A fraternity has been suspended for hazing that potentially contributed to a member’s suicide, but a state investigative grand jury determined there is no evidence to support criminal charges.
This news comes just a couple weeks after the family of the deceased Marquise Braham — who was an 18-year-old Altoona student before his suicide — filed a lawsuit against Penn State and Phi Sigma Kappa.
The office of attorney general Kathleen Kane announced the grand jury’s decision on Tuesday. The grand jury looked into the March 2014 suicide of Braham, who jumped from a building in Uniondale, N.Y., to determine if any fraternity members were criminally culpable.
The grand jury report cautioned that ‘it is imperative that we take steps to protect young college students who are experiencing a vulnerable stage in their lives,’ according to Kane.
‘We must do more to prevent these students from falling victim to dangerous situations when many are acclimating to being on their own for the first time,’ she said.
The grand jury heard from 11 witnesses, some of whom were Braham’s fellow fraternity members, before coming to their decision. Combining that testimony with the summaries of interviews with seven others and evidence including two suicide notes, it became clear that Braham was thinking about suicide long before his death. The grand jury determined that the hazing issue was fraternity-wide — not limited to just a few members.
‘Those factors, as well as the unwillingness or inability of former pledges to name persons allegedly responsible for the hazing, led the grand jury to decide against the recommendation of criminal charges for certain individuals,’ the press release said. The grand jury said that witnesses were unable to name the individuals responsible for the hazing, tying its hands when it came to filing criminal charges.
The grand jury report did explicitly state that the hazing activities were ‘extremely dangerous and put the health and safety of all pledges at risk,’ including locking pledges in closets, excessive drinking and vomiting, sleep deprivation, and forced fighting.
The Altoona campus fraternity has been suspended for six years as of Sep. 2014 in connection with Braham’s death and a resulting hazing investigation. Rich Braham, his father, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Penn State, the fraternity, two advisers, and two fraternity leaders last month.
“In my family’s opinion, both Penn State and Phi Sigma Kappa severely damaged our son, both physically and mentally, with hazing activities, and even worse, sought to allegedly cover it up by destroying evidence,” Braham said in a statement.
