“Florida charges 13 in death of FAMU drum major”

Taken from: http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/02/justice/florida-famu-charges/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

May 2, 2012

Florida authorities have brought felony hazing charges against 13 people in the death of Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion, a prosecutor announced Wednesday.

“Robert Champion died as a result of being beaten,” State Attorney Lawson Lamar said. “His death is not linked to one sole strike but is attributed to multiple blows.”

The attorney for the victim’s family said the death was murder.

Joyce Dawley, the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Orlando division, said one person was in custody and one was being sought out of state. Sheriff’s deputies and the FDLE were looking for the other 11 within Florida, she said.

The 13 face felony hazing charges. There were also 20 misdemeanor charges filed in the case, but it was not immediately clear how those specifically applied to the suspects.

Champion collapsed in Orlando on the bus, which was carrying members of FAMU’s Marching 100 after a November football game that included a halftime performance by the group.

Medical examiners ruled his death a homicide, saying he died “within an hour of a hazing incident during which he suffered multiple blunt trauma blows to his body.” ”This is a homicide by hazing,” Lamar said.

The case built by investigators “does not support a charge of murder,” Lamar said in Orlando. But it fits a state law that makes a hazing that results in death a felony with possible prison time up to five years. Under that law, the prosecution “only has to prove two things: participation in hazing and a death.” ”His death is not linked to one single strike,” the prosecutor said of Champion.

Attorney Chris Chestnut said Champion’s family doesn’t want to see the futures of students destroyed, but “they want accountability for the murder of their child.”

Authorities declined to name those charged because most were still being sought.

Some university band members have said Champion, 26, died after taking part in an annual rite of passage called “Crossing Bus C,” an initiation process in which pledges attempt to run down the center aisle from the front door of the bus to the back while being punched, kicked and assaulted by senior members. An autopsy found “extensive contusions of his chest, arms, shoulder and back,” as well as “evidence of crushing of areas of subcutaneous fat,” which is the fatty tissue directly under the skin.

The death prompted the university board of trustees to approve an anti-hazing plan that includes an independent panel of experts to investigate.

“Parents say to sue after Florida band drum major dies”

Taken from: http://news.yahoo.com/parents-sue-florida-band-drum-major-dies-210518357.html

November 28, 2011

TALLAHASSEE, Fla (Reuters) – The parents of the Florida A&M University drum major who died after suspected hazing said on Monday they will file a lawsuit against the school to stop what they say is a violent initiation rite. ”This is not going to go away like other incidents,” said the family’s attorney, Christopher Chestnut. “The culture of hazing within theFAMU band has got to be eradicated.”

Robert Champion, 26, died November 19 after being rushed to a hospital following a performance by the internationally renowned FAMU Marching “100″ band at the annual Florida Classic football game against Bethune-Cookman University in Orlando. Champion, a music major from Atlanta who served as one of six drum majors for the 375-member Marching “100″ band, vomited and complained that he could not breathe in a band bus in the parking lot of a hotel after the game.

The medical examiner’s office said a cause of death will not be known for about 10 weeks, but local law enforcement officials suspect that Champion died following a hazing incident aboard the bus. ”What’s tragic is that this could happen to another kid,” said Champion’s father, Robert Champion Sr.”You go to school to become a productive citizen and pursue something you love to do. You don’t expect this.”

Pam Champion said her son was a laid-back, gentle young man who was involved in his church, and did community outreach. He tried to help new members adjust to life among the world-famous Marching “100,” known for its high-stepping, high-energy dance routines. “He loved the band,” she said. Their attorney said the family hopes the lawsuit, which has not yet been filed, will shed light on a practice that they contend has been tolerated not just within the marching band or at FAMU, but at bands, fraternities and colleges across the country.

PAST PROBLEMS

Champion’s death is the most recent hazing-related incident involving the Marching “100″ and the university.

A band member won a $1.8 million verdict in a civil battery suit against five band members for a 2001 hazing incident in which he was beaten so badly his kidneys shut down. The student settled the suit out of court with FAMU for an undisclosed sum.

In 2006, a pair of FAMU fraternity students went to jail for a hazing incident that left the victim so bruised from paddling he required surgery.

A 2005 Florida law, passed after the death of a University of Miami student, bolstered penalties for hazing rituals that lead to great bodily harm or death.

After Champion’s death, FAMU President James Ammons suspended the band’s activities and fired director Julian White, who has led the band since 1998. Ammons created a task force to look into hazing at the historically black college. White wants his job back and has hired Tallahassee lawyer Chuck Hobbs, who said the tenured FAMU professor has been made a scapegoat despite White’s repeated efforts over the past 13 years to address hazing. Those efforts included a decision in November to suspend approximately 30 band members for hazing activities earlier this fall, Hobbs said. ”This is a knee-jerk reaction by the administration.” Hobbs told Reuters on Monday. “It could be at least three months before the medical examiner’s report is released…It is extremely premature to make this decision.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death. Last week, Governor Rick Scott also ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct an investigation “to assure that the circumstances leading to Mr. Champion’s death become fully known, and that if there are individuals directly or indirectly responsible for this death, they are appropriately brought to justice and held accountable.”