's director of Greek affairs.
Felts said that because of the lawsuit, he couldn't discuss specifics about the investigation.
According to the lawsuit, during weekly "pledge nights," Suarez was forced to do push-ups on urine-soaked newspapers. During "pledge nights," Suarez's suit claims, he was forced to eat and drink large amounts of food and liquor within specific time limits.
On Friday, Suarez said he did not leave the fraternity immediately after the hazing incidents because he had other friends who were pledges.
The lawsuit, filed in state District Court in Baton Rouge, also names then-LSU chapter President Jared Smith and an unspecified insurance company as defendants.
Smith was named as a defendant because he authorized the "tortuous and malicious" acts against Suarez, the lawsuit says. It was unclear whether Smith is still at LSU, and there is no listing for him in the LSU phone directory.
In April 2001, the school banned Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and will not allow the organization to return until at least 2006. The penalty stemmed from a hazing incident that injured a 20-year-old Marrero pledge so seriously that he required surgery to remove infected and dead tissue from his buttocks.