Following an alleged hazing event at the University of New Hampshire, twelve more Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) members have come forward.
Around 4 o’clock on Monday, officers from the Durham police department detained 12 SAE fraternity members.
41 fraternity members had been detained as of June 10; five had not yet turned themselves in.
Police filed arrest warrants for 46 frat boys earlier this month in connection with an alleged hazing incident at the University of New Hampshire.
The alleged hazing incident happened on April 13 at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) chapter house in Durham, New Hampshire, which is located at 28 Madbury Road.
The specifics of the hazing incident, the number of claimed victims, and whether anyone was hurt are all unknown.
Members of the University of New Hampshire called it a “potential student hazing incident,” which Durham police were made aware of.
At 8:30 am on July 13, 39 members are scheduled to be arraigned at the Dover District Division of the 7th Circuit Court.
Officials stated that five more defendants are expected to be arraigned on August 10.
According to David Holmstock, PIO and Deputy Chief of the Durham Police Department, “there were no deaths associated” to the alleged hazing episode.
In an earlier interview, Holmstock stated, “We are not sending out arrests one at a time as this will probably drag on piecemeal over the summer as they turn themselves in.”
More arrests are anticipated, Holmstock told DailyMail.com on Tuesday.
The Stafford District Attorney’s office is presently looking into the situation, according to Holmstock, who stated that they were unable to provide any other information.
The accusations of hazing are regarded as class B misdemeanors. If found guilty, each of the 46 fraternity members could be fined up to $1,200.
Additionally accused of student hazing by an institution, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, New Hampshire Beta Chapter could be fined up to $20,000.
On June 7, Durham police issued warrants for the fraternity members’ detention.
On June 10, Durham police detained 10 SAE fraternity members. Another 19 members of the same fraternity were detained four days later. Since then, everyone has been released.
The Strafford County Attorney’s Office’s deputy county attorney, Emily C. Garod, told DailyMail.com that the misdemeanor carries “no potential jail time.”
The only accusations that we anticipate from this occurrence are those of student hazing, according to Garod.
According to New Hampshire law, we are able to prosecute everyone who participates in hazing, as well as anyone who witnesses it but does not report it. These three categories apply to the 46 people accused, who are members of the fraternity SAE.
The fraternity has since been suspended, according to University of New Hampshire spokesman Erika Mantz.
According to the news source, Mantz stated, “We were made aware of the occurrence by the fraternity’s national headquarters and immediately alerted the Durham Police Department.”
The fraternity was temporarily suspended pending the outcome of the police inquiry, and we have cooperated with them throughout the investigation. We take any allegations of hazing very seriously, and we will be starting a formal conduct process now that the police inquiry is over.
A spokesperson for the national Sigma Alpha Epsilon organization, David Pascarella, told Fox 13 that the organization had ordered the chapter to cease and desist after opening an investigation into the claims prior to the police opening their own investigation.
He continued, “Sigma Alpha Epsilon completely cooperates with the local authorities’ inquiry and has urged all of our members to do the same. We repudiate all acts of hazing and misbehavior that do not match the Fraternity’s principles established by our credo, The True Gentleman.”
In the long, tragic history of college hazing in America, more than 300 young people lost their lives in tragic incidents while being initiated into Greek life.
The hazing of Danny Santulli in October 2021, a 19-year-old who survived serious alcohol poisoning but is now blind and wheelchair-bound as a result of it, was the most recent instance to shock the nation.
David Bianchi, the attorney for Danny’s family, called it the worst case of hazing injury the nation has ever seen.
After bringing a lawsuit against two of the frat members responsible, he told DailyMail.com last week, “You can’t be more hurt and yet be alive.” Danny lived, but more than 200 other children did not.
Because universities, fraternities, and sororities quickly shroud incidents in secrecy, there is no authoritative database tracking hazing-related fatalities or injuries.
Hank Nuwer, a writer who has authored numerous books and studied hazing, has a count that comes the closest to an official total.
He found that between 1838 and 1999, there were 179 hazing fatalities in American colleges, and another 101 between 2000 and 2022.
After schools reopened in 2021 after a year-long closure thanks to COVID, three boys perished. In 2020 there were no hazing fatalities, and so far in 2022 there have been none.
Alcohol overdose mortality have increased during the past few years. The victim of all three suspected hazing deaths in 2021 passed away from severe alcohol poisoning.
