Four frat members sentenced to jail in fatal hazing incident

Michael Deng (inset) and the rented house where the fatal hazing occurred.

FOUR MEMBERS of a nationwide Asian/American college fraternity were jailed for up to two years on Monday (Jan. 8) in the killing of a 19-year-old rushee during a hazing ritual. A Pennsylvania judge also banned the fraternity from the state for 10 years.

“This has proved to be the most troubling case to me in 19 years,” Judge Margherita Patti-Worthington said while issuing her decision. “Not one person out of 37 picked up a telephone and called an ambulance. I cannot wrap my head around it,”

Kenny Kwan, Charles Lai, Raymond Lam and Sheldon Wong pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, hindering apprehension and other charges in connection with the death of Baruch College freshman Michael Chun Deng in 2013.

In addition, the judge ordered the fraternity to pay $110,000 in fines.

Deng was blindfolded, forced to wear a heavy backpack and then repeatedly tackled and punched while walking through a gauntlet as part of the fraternity’s initiation ceremony in a rented home in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains in 2013.

Deng was knocked unconscious and later died at a hospital – but not before the boys attempted to cover up the crime while he lay dying, a grand jury later heard. They didn't call an ambulance because of the cost.

Kwan received 12-24 months in county jail. Lam and Wong were sentenced to 10-24 months each. Lai, who spent 342 days in jail after he was unable to make bail, was sentenced to time served.

RELATED: Asian American frat found guilty in hazing death

Last month, dozens of other fraternity members present at the hazing were given probation of varying lengths.

All four defendants showed remorse and apologized, some of them tearfully.

The judge and a prosecutor slammed Pi Delta Psi for calling itself a victim of rogue fraternity members, saying the fraternity tolerated and even encouraged hazing for years.

“It’s the epitome of a lack of acceptance of responsibility. It’s their rituals and functions that led us here today,” Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Kim Metzger said in court.
Patti-Worthington and a prosecutor slammed Pi Delta Psi for calling itself a victim of rogue fraternity members.

“It’s the epitome of a lack of acceptance of responsibility. It’s their rituals and functions that led us here today,” said Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Kim Metzger.

Pi Delta Psi has 25 chapters in 11 states, including one at Penn State University that will now have to be disbanded.
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Fraternity members plead guilty, sentenced to probation for hazing death

NBC

The property where the hazing death of Michael Deng (insert) occurred.

Fourteen former members of an Asian/American fraternity were sentenced to probation Wednesday, (Nov. 29) after pleading guilty to reduced charges in the hazing death of a young man pledging to Pi Delta Psi.

They joined the 15 other young men who plead guilty Tuesday (Nov. 28).

On Tuesday, 17 defendants appeared in Monroe County Court of Common Picas in Stroudsburg, Penn. Tuesday (Nov. 28) to accept responsibility in the tragic death of Chun "Michael" Deng, 19, who died while undergoing one of the fraternity's initiation ceremonies.

As the result of plea bargains, all 29 of them plead guilty to reduced charges and sentenced to  The harshest punishment was meted out to Andy Meng, brother of Rep. Grace Meng. As former president of the fraternity, he received a stiffer sentence of 36 months probation.

“You are better than this,” Judge Margherita Patti-Worthington told the group. "Be individuals and do the right thing going forward. Don’t get caught up in group think.”

Some of the members pleaded guilty to charges including concealing or tampering with evidence. Others admitted to simple assault and lying to police.

Most of the members were sentenced to between 12 and 18 months on probation except for Meng and another defendant. Ka-wing Yuen received 5 years probation, 100 hours of community service and a $100 fine.

The four Pi Delts who pleaded guilty in May to more serious charges will face sentencing next week. Punishment will likely include time behind bars.

Last week, the fraternity was convicted of charges including aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter but acquitted of third-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, both felonies.

In a ritual called the "glass ceiling" which was meant to teach the pledges of the bias they would face in society, Deng passed out after running the gauntlet of fraternity brothers who would hit, tackle or trip the pledges. The 2013 hazing of the New York's Baruch College students occurred at a rented  home in the Pocono Mountains, about 100 miles west of New York City.

During the incident, Deng was blindfolded, wore a 30-pound (14-kg) backpack and ran a gauntlet of fraternity members who tackled and knocked him down on the snow-covered ground in December 2013, police said.

