[Applause] Oh W Yeah Oh Good morning everybody I am redoing this video because streamyard decided to cut off the most important part of the video um with some very good information welcome to Once Upon a Crime time I’m your host Tommy Jude and welcome my crime family I love you and
I’ve missed you the last few days I hope you all had a awesome great Thanksgiving Day indigenous day and turkey day and however you word it um should be indigenous day anyway they messed up and YouTube okayed the video and streamyard didn’t so I am going to be uploading
Onto YouTube using YouTube um which is different than what I’m used to uh you won’t have live chat like you normally will you’ll have comments as all so just wanted to let you know and fill you in what’s going on this is a I think a a very good informative video
So um I thought I would let you all know and we’ll get on with the video thank you much and you guys all have a great and awesome Day what were you thinking about your future in that moment nothing but the best nothing but a bright future head picture show Nicholas Macio left for college a bright-eyed young man ready to take on the the world but he didn’t come home with that same shine that spark
Nicholas like it it’s it’s not there anymore that gleam in his eye his hopeful gleam is gone one of many casualties of a traumatic brain injury he suffered at Florida State University that punch changed your life forever forever a punch that knocked Nicholas out and knocked his family’s World off
Its axis it happened April 2018 Nicholas was attending his first meeting as a brother of Al Epsilon piie when he was picked for a long-standing fraternity tradition he’d never heard of a dubious Honor Court Records label scumbag of the week he was expecting the standard punishment a literal slap in the face
Cocked his his fist back and hit me as hard as he couldn’t um I I got knocked out completely on contact I fell straight back my head hit the the pavement cement floor it took four brothers to carry Nicholas’s unconscious body into the car and 5 days for him to
Be discharged out of the Intensive Care Unit of a Florida hospital where he was treated for a fractured skull and a brain bleed that caused permanent damage it broke me Josie and just Um can you pause just for a second absolutely what I want to say um what happened inside this fraternity house put Nicholas’s life on Paw for half a decade his family sued the young man who h him six of his fraternity brothers and the national fraternity claiming
Leadership at AE Pi knew about hazing problems at the Florida state chapter that had gotten them officially booted from the University just 3 months before Nicholas’s incident but they still took no action to enforce their own policies and protect him they kind of like to go under the assumption that even though
We’re a national fraternity we’re not responsible for what our local chapters do like that’s their position that they’re put in and I think that kind of skates them away from responsibility most of the time it’s a tactic our national investigative team discovered is standard operating procedure in an
Industry responsible for at least 67 hazing deaths and countless injuries in the last 23 years we spent months interviewing experts and reviewing lawsuit filings tax records and industry documents uncovering a complex system where National fraternities separate themselves from their local chapters to protect against legal and financial liability in worst case scenarios all
While profiting off a risk they’re well aware of the top of the fraternity industry has lots of very smart men that take the advice of lawyers with a great deal of experience on how to evade responsibility for the injury and death they cause Doug feberg has his own experience representing dozens of hazing
Victims pulling back the curtain on a fraternity system that he says you uses secretive schemes and tactics that allow National organizations to assert control over local chapters when it suits them while also washing their hands of responsibility when it doesn’t how they’ve done it is outlined in a
Confidential memo he supplied to our team from a meeting of the fraternity Executives Association more than 10 years ago is it a Smoking Gun it’s a gun they never wanted to be seen the memo outlines a strategy called conscious separation where National fraternity ities are encouraged to limit their
Awareness and oversight of what happens at their local houses because more involvement equals more potential liability with Executives told prior knowledge of improper acts is fatal conscious separation is a charade created by the lawyers for the national fraternities but is it just the appearance of Separation it’s the appearance of Separation when separation
Is necessary to prevent individuals who’ve been hurt or killed from from recovering against the entity that should be paying the question of who pays when a fraternity member is harmed by hazing or alcohol is its own complicated issue and it ties back to a cult classic from decades
Ago in the late’ 70s and early 80s the movie Animal House put frat culture front and center glamorizing binge drinking and hazing among Brothers insurance companies insiders say wanted out of the family fast essentially abandoning the industry as alcohol and hazing related deaths skyrocketed you know we needed to do something David
Eastlick was a brother at Delta Kappa Epsilon or deck in the 1960s he now testifies against fraternities as an expert witness in hazing cases for decades he was the Executive Director of deak’s National Organization and part of the movement to solve the industry’s crisis by baning frats together to
Create their own insurance system eventually controlling and providing the liability coverage for local chapters en rolling in the process Prof it gave leverage to the um the fraternities that they for the first time they could really collect money from the undergraduates and and count on their loyalty and get their money it’s big