2020 saw a brief lull in hazing fatalities as a result of college campuses closing due to COVID-19.
There are concerns that hazing may increase as more students rush back to school, but experts warn that this will be increasingly difficult to control as more students take the rites off-campus and away from the schools that oversee them.
The frat members who have been arrested include: Matthew Achin, 20, of Mansfield, Massachusetts; Sean Demarkis, 20, of Beverly, Massachusetts; Michael Dutton, 20, of Andover, Massachusetts; Patrick Haney, 20, of Andover, Massachusetts; Matthew Harding, 20, of Lexington, Massachusetts; Edward Murray, 21, of Weymouth, Massachusetts; Ryan Reisner, 18, of Beford, New Hampshire; Cameron Avila, 19, Beverly, Massachusetts; Ryan Burkett, 20, South Easton, Massachusetts; Brennan Hynes, 18, of Bradford, Connecticut; Patrick Stafstrom, 20, of Cromwell, Connecticut and Beau Vernet, 20, of Lexington, Massachusetts.
Brendan Akpan, 21, of Springfield, New Hamphsire; Nikolaos Beka, 19, of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts; Nikolas Boruvka, 20, of Westwood, Massachusetts; Joseph Cleary, 20, of Plymouth, New Hampshire; Jason Crocker, 19, of Malden, Massachusetts; Anthony Gionta, 19, of Baldwin Place, NY; Tucker Guard, 20, of Marion, Massachusetts; Charlie Kavanagh, 19, of Sudbury, Massachusetts; Thomas Langlois, 20, Windham, New Hampshire; Nore Mendes, 19, of Weymouth, Massachusetts; Christopher Pacios, 19, of Northborough, Massachusetts; Samuel Patterson, 20, of Avon, Connecticut; Tyler Prout, 19, of Grafton, Massachusetts; Matthew Ray, 18, of Sudbury, Massachusetts; Simon Roy, 20. of Portsmouth, Rhode Island; Kevin Russell, 19, of Ashland, Massachusetts; Matthew Smeltzer, 20, of Harwich, Massachusetts; Joshua Tobin, 18, of Bedford, New Hampshire, and Austin Wackrow, 19, of Woburn, Massachusetts.
Seth Burdick, 19, of South Hampton, New Hampshire; Benjamin Chase, 18, of Hampton, New Hampshire; Robert Doherty, 19, of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire; Daniel Fachiol, 21 of Hampden, Maine; Charles Farrah, 20, of Grafton, Massachusetts; Robert Hardy, 21, of Atkinson, New Hampshire; Oliver Jacques, 19, of Auburn, Maine; Gabriel Kwan, 21 of Winchester, Massachusetts; Mason Steele, 19, of Williston, Vermont and Colby Travis, 19, of Pelham, New Hampshire.
Adam Oakes, 19, passed away in February 2021, allegedly as a result of orders to consume a huge bottle of whiskey at a Virginia Commonwealth University rush party for the Delta Chi fraternity.
When Oakes was accepted into the Delta Chi fraternity as a student at the university, he went to a party on February 26, 2021, where he would meet his “big brother.”
There, according to his family, he was instructed to down a sizable bottle of whiskey before passing out on a couch at an off-campus apartment.
He was discovered dead the following morning, and the chief medical examiner’s office determined that alcohol poisoning was the cause of death.
Eight students were later charged with hazing a fellow student unlawfully, and four of them were also accused of purchasing and supplying alcohol to a juvenile.
Seven were detained at the Richmond Justice Center without bail. In Prince William County, the eighth person was detained and later freed on bond.
According to Northern Virginia Magazine, 11 witnesses to his death were charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor and three additional people have been indicted in connection with the death.
Instead of serving a year in prison and paying $2,500 in fines, those 11 people were forced to perform community service, which included giving speeches about the risks of hazing at other schools, talking about what happened to Adam, and getting in touch with the Oakes family to explain their actions were wrong.
The university also declared that it will stop new member recruiting and publish misconduct cases publicly. Alcohol would also be prohibited at fraternity and sorority gatherings.
In June, it also kicked the fraternity out.
Phat Nguyen, 21, also died after a terrible night of drinking at the Pi Alpha Phi off-campus fraternity house in East Lansing, Michigan, nine months after Adam did.
