Parents Sue Sorority over daughters death

[BetteDavisEyes]

The damn link didn't work so I just posted the entire article.


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Dead Student's Parents Sue Sorority Fri Aug 26, 2:28 PM ET



PLYMOUTH, N.H. - The parents of a Plymouth State University student killed in an alleged hazing-related traffic crash are expanding a lawsuit to charge some of her sorority sisters with conspiracy.

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Richard and Annette Nester of Coventry, R.I., also are including the school and parents of the driver of the SUV that crashed in October 2003 while filled with sorority sister pledges.

Kelly Nester, 20, was killed when she was thrown from the SUV as it flipped over. Reports stated that Nester was one of 10 people in the vehicle, which was designed to seat five passengers safely.

The lawsuit said student Nicole Dalton was "driving erratically to scare the pledges," who reportedly were blindfolded in the rear of the vehicle. The conspiracy charges allege the women planned to haze the pledges and engaged in harmful activity.

Lawyers for one of the women said even if the women planned to blindfold the pledges and put them in the vehicle, there is no evidence they agreed to negligent driving.

"One cannot conspire to be negligent," they said.

Nester was a member of the SKO sorority's first pledge class, which was founded by two women who were banned from one of the university's existing sororities for misconduct.

Besides Dalton, of Rochester, the lawsuit names three others who were PSU students and members of the Sigma Kappa Omega sorority: Olivia Lucca of Mount Vernon, Maine; Heather Haigh of Ridgefield, Conn.; and Nicole Little of Londonderry.

Dalton's parents, James and Peggy Dalton, also were named in the lawsuit, as they owned the vehicle and were aware of their daughter's four prior speeding convictions and one motor vehicle accident, the suit said.

Plymouth State University is also a defendant in the case for "failing to prevent hazing activities."