Money tax records from 63 fraternities We examined show many of their insurance premiums are close to or exceed $1 million a year with the cost covered by the college students from each local chapter who have no choice but to pay if they want to be a member one fraternity
Tax records show has almost $20 million in assets derived in part from insurance premiums another more than 7 million so now you have a circumstance where the national fraternities actually profit on the insurance companies that they own related to the risk that they create and refused to change and when something
Goes wrong and someone gets hurt that policy generally gives full coverage to the National Organization but leaves the college students who paid virtually unprotected it’s meaningless insurance they are absolutely paying for nothing those insurance policies we discovered are based on riskmanagement guidelines that would void liability coverage if
Violated our team examined some policies publicly available online and found Provisions prohibiting what experts would say is fairly common fraternity Behavior including drinking games supplying alcohol to miners the purchase of kegs the use of alcohol on traditionally deadly ritual nights like bid night and haast it’s essentially a big joke a joke
Orchestrated by the national fraternities that create and Implement those policies but then also claim the rules can’t be enforced at a high level they’ve been able to convince courts in various jurisdictions that they’re somehow unable to control the day-to-day operations of the fraternity which is just Absolute Total Bullit the lobbying
Group that represents fraternities nationally wouldn’t do an interview but says its members are committed to health and safety is evid evidenced by those riskmanagement policies and that their members encourage accountability that’s why they say they don’t provide coverage for actions that intentionally endanger others break the law or violate
Fraternity policies half a dozen other organizations and individuals that represent fraternity Executives advisors attorneys or their insurance companies wouldn’t comment despite repeated requests since early June with the way the fraternities have insulated themselves and played this charade their mother ship has never truly gotten hit financially instead
It’s the fraternity members who pay and without coverage from the national fraternity insurance they paid for settlements we’ve learned end up coming from a surprising Source the homeowners insurance of their parents and I don’t think anyone knows until it happened the Mauricio family’s attorney confirmed they ultimately resolved civil
Litigation with eight individuals linked to the fraternity with several suits settled through their parents homeowners insurance the Mauricio case against Alpha Epsilon Pi was also resolved although the fraternity wouldn’t comment further about the case saying they continueed to invest in their health and safety program working hard every day to
Educate and train their members and reform risky behaviors still Nicholas and his family believe the national fraternity avoided the kind of major blow he couldn’t I’ve made a good recovery Josie but I’m still making strides and progress every single day it’s still a battle yes and it it it
Will be a battle for the rest of my Life he simply drunk so I took him to my room put him on my couch um put pillows near his head and the and the trash can there this is an upper classman explaining what happened in the hours leading up to this chaotic morning in 2019 when paramedics and police arrived
At the alpatow Omega or ATO house to find freshman Sam Martinez unresponsive inside just 3 months into his college career the night before atto held its annual big little event where pledges find out the identity of their big brothers the ritual includes upper classmen giving their family drink to
Their little brothers most big little night um he was one of my littles I had two Littles him another guy and I had a half cow Sam’s Big Brother tells police the half gallon was Spiced Rum the equivalent of 40 shots to share between Sam and another pledge approximately 6 hours later Sam
Was dead in the basement of the fraternity from acute alcohol poisoning I kept checking on every like 30 45 minutes just make sure time there he was just fast asleep you know I thought he was going to sleep wake up but how could that still be happening in
2019 or 2022 Jolan HZ is Sam’s mother just this ridiculous cycle and why would you repeat past mistakes you you know it’s not working when were they going to take it seriously were you visiting with Sam for a few minutes yeah uh it’s probably 2 minutes tops the King five
Investigators reviewed nearly 35 hours of Pullman Police interviews they show the fraternity members weren’t taking hazing seriously because they didn’t appear to understand the concept I never once forced him to drink over and over pledges and members told police the night Sam died no one was forced to drink sharing the family
Drink was for bonding not hazing I think it’s just a tradition like usually your big brother bites you um what Boh call um and then give you the option if I’m drink it or not you don’t have to finish the bottle they’re not forc to it’s all your own will pretty much
What you want to drink they’re not forcing it down but Force has nothing to do with it according to state law hazing includes any activity expected of someone joining a group likely to cause a risk of harm regardless of the person’s willingness to participate it’s not mandatory but
Like it’s like encouraged some of the pledges said it was expected they finish the bottle but they still didn’t consider that hazing we were supposed to finish the bottle so your thought process was is they bought it for us so we need to drink it all yeah coercion uh
