13 Charged in Hazing Death at Florida A&M
By ROBBIE BROWN
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Thirteen people were criminally charged Wednesday
with hazing in the death of a Florida A&M University marching band
member who was beaten after a football game last fall.
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Prosecutors announced wide-ranging charges in the case of Robert
Champion, 26, whose death in November turned a spotlight on the
prevalence of hazing within elite marching bands.
"Hazing is something that will continue to happen out of sight until a
student like Robert Champion pays the ultimate price," Lawson Lamar,
the state attorney for the Ninth Judicial Court, said at a news
conference.
More than 20 people will also face misdemeanor charges in other hazing
cases at Florida A&M that did not result in death, Mr. Lamar said. Of
those charged in Mr. Champion's death, 11 were charged with felonies
and 2 with misdemeanors.
Police officers across the state are working to arrest the suspects,
who have not yet been named. Felony hazing charges carry up to six
years in prison.
Mr. Champion died on Nov. 19 after being beaten, kicked and suffocated
by fellow students during a hazing ritual aboard a bus after a
football game against the school's rival, Bethune-Cookman University,
prosecutors said.
Under a tradition known as "Crossing Bus C," students would walk down
the aisle of the bus while classmates punched them. Mr. Champion was
found lifeless on the bus and pronounced dead at a hospital.
Florida passed a strict antihazing law in 2005 after a college student
drowned during a fraternity event. The law makes it easier for
prosecutors to treat hazing as a felony.
It would have been a legal challenge for prosecutors to prove that
band members were guilty of murder or manslaughter, said George R.
Dekle, a law professor at the University of Florida. With so many
students participating in the hazing, he said, it would be difficult
to persuade jurors that one student's actions caused Mr. Champion's
death.
There may also be civil charges brought in the case.
The Champion family's lawyer, Christopher M. Chestnut, has said he
wants the university and band director held responsible. The family
sued the company that owns the bus, saying the driver stood by while
hazing took place.
Mr. Champion, 26, a clarinet player from Decatur, Ga., had dreamed
since high school of attending Florida A&M, a 13,000-student
African-American school in Tallahassee.
The school's famed band, known as the Marching 100, has performed at
Super Bowl halftime shows and President Obama's inauguration. Mr.
Champion tried out twice before being selected as one of six drum
majors in 2010.
His parents say he was beaten so severely because he had voiced
concerns about the band's hazing culture. They also say he was bullied
because he was gay.
Since Mr. Champion's death, Florida A&M has faced a series of reports
of abuse and hazing.
In December, three band members were arrested for allegedly beating a
female classmate so severely that her thigh was broken and she had
blood clots in her legs. And last month, two music professors resigned
after being accused of participating in hazing fraternity pledges in
2010.
The university has suspended the band and said it might not perform
during this fall's football season.
The band's director, Julian White, was initially fired and then placed
on paid administrative leave.
The case has raised awareness at universities across the country that
hazing can bring criminal and legal repercussions, said Susan Lipkins,
a psychologist who specializes in college hazing.
"It's getting more common to see these issues handled in court," she
said. "Universities have turned a blind eye for a long time. But they
can no longer afford to do that."
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/us/13-charged-in-hazing-death-at-florida-am.html?_r=1&google_editors_picks=true
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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