Hazing

A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the hazing trial of five Florida A&M University fraternity members after the jury said it was perplexed by an undefined legal term and unable to reach a verdict. The trial would have been the first to test a new state law that makes hazing a felony if it results in death or "serious bodily injury," but the law does not define the latter term.

When the green campus of Cal State Chico goes blue in the moonlight and local farm boys sneak out to drink cheap beer, the curious, racy side of this university is readily apparent. The heavy doors to the old houses on fraternity row, built in a sort of California Gothic style, are open or unlocked, and some lead to rooms and basements where nearly medieval hazing rituals have given the school its titillating reputation as dark, risky -- even dangerous.

Four young men in San Luis Obispo surrendered Thursday to face charges alleging that a fraternity hazing ritual caused the alcohol death of a university freshman from Texas, police said. Carson Starkey, 18, of Austin was found dead in December with a blood-alcohol level between 0.39% and 0.44%. Police said he had to drink a bag full of alcoholic beverages as part of the fraternity pledging process.

Prosecutors have charged eight members of "an outlaw or rogue" fraternity at Cal State Chico with involuntary manslaughter one month after they allegedly forced a pledge to drink so much water he died of water intoxication. After an intense night of hazing that authorities say bordered on torture, one of two pledges forced to drink numerous gallons of water and roll around in raw sewage in an icy cold basement, died the morning of Feb. 2.

Irvine police are investigating whether a college student who died after a weekend football game between pledges and UC Irvine fraternity members was a hazing victim. Kenny Luong, 19, of Rosemead died of head injuries about 2 p.m. Tuesday at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where several dozen friends and relatives had gathered to grieve. Luong was among a group of Cal Poly Pomona students pledging Lambda Phi Epsilon, a nationally recognized fraternity.

A year after she and a fellow student at Cal State L.A. drowned off Dockweiler State Beach in what her family claims was a sorority pledge-hazing ritual, Kristin High was remembered Tuesday as a mother, a Sunday school teacher and an advocate of civil rights. "Kristin was a beautiful girl," her mother, Patricia Strong-Fargas, told more than 200 people who gathered at a memorial service at Holy Chapel Baptist Church in Compton, where High taught Sunday school. "I miss her every day of my life."

Despite community furor about a pattern of hazing among Westlake High School wrestlers, detectives will probably never file criminal charges against perpetrators, authorities said Tuesday. "It doesn't look like there are going to be any arrests," said Sgt. Rod Mendoza of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. "Our investigators are going to speak with the victims and their parents before pressing any charges. We're going to do what's in the best interests of the children."

Westlake High School wrestlers engaged in a pattern of hazing and intimidation that included grabbing students, pinning them down and probing their buttocks with a broomstick dubbed "Pedro," sheriff's officials said Monday. Committed by a handful of wrestlers but witnessed by many, the incidents took place at the school between Sept. 8 and Dec. 8, but did not result in any physical injuries, according to Sgt. Rod Mendoza of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.

Members of a UC Irvine fraternity "poured it on" against pledges who were outnumbered 5 to 1 by the end of a weekend football game that led to the death of a 19-year-old student, a friend said Wednesday. Kenny Luong, who died Tuesday apparently from head injuries suffered in the game, was one of 12 Cal Poly Pomona students who applied to join Lambda Phi Epsilon, a nationally recognized fraternity.

Authorities investigating a videotaped hazing in which high school girls were pummeled and showered with feces, paint and garbage said Thursday that they are trying to determine whether parents supplied beer and some of the filth. They also said criminal charges were probable. The melee occurred Sunday during a touch football game between high school girls in a park in this well-to-do Chicago suburb. Seniors had invited juniors for what was described as an initiation into their senior year.