Is present even when the members are told what they’re doing is voluntary Hank newer of Indiana has researched hazing for 40 years pledges will uh will go through incredible lengths to try to please the members nor maintains a database of all hazing related deaths in the country going back to 1838 he’s
Recorded 28 80 lives lost 16 young men died after big little nights just like Sam Martinez where Big Brothers give the gift of alcohol this idea of giving something is part of this idea why it’s not voluntary because I have to give you something back in this case it sounds
Like drink the bottle consume the whole bottle and do it fast they had to clean the floor with toothbrushes like while they shut off the all the lights in the pitch black room were like slaming on the ground for them to clean up the police interviews reveal while they
Didn’t realize it the ATO pledges were hazed multiple times before the big little night including freshman like Sam made to clean on their hands and knees in the dark we had to clean the party floor with toothbrushes it just sucked that we had to use toothbrushes but like
It wasn’t that bad how did that stuff make you feel did it make you feel to good to clean up somebody else’s puke somebody else’s drunken mess how did that make you feel well all the all the classes above me who who have had to do the same exact
Thing every single we like and some of them have had to do way worse police records show more examples of hazing punishments like eating onions drinking an unknown mixture with hot sauce and physical tasks one pledge described the upperclassman’s thinking process oh man I can make them do anything I can make
Them do push-ups I could make them do a wallit I could make them do jumping jacks and sing the national anthem like three times in a row cuz we did that I know everybody’s like oh hazing is so bad but like I would not consider that hazing I would just consider that like
He’s drunk he’s telling us to do something stupid and we did it being willing to do something that is going to be potentially harmful to you um that’s what hazing is pulman police chief Gary Jenkins is an outspoken advocate for ending the culture of hazing even when everyone involved thinks it’s harmless
Experts say any typee of hazing is dangerous you can’t predict the outcome like triggering a past trauma for someone certain guys wouldn’t get broken down then other guys would and they’ like I’ve seen kids cry and just stay in the room and not come out yeah I’ve Just
Seen kids be broken down before for sure and no one at the fraternity predicted the ultimate consequence Sam Martin is dying after a party featuring Brotherhood alcohol and hazing As Time passed my fear is that the thoughts of the consequences of hazing are going to pass and maybe Sam Martinez’s death
Causes that whole culture to change this story does point out a major flaw in the system even though right now there’s mandatory hazing training for most fraternities it’s obviously not working a new state law called Sam’s law goes into effect in just a few weeks and that requires much more thorough
Training for every college in Washington and it requires schools to be more transparent now they have to list all fraternity and sorority infractions such as hazing on their official college website in The Newsroom I’m suzan they killed our son every year for the past two decades at least one young man in
The US has died in connection with fraternity hazing Jim and Evelyn piaa’s son Timothy died after a beta theta Pi hazing ritual at Pennsylvania State University in 2017 they planned this night out they had all the intent to uh feed these young men lethal doses of alcohol to bring them to alcohol
Poisoning Levels Close observers of Greek life say piaa’s death and three others that year marked a turning point putting fresh pressure on universities and fraternities to re in Reckless behaviors some universities are now quicker to suspend misbehaving fraternity chapters or ban Greek life outright and some fraternities like
Sigma F Epsilon have done away with Traditions like pledging and Rush week and the North American inner fraternity conference adopted a policy prohibiting hard liquor from frat houses still parents like the pazas who have lost children to hazing say they’ve yet to see meaningful change and fear more
Deaths are likely he gets to sit in a mausoleum everybody else gets to continue living their lives developing right now a guilty plea this morning from one of the suspects charged in the February hazing death of VCU student Adam Oaks Andrew White is one of the two suspects who went before
Richmond circuit court judge this morning CBS 6’s Matthew folz was at that hearing and joins us now live with what took place Matthew yes Cheryl that plea hearing took place here not too long ago here at the John Marshall courthouse building and it didn’t take long for that guilty
Plea to come down from White however it was an emotional morning for Adams Oaks family who was in attendance they tell us that while this is a step in the right direction it won’t bring Adam back we still have a really really long road ahead so this is just our first
Glimmer of hope in all of this Courtney White reflects Tuesday Morning outside the John Marshall Courthouse after former VCU student Andrew White pleaded guilty to unlawful hazing of her cousin Adam Oaks a lot of sugar coating I felt like when in the reality of it none of
It is going to bring my cousin back 19-year-old Oaks was found dead inside a home on West Clay Street back in February after receiving a bid to join the delto kai fraternity at VCU they add that Oaks was given a handle of Jack Daniels to drink and says Oaks died of
Alcohol poisoning with a blood alcohol level of nearly 042 white was one of 11 people charged with hazing in connection to Oak’s death and the first to plead guilty I think it’s emotional but at the same time I I can’t help but think it’s only one of 11 that