The college students waited for more than an hour before driving him to a hospital, authorities said and that delay contributed to his death.

Rather than seeking help for Deng, who remained unconscious, the fraternity brothers reportedly Googled head injury symptoms and researched the cost of an ambulance before determining it would be too expensive. They allegedly called fraternity officers for advice on what to do.

Although deaths from fraternity hazings have occurred at several American colleges, prosecutors and defense lawyers said it was the first U.S. conviction of a fraternity for a death caused by hazing.

UPDATED Nov. 30 to include the second day of sentencing.

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Asian American frat found guilty in hazing death

PI DELTA PSI, an Asian/American fraternity, has been found guilty in the 2013 death of a student participating in the frat's hazing rituals.

The fraternity was convicted Tuesday of five felonies and two misdemeanors in the death of Chun Hsien "Michael" Deng who died in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains.

Chun 'Michael' Deng

The fraternity was acquitted of the two most serious charges, third-degree murder (involving a willful, wanton disregard for the potentially fatal consequences of one’s actions on someone else) and voluntary manslaughter (a heat-of-the-moment killing).

Deng, 19, who attended Baruch College in Manhattan, was pledging to Pi Delta Psi when he died during a December 2013 retreat at a rented house in the Poconos. 

Blindfolded and wearing a weighted backpack, Deng was forced to walk in the backyard in the early morning hours through a gauntlet of fraternity members who allegedly pushed, shoved, and tackled him in an attempt to bring him down, according to court records.

RELATED: Fraternity on trial for hazing death

Deng died from his injuries after fraternity brothers waited too long to contact authorities after the 18-year old  lost conciousness. It took a hour before the frat brothers brought him to a hospital. A forensic pathologist said the delaysignificantly contributed to his death, according to court documents.

Four frat brothers, Kenny Kwan, 28, Charles Lai, 26, Raymond Lam, 23, and Sheldon Wong, 24, have already pleaded guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter as accomplices and hindering apprehension for concealing evidence, according to the Monroe County District Attorney's Office. The four men were originally charged with murder. Their sentencing is slated for December.

With a future sentencing date being scheduled for the fraternity, the prosecution plans to seek the maximum penalty of a fine and the fraternity being banned from any Pennsylvania college campuses.

The Asian/American fraternity was founded at the State University of New York’s Binghamton campus in 1994. Pi Delta Psi has 25 active chapters and five inactive colonies (aspiring chapters) on college campuses in 13 states including Pennsylvania.

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Asian American fraternity on trial for hazing death

Guilty: Clockwise from top left, Kenny Kwan, Charles Lai, Raymond Lam and Sheldon Wong.

ASAM NEWS

A national Asian American fraternity is on trial in the deadly hazing of a pledge in 2013.

Pi Delta Psi is accused of being criminally negligent in the death of Michael Deng who died of brain trauma and the suspected cover up that followed.

“Thirty four, there were 34 members that acted together in the hazing that resulted in the death and cover-up; 29 hours that passed between the time he was brought to the emergency room and his passing,” prosecutor Kimberly Metzger said in opening arguments, according to the Pocono Record. 

“Eighteen, he was 18 when he died. Six pledges (the chapter) has brought to the Poconos since 2010. Four, how many they brought (this time). Two, the hours of delay between (Deng) not getting up and receiving medical attention; and for one dead pledge.”

RELATED: Fraternity hazing death - Asians are the loneliest Americans

The defense attorney, however, pointed the blame at the local chapter.

“Pi Delta Psi has an anti-hazing written policy since 2001,” he said. “The colony didn’t follow the rules. It’s supposed to use the national policy. The pledge educator was over his head and improperly informed.”

New York’s Baruch Colony chapter became inactive, following the death.

WBRE reports several police officers testified in the opening day of the trial.

Fraternity members are also expected to the take the stand. The trial is expected to last one week.

Four of the men who had been charged with murder — Kenny Kwan, 28; Charles Lai, 26; Raymond Lam, 23; and Sheldon Wong, 24 — appeared in court May 14, when they pleaded guilty to reduced charges of voluntary manslaughter and hindering apprehension after reaching an agreement with prosecutors. Sentencing for these four men will be on Dec. 4.

(Views from the Edge contributed to this report.)

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