He and three other victims, who were also pledges at Michigan State University and were transferred to a nearby hospital but survived, were discovered unconscious in their fraternity house covered in vomit and urine.
Nguyen’s death had been blamed on three students.
Witnesses claim to have discovered Phat “stripped to his shorts” and with writing on his back in a “dirty” basement room.
He was one of four pledges who fainted that night and needed to be brought to the hospital; the other three were still alive despite being discovered “convulsing” and with blood flowing from their noses.
As we down the steps into the basement, the smell of pee hit me before we had gone all the way down. It has incredible strength. An unnamed witness claimed, “The air got incredibly thick.”
The unnamed source claimed that many individuals were aware of what was taking place and that children would alternately enter the basement to observe and make fun of the unconscious pledges.
On their backs, the word “simp” was written.
After being released on bond, the three suspects are now scheduled to appear in court once more on June 23.
Additionally, Stone Foltz perished last year at Ohio’s Bowling Green University as a result of binge drinking.
He was made to consume the full bottle of bourbon.
Troy Henricksen, 24, and Jacob Krinn, 21, were both accused of being involved in his killing and are currently on trial.
Additionally, Danny Santulli, 19, who had consumed beer and vodka, stopped breathing after falling asleep on a couch at his fraternity home and sustained brain damage as a result.
During a “Pledge Dad Reveal Night” in October 2021, shocking security video showed a University of Missouri student being forced to consume a 1.75-liter bottle of Tito’s vodka and beer through a tube.
It depicts Danny and the other pledges being brought down a staircase in the fraternity home as they are blindfolded and shirtless.
Later, he is forced to drink beer through a tube, after which he collapses, passes out on a table, and is later seen slumped on a couch.
Additionally, when his fraternity members saw how serious his condition was, they tried to load him into a car so they could take him to the hospital.
He had suffered major brain damage by the time he arrived at the hospital because he had stopped breathing for an extended period of time. He is now blind, mute, and unable to move.
Sam Gandhi and Alec Wetzler, two individual fraternity boys, are being sued by his family after they previously sued 23 parties, including the fraternity, and won their case with an undisclosed settlement.
In addition, they demand that the two be charged with felonies.
Gandhi is still a student while Wetzler has been charged with a misdemeanor for furnishing alcohol to a minor, and he is no longer enrolled at the school.
Gandhi allegedly witnessed Danny’s precarious situation but did nothing to aid until it was too late, according to the family’s lawsuit.
Additionally, Danny Santulli, 19, who had consumed beer and vodka, stopped breathing after falling asleep on a couch at his fraternity home and sustained brain damage as a result.
During a “Pledge Dad Reveal Night” in October 2021, shocking security video showed a University of Missouri student being forced to consume a 1.75-liter bottle of Tito’s vodka and beer through a tube.
It depicts Danny and the other pledges being brought down a staircase in the fraternity home as they are blindfolded and shirtless.
Later, he is forced to drink beer through a tube, after which he collapses, passes out on a table, and is later seen slumped on a couch.
Additionally, when his fraternity members saw how serious his condition was, they tried to load him into a car so they could take him to the hospital.
He had suffered major brain damage by the time he arrived at the hospital because he had stopped breathing for an extended period of time. He is now blind, mute, and unable to move.
Sam Gandhi and Alec Wetzler, two individual fraternity boys, are being sued by his family after they previously sued 23 parties, including the fraternity, and won their case with an undisclosed settlement.
In addition, they demand that the two be charged with felonies.
Gandhi is still a student while Wetzler has been charged with a misdemeanor for furnishing alcohol to a minor, and he is no longer enrolled at the school.
Gandhi allegedly witnessed Danny’s precarious situation but did nothing to aid until it was too late, according to the family’s lawsuit.
Congressmen are currently considering legislation that would require any college that accepts federal student assistance funds to gather data and publish reports concerning hazing-related misconduct twice a year.
The reports must outline what transpired and list any penalties imposed on the organization.
Additionally, the measure mandates that the institutions notify campus police and law enforcement officials within 72 hours of learning about any allegations of hazing that result in significant bodily injury or have the potential to result in serious bodily injury.
In 13 states, hazing is already a criminal offense if it results in significant injury or death.
Florida, Texas, California, Utah, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and New Jersey are among those states.
There are no hazing laws in Alaska, Hawaii, New Mexico, South Dakota, Wyoming, or Montana.