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Five face hazing charges
FAMU students accused of beating fraternity pledges
By Daniela Velazquez
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
Five members of a Florida A&M University fraternity were arrested Monday night on felony hazing charges after students pledging to the fraternity said they were brutally beaten with broken canes, smacked and taunted until some passed out.
Marcus Jones, whose father reported the alleged hazing in March, was one of as many as 26 students beaten during a series of Kappa Alpha Psi initiation incidents from Feb. 23 to Feb. 28, according to a probable-cause report from the Leon County Sheriff's Office. Jones, 19, a sophomore from Decatur, Ga., had surgery March 7 for wounds to his buttocks, which required 25 stitches and a drainage tube, according to the report. Jones also suffered a ruptured eardrum and will not regain 100 percent hearing in his left ear, according to the report.
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Arrested were senior Michael Morton, 23, senior Brian Bowman, 23, junior Cory Gray, 22, sophomore Marcus B. Hughes, 20, and pharmacy student Jason Harris, 25. They are the state's first arrests on hazing charges after the passage of a June 2005 law making hazing that causes serious bodily injury a third-degree felony. The undergraduate Alpha Xi chapter of the fraternity has been suspended from campus until 2013.
Only Morton could be contacted for comment Tuesday, and he referred questions to his attorney. The fraternity members are being represented by Tallahassee attorneys William Waters and Brian Wolk.
"I anticipate they will enter a plea of not guilty," Waters said. "Their side of the story will be told in time."
Waters and Wolk were hired as legal counsel to the fraternity last week and to the five individuals on Tuesday.
The arrests come after an investigation by the FAMU Police Department that was then handed off to the Sheriff's Office. Twenty-six people were issued subpoenas, and there could be more arrests, said Maj. Michael Wood.
"As this case develops, we feel like we have a criminal case for perjury," he said.
Several pledges told investigators that they were part of a series of beatings. Jones said that at times the students were hit so hard that the wooden canes broke. The Kappas would pick up the broken pieces and tape them together, making canes as thick as baseball bats, according to the report.
The pledges said they blindfolded themselves with maxi pads and stockings and were driven to off-campus locations including to what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. The students were lined up, and Jones said that 10 of his "line brothers" passed out during the hazing, according to the report.
Some of the pledges could only identify the fraternity members involved by their nicknames, but several confirmed Morton as "Big Daddy Go 4 Play," Bowman as "Daddy Prototype," Gray as "Daddy Knowledge," Hughes as "Daddy Young Buck" and Harris as "Daddy Swagger," according to the report.
Castell Bryant, interim president of FAMU, said the school will wait for the Sheriff's Office to conclude its investigation.
"The school has already done what it's going to do at this point. We have suspended the Kappas from this university for seven years." The next step will come after the criminal investigation concludes.
"Whatever the handbook requires, we are going to do," Bryant said.
All five students could be placed on immediate suspension, depending on what the administration determines after receiving a report from the State Attorney's Office, said LaNedra Carroll, FAMU spokeswoman. Suspension could jeopardize the seniors' graduation.
"I can't speculate on what the report will tell," Carroll said. "Once we receive the report, the decisions will be made."
The law under which the five were charged was named for Chad Meredith, a University of Miami student who drowned in a 2001 Kappa Sigma hazing.
"This would be the first hazing incident under the Meredith act, if they prosecute to the fullest extent," said Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach. He helped create the law. "I'm anticipating the outcome of the charges and how Florida's anti-hazing law stands up to challenge."
Kappa Alpha Psi's regional governing body, called the Southern Province, has placed the Alpha Xi chapter on inactive status since March 3, when the province issued a cease-and-desist order. The fraternity is conducting its own investigation, said Ronald Range, province polemarch, or president.
"Until the investigation is resolved, (the chapter is) placed on inactive status, which means that they cannot function as an organization on or off the campus of Florida A&M University," Range said.
If the allegations are proved true, the students could face expulsion from the fraternity and a fine, Range said.
One scholar says hazing is a rampant problem and that FAMU is not alone.
"What happened in Tallahassee is not an anomaly," said Ricky Jones, an expert on hazing in historically black Greek organizations. Jones is the chair of the Pan-African Studies Department at the University of Louisville and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi.
He said hazing is often supported by the organization.
"It's like, hey, you should not haze, wink. We're not ahazing organization, wink," he said. "They're not doing anything to stop it outside of a few rhetorical proclamations."
Mark Jones, Marcus Jones' father, feels lukewarm about the arrests. Marcus Jones is being represented by Tallahassee attorney Dawn Whitehurst of the firm Knowles and Randolph.
"Nobody wins in this sort of situation," Mark Jones said.
But for him, the real answer to the solution is still to come.
"Right now, arrest is one thing," he said. "Let's see what happens in the court."
Contact reporter Daniela Velazquez at (850) 599-2161 or dvelazquez@tallahassee.com.
