AMHERST — Four indictments against a University of Massachusetts fraternity have been returned by a Hampshire County grand jury related to alleged hazing incidents and procuring alcohol for a minor last fall. One of the incidents led to a student being hospitalized for alcohol poisoning.
The indictments, announced by the Northwestern district attorney’s office Friday, charge the Theta Mu chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, located at 374 North Pleasant St. in Amherst, as a corporate entity following the November 2017 incidents. The district attorney’s office investigated the incidents with the Amherst Police Department.
Northwestern First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne said in an email to the Gazette that indictments against corporate entities are fairly unusual, but hardly unprecedented.
“It’s something you see more frequently coming out of the attorney general’s office than a local district attorney’s office,” Gagne wrote. “But I know this is not the first time that a fraternity has been indicted.”
He pointed to a 1998 indictment of a fraternity at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after a student died following an evening of heavy drinking.
An arraignment date in Hampshire Superior Court in Northampton has not yet been scheduled.
UMass spokesman Edward Blaguszewski called the alleged behavior by the Theta Mu chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity “deeply disturbing.”
“The University of Massachusetts Amherst condemns hazing by fraternities or any registered student organization,” Blaguszewski said in a statement, adding that the university fully cooperated with law enforcement officials, which led the investigation.
An interim suspension was put in place immediately after the incident was reported by Amherst Police last November, Blaguszewski said. This barred members from all official social and recruitment activities. With the indictments, Theta Mu chapter activities are suspended under provisions of the code of student conduct, he said.
More serious consequences may follow, Blaguszewski said.
“As part of the student conduct process one sanction that will be seriously evaluated is dissolving the university’s recognition of the chapter,” Blaguszewski said. “In partnership with the national organization, this would equate to revocation of the chapter’s charter, which would permanently strip the local chapter of official recognition.”
The two indictments charging procuring alcohol for a minor allege that the fraternity furnished alcohol to a person under 21 years of age. Each charge is punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 under state law.
The two indictments charging hazing allege the fraternity engaged “in conduct or a method of initiation into a student organization which did willfully or recklessly endanger the physical or mental health of any student or other person.” Each charge is punishable by a fine of up to $3,000, under state law.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
