4 Former Fraternity Members Plead Guilty in Pledge Hazing Death

They will be sentenced in December and could face 22 to 36 months in prison.

On Monday, four former members of a Baruch College fraternity pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the 2013 hazing death of a pledge.

Kenny Kwan, Charles Lai, Raymond Lam and Sheldon Wong, who were formerly Pi Delta Psi members, had previously been charged with third-degree murder for blindfolding 19-year-old Chun “