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Topics: US News
Lisa McLoughlin
Police have issued arrest warrants for 46 fraternity members at the University of New Hampshire in connection to an April hazing incident.
Authorities have said the alleged incident involved new members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity’s New Hampshire Beta Chapter and took place at the SAE frat chapter house on April 13.
However, Durham police have not disclosed any additional information about the alleged attack.
According to WMUR, 10 members of the frat have been arrested and subsequently released. They are due in court on July 13.
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Erika Mantz, an UNH spokesperson, said in a statement Friday (June 10): “We have cooperated with police throughout the investigation and the fraternity was interim suspended pending the outcome of the police investigation.
“We take any allegation of hazing very seriously, and now that the police investigation is complete, we will be initiating a formal conduct process.”
The fraternity has also denounced 'all acts of hazing' and said the alleged incident was against its values in a statement.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon communications manager Dave Pascarella shared: “Sigma Alpha Epsilon denounces all acts of hazing and misconduct that do not represent the Fraternity’s values defined by our creed, The True Gentleman.”
Hazing - an act that involves severely humiliating, degrading, abusing, or endangering a person - is considered a misdemeanour charge by authorities. The charge is punishable by up to a $1,200 (£975) fine for individuals while organisations can be fined $20,000 (£16,238).
News of the latest frat furore comes as parents of a university student settled a lawsuit with 23 defendants after their son was left blind and unable to walk or talk as a result of hazed by a fraternity.
Danny Santulli, 19, suffered alcohol poisoning during an initiation ceremony at the University of Missouri Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house, known as Fiji, when he was a first-year student in October 2021.
According to the lawsuit filed by David Bianchi on behalf of Santulli's parents, the student was blindfolded and pressured to drink a full bottle of Tito’s vodka by his 'pledge father', Ryan Delanty, before being found unconscious at the frat house by another member.
Santulli was taken to hospital, where staff were forced to restart his heart after he suffered cardiac arrest. He registered a blood alcohol level five times the legal limit and ultimately suffered severe brain damage.
The 19-year-old was released from a rehabilitation hospital in Colorado this week and is now set to receive round-the-clock care from his parents at his home in Praire Eden, Minnesota.
In the time since Santulli's experience with Fiji, the University of Missouri has ousted the fraternity from the university campus for repeated violations and sanctioned 13 fraternity members.
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