Posted on 05/09/2015 12:44:43 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
The 22 former fraternity members were dressed like they were gathering for the annual Pi Kappa Alpha chapter group photo rather than being convicted in what a prosecutor called the nation's largest-ever hazing prosecution.
One by one, the young men, most clad in ties, suits and jackets, marched up Friday afternoon before DeKalb County Judge Thomas Doherty. And one by one, after brief bench trials, they were found guilty of misdemeanors in the hazing death of David Bogenberger, a Northern Illinois University freshman who died after a night of drinking during a pledge initiation event in November 2012.
Then they sat as a group and listened as Bogenberger's parents, Ruth and Gary, read statements to the court. The couple has moved from northwest suburban Palatine to Florida, and they traveled back to Illinois to be at the hearing.
"On Nov. 2, 2012, 22 men pledging to be David's brothers for life ridiculed, tormented, poisoned and killed him," Ruth Bogenberger said. "The human decency that most of us would render to a sick animal, these self-proclaimed 'brothers' would not even extend to a young man they pledged a lifelong brotherhood to."
"You used his need for these to render him incapacitated and dead," the father said.
On the night he died, Bogenberger, 19, was taking part in a pledge initiation activity at the Pi Kappa Alpha house on the NIU campus. He and other pledges went from room to room in the house, answering questions posed by fraternity members and downing shots of alcohol.
The next morning, members discovered Bogenberger had died, and an autopsy would reveal that he had consumed so much alcohol that it caused his heart to stop. Tests showed a 0.40 blood-alcohol level — five times the limit considered under the influence for motorists.
(Excerpt) Read more at my.chicagotribune.com ...
How much of this was his own decision?
That is true but the fraternity members should have known better. There are all kinds of warnings against this kind of hazing. They should also be very aware of alcohol risks.
At least a few of them should have stood up and said it was a bad idea.
I think the answer “the system” rendered is “about half” given the fact none of the will spend a day in prison.
That said, probation is no cake walk. I’ve heard people say they wished they had just done the time.
Hope the parents are ready to lawyer up and sue the pants off the university, the fraternity, and all the boys and their families!
Solely his decision. I’m a frat boy myself and I knew what I was getting into. Sorry about the kid but don’t place blame on the entire frat culture except for 22 nimrods who couldn;t control themselves. and quit this nonsense about .40 alcohol level. I’ve seen countless pledges, especially the Filipinos who could drink 12 beers and feel nothing. They call it Fridays’ there...
They are getting off with a slap on the wrist.
He was underage and they were providing him alcohol.
They should be doing hard time.
It is hard to feel sympathy for someone who actively consumes enough booze to kill himself.
Almost every rape victim I've EVER read about tells of being tramatized and left incapacitated in SOME way.
Maybe Greek hazing is the reason for the the insanity in America in all her venues ... journalism, politics, I dream of money only ...
I think I'll meditate on this a while
ANY sort of criminal conviction means they can say goodby to getting the sort of job they went to college for.
Tragic. An extra wince out of me when I read the dead boy was one of a set of triplets...
I think the sentences are about right. I don’t believe anyone was truly malicious or trying to kill anyone. It was a rowdy, reckless party that got out of hand, but not something that hasn’t been done (probably) many times before at fraternities across the country, right up to and including the death of a pledge.
I even feel a little sorry for those convicted. They have the misfortune of having thrown a party right at that point in history when society decided to finally make an example of someone. C’mon, how many of us never laughed and cheered at that age when one of our friends guzzled down a large quantity of booze at a party?
Band members at FAMU killed one of their own, and they ended up with felonies.
Privileged white dudes in Yankeeland kill one of their own, and they end up with slaps on the wrist - wouldn’t want brand them for life.
Which victim got justice?
Privileged white dudes in Yankeeland kill one of their own, and they end up with slaps on the wrist - wouldn’t want brand them for life.]
Are you being serious??
The FAMU “hazing” death resulted from a mob actually beating the victim to death. He was punched, hit with sticks, kicked and stomped on repeatedly and continuously for many minutes on end by dozens of his fellow students.
I attended NIU for two years. Like many schools, drinking and partying is a big part of school life for some. For many of these, being in a frat house is the best way to party hard with new friends who won’t judge you but actually enable you to binge drink and engage in other hazardous activities for fun. It’s the primary reason why they join.
It’s too bad the kid died and this doesn’t lessen the guilt of the reckless idiots who put him up to it, but he did know what he was getting into and why. He gambled that he could handle a night of absolutely reckless drinking and lost.
All of it. No one forced him to down the booze. But the perpetrators lacked the judgment to know their own foolishness in leading him on. They slimed the PiKA reputation and their own.
"How'd ya like to be a Pie Kay Aye
To wear the Shield and Diamond ev'ry day,
To wear our colors, the garnet and the gold
Which all with honor hold
Since chivalrous days of knighthood bold
(My dearie)
Come and join the best fraternity.
Bear the sign of the Dagger and the Key
For "Phi Phi Kay Aye" will mean a lot to me
'Cause I'm a Pi - Kay - Aye!"
(Teddy Koppel's college frat, and mine. I'm one of the guys that put him through Hell Week, about 57 years ago.)////,p>
Actually, the parents need to look at themselves and take the blame for bringing up a kid smart enough to go to college but too stupid to decline asinine challenges to his manhood.
Just FYI, the City of Austin, with 11,000 employees, which is more than Houston, Dallas or San Antonio last time I checked, pronounces on their website that you are not prohibited by your criminal record from applying for any job.
So that makes the kid who was beaten to death deader than the kid who was coerced into drinking a fatal amount of alcohol?
I'd have to disagree. Pleges by definition do what they're told.
Poison Pill: I'd have to disagree. Pleges by definition do what they're told.
You can disagree all you want, but you're dead wrong. A pledge does only what he wants to do. I was a PiKA pledge ay Alpha Chiu Chapter 58 years ago, and if I didn't want to go through Hell Week, I could just pack my bags and walk out the door.
This guy could have done the same. In fact, rather than be depledged, I'll bet if he dropped a dime and talked with the Chapter's Alumnus Advisor, the SMC would have felt the axe for carrying the stress testing beyond a sane limit. And the pledge would not have been black-balled as a whiner.
But in any case, he was stupid to allow someone to convince him to poison himself with ethanol when walking away from it was certainly an option.
This wasn't social drinking among equals. The members had the upper hand. They were controlling the situation. They set up a round robin with drinks in each room. They knew what was coming. The pledges didn't. This was a coordinated effort.
So, they take him to the first room. They put a drink in front of him. Oh, one won't hurt. He downs it. Harass him some. Shake him up. Second room. He's flustered. 18 year old kid. Maybe his first shot of straight whiskey. I remember my first straight shot. It knocked me on my ass. By the second drink he's likely compromised. Were the members staying sober the whole time?
What a sandbag.
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