Eight individuals have been indicted in reference to the dying final month of a sophomore at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, days after he had attended an off-campus fraternity occasion the place faculty officers have stated “alleged hazing activity” happened, prosecutors stated on Thursday.
A grand jury indicted the lads, seven of whom are Bowling Green college students, on expenses that included involuntary manslaughter and hazing in the death of Stone Foltz, 20, stated Paul A. Dobson, the Wood County prosecuting lawyer.
Most of the defendants, who vary in age from 19 to 23, have been additionally charged with a number of misdemeanor counts of offering alcohol to underage individuals and obstructing official enterprise. Two face expenses of reckless murder, the authorities stated.
Mr. Dobson stated in an announcement that “the multiple counts of hazing and failure to comply with underage alcohol laws reflect the allegation that those defendants participated in providing copious amounts of alcohol to Mr. Foltz and the other new members” of the college’s Pi Kappa Alpha chapter.
On March 4, Mr. Foltz, a enterprise main from Delaware, Ohio, attended a Pi Kappa Alpha occasion at an off-campus home, in response to Mr. Dobson’s workplace. Their attendance was necessary, Mr. Dobson stated.
The occasion was half of a “new-member initiation process” the place the brand new members, who have been generally known as “little brothers,” or “littles,” have been every given a bottle of “high-alcohol-content liquor,” Mr. Dobson said at a news conference on Thursday. Most of the brand new members have been underage, he stated.
“They were told that the tradition of the chapter was that the entire bottle — approximately 750 milliliters, what’s commonly referred to as a fifth — should be consumed by the ‘little’ at the event,” Mr. Dobson stated. Mr. Foltz, he stated, “consumed all or nearly all” of his bottle.
Mr. Foltz was later discovered unresponsive in his house in Bowling Green by a roommate, prosecutors stated.
When paramedics arrived, Mr. Foltz was not respiration, and the roommate was performing CPR, prosecutors stated. Mr. Foltz was taken to Wood County Hospital and was then transferred to Toledo Hospital, the place he died on March 7.
The county coroner dominated that his dying was an accident “as the result of a fatal level of alcohol intoxication during a hazing incident,” in response to Mr. Dobson’s workplace.
Mr. Foltz’s blood alcohol degree was “over four times the legal limit,” Mr. Dobson stated on the information convention.
Earlier this month, the college, which is 20 miles south of Toledo, announced that it had expelled the fraternity after putting it on an interim suspension.
“Bowling Green State University is appreciative of the hard work and diligence done by the prosecutor and a grand jury to seek justice and hold those accountable in the tragic death of student Stone Foltz,” Alex Solis, a college spokesman, stated on Thursday.
The college referred inquires concerning the indictment on Thursday to the Wood County prosecutor’s workplace.
The fraternity’s guardian group stated in an announcement on Thursday that “the actions of any individuals found responsible are unacceptable and do not align with Pi Kappa Alpha’s values.”
“The Fraternity’s standards are clear on the conduct expected of members and emphasize treating all people with dignity and respect,” it stated.
In an announcement issued by their legal professionals, Mr. Foltz’s household stated that the fees have been “one step in the right direction, adding that “swift action also needs to be taken by government officials and university presidents nationwide to abolish fraternity hazing.”
“We are living every parent’s worst nightmare and will not be at peace until fraternity hazing is seen for what it truly is — abuse,” the household assertion stated.
The first-degree manslaughter cost carries a most penalty of 11 years in jail, Mr. Dobson stated. Third-degree felony manslaughter carries a most penalty of three years in jail, as do “reckless homicide, tampering with evidence and obstructing justice,” Mr. Dobson stated.
The prosecutor’s workplace labored with the Bowling Green Police Division and Bowling Green State University on the investigation.