Originally published April 12, 2006
FAMU students accused of beating fraternity pledges
By Daniela Velazquez
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
Five members of a Florida A&M University fraternity were arrested Monday night on felony hazing charges after students pledging to the fraternity said they were brutally beaten with broken canes, smacked and taunted until some passed out.
Marcus Jones, whose father reported the alleged hazing in March, was one of as many as 26 students beaten during a series of Kappa Alpha Psi initiation incidents from Feb. 23 to Feb. 28, according to a probable-cause report from the Leon County Sheriff's Office. Jones, 19, a sophomore from Decatur, Ga., had surgery March 7 for wounds to his buttocks, which required 25 stitches and a drainage tube, according to the report. Jones also suffered a ruptured eardrum and will not regain 100 percent hearing in his left ear, according to the report.
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Arrested were senior Michael Morton, 23, senior Brian Bowman, 23, junior Cory Gray, 22, sophomore Marcus B. Hughes, 20, and pharmacy student Jason Harris, 25. They are the state's first arrests on hazing charges after the passage of a June 2005 law making hazing that causes serious bodily injury a third-degree felony. The undergraduate Alpha Xi chapter of the fraternity has been suspended from campus until 2013.
Only Morton could be contacted for comment Tuesday, and he referred questions to his attorney. The fraternity members are being represented by Tallahassee attorneys William Waters and Brian Wolk.
"I anticipate they will enter a plea of not guilty," Waters said. "Their side of the story will be told in time."
Waters and Wolk were hired as legal counsel to the fraternity last week and to the five individuals on Tuesday.
The arrests come after an investigation by the FAMU Police Department that was then handed off to the Sheriff's Office. Twenty-six people were issued subpoenas, and there could be more arrests, said Maj. Michael Wood.
"As this case develops, we feel like we have a criminal case for perjury," he said.
Several pledges told investigators that they were part of a series of beatings. Jones said that at times the students were hit so hard that the wooden canes broke. The Kappas would pick up the broken pieces and tape them together, making canes as thick as baseball bats, according to the report.
The pledges said they blindfolded themselves with maxi pads and stockings and were driven to off-campus locations including to what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. The students were lined up, and Jones said that 10 of his "line brothers" passed out during the hazing, according to the report.
Some of the pledges could only identify the fraternity members involved by their nicknames, but several confirmed Morton as "Big Daddy Go 4 Play," Bowman as "Daddy Prototype," Gray as "Daddy Knowledge," Hughes as "Daddy Young Buck" and Harris as "Daddy Swagger," according to the report.
Castell Bryant, interim president of FAMU, said the school will wait for the Sheriff's Office to conclude its investigation.
"The school has already done what it's going to do at this point. We have suspended the Kappas from this university for seven years." The next step will come after the criminal investigation concludes.
"Whatever the handbook requires, we are going to do," Bryant said.
All five students could be placed on immediate suspension, depending on what the administration determines after receiving a report from the State Attorney's Office, said LaNedra Carroll, FAMU spokeswoman. Suspension could jeopardize the seniors' graduation.
"I can't speculate on what the report will tell," Carroll said. "Once we receive the report, the decisions will be made."
The law under which the five were charged was named for Chad Meredith, a University of Miami student who drowned in a 2001 Kappa Sigma hazing.
"This would be the first hazing incident under the Meredith act, if they prosecute to the fullest extent," said Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach. He helped create the law. "I'm anticipating the outcome of the charges and how Florida's anti-hazing law stands up to challenge."
Kappa Alpha Psi's regional governing body, called the Southern Province, has placed the Alpha Xi chapter on inactive status since March 3, when the province issued a cease-and-desist order. The fraternity is conducting its own investigation, said Ronald Range, province polemarch, or president.
"Until the investigation is resolved, (the chapter is) placed on inactive status, which means that they cannot function as an organization on or off the campus of Florida A&M University," Range said.
If the allegations are proved true, the students could face expulsion from the fraternity and a fine, Range said.
One scholar says hazing is a rampant problem and that FAMU is not alone.
"What happened in Tallahassee is not an anomaly," said Ricky Jones, an expert on hazing in historically black Greek organizations. Jones is the chair of the Pan-African Studies Department at the University of Louisville and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi.
He said hazing is often supported by the organization.
"It's like, hey, you should not haze, wink. We're not ahazing organization, wink," he said. "They're not doing anything to stop it outside of a few rhetorical proclamations."
Mark Jones, Marcus Jones' father, feels lukewarm about the arrests. Marcus Jones is being represented by Tallahassee attorney Dawn Whitehurst of the firm Knowles and Randolph.
"Nobody wins in this sort of situation," Mark Jones said.
But for him, the real answer to the solution is still to come.
"Right now, arrest is one thing," he said. "Let's see what happens in the court."
Contact reporter Daniela Velazquez at (850) 599-2161 or dvelazquez@tallahassee.com.
Originally published April 12, 2006