Charge was initially a felony but the plea dropped it to a misdemeanor that to me does not match it should never be a misdemeanor to Haze someone to death ever Oak’s cousin is now hoping for some type of change at the legal level in hopes of preventing another incident
Like this from happening again we have to engage in change change has to happen Adam is one of six in 2021 that’s the most since 2017 there’s a problem and it’s happening right before our eyes now we also asked White’s lawyer for a statement following this guilty
Plea this morning he says no comment at this time white is due back in court on March 1st for sentencing meanwhile Ben Cado was also in court this morning he’s one of those 11 um people charged in Adam Oak’s death he was in court this morning for a status hearing his case
Will be continued on February 7th for a jury trial working for you this afternoon here in Richmond outside the John Marshall courthouse I’m Matthew folz there are now arrests in the death of an 18-year-old fraternity pledge in Ohio University last year tonight nine people are now facing charges related to
Alleged hazing at an off-campus house here’s GI bonitz tonight nine men most of them fraternity members are facing serious charges following the 2018 death of Ohio University freshman pledge Colin Wyant one of them charged with Reckless homicide another involuntary manslaughter many of the other charges range from drug trafficking to hazing
Wyant was found unconscious last November at an off-campus house associated with the Sigma Pi fraternity hello I think my friend drank a little too much okay is he responsive um he was and then he’s like kind of laid back start passed out in a wrongful death lawsuit the Wyant family alleges Colin
Was subjected to extensive hazing that included being beaten with a belt and being provided with and forced to take drugs that included nitrous oxide which a coroner ruled ultimately killed him the fraternity reportedly denies responsibility for the alleged hazing death tonight Wan’s parents reacting to those criminal charges it was
Necessary because it’s the only way we’re going to drive change to save lives but also that there are no winners here his death is systemic of this larger scale problem and David at least one of the men charged will be arraigned tomorrow meanwhile the sigap fraternity has been expelled from Ohio University
And other fraternities on that same campus are also under investigation for separate hazing allegations David all right GI B is reporting Gio thanks hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you’d like to get more videos show highlights and watch
Live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don’t forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching first time time we’re hearing the 911 call as a Florida State fraternity pledge Lay Dying nine people nine people are facing hazing charges in
Connection to the death of Andrew coffee and his lifeless body was discovered after a night of drinking the call reveals that other students at the party tried to revive him with chest compressions First Coast News Juliet dryer joins us live in The Newsroom now with the new details
Juliet the call lasts nearly 11 minutes and it is at times difficult to listen to you can hear multiple people in the background at times gasping or sighing at one point you even hear a man say oh God as he seems to come to grips with the fact that something was seriously
Wrong 911 what is the address of your emergency uh I don’t have the address I don’t have it memorized do you think you could track the call the call on November 3rd came from an off-campus house where members of Florida State’s pie cifi fraternity were partying the night before 20-year-old pledge Andrew
Coffee was unresponsive we had a party last night and my friend passed out on the couch on his side M and um his his lips are purple his body’s extremely stiff and he’s I can’t wake him up and I I honestly I don’t feel a pulse okay
Paramedics were on their way the 911 operator said but in the meantime they should try to revive him themselves are you right by him right now I’m standing right over the operator instructs the caller to move coffee to the ground we’re going to do chest compressions
While the paramedics are on the way okay for the next few minutes the operator coaches the men on the other line through chest compressions the call ends as Medics arrive on scene they can they can than St there with you I’ll let you go sir a medical examiner ruled Coffee
Died from alcohol poisoning his blood alcohol level was 447 during his autopsy but estimated to be around 558 at the time of his death that’s nearly seven times the Leal limit to drive according to our news Partners at the Tallahassee Democrat court records say coffee drank an entire bottle of bourbon coffey’s
Death sent shock waves across fsu’s campus with President John Thrasher suspending All Greek activities Days Later earlier this week Thrasher partially lifted that suspension to allow philanthropy and recruitment an alcohol ban remains in effect fsu’s piie capify chapter has since been shut down nine members of that fraternity have been arrested in
Connection with coffee’s death charged with felony hazing live in The Newsroom Juliet dryer First Coast News on your side well there it is folks right there look at what’s going on in our country to the children to our children it’s everywhere from east coast to West Coast north south
Everywhere it’s going on look it up sometime fat desk you’ll be astonished there’s drinking there’s violence we’ve showed you everything everything we’ve showed you fighting we’ve showed you what appears to be a knifing we showed you alcohol deaths what what needs to be done to to stop this and I believe that that
Fraternities and sororities should be abolished like immediately What’s it gonna take What’s it gonna take anyway I hope you enjoyed the video uh hope it was informative for you and have a great rest of the day thank you and may God bless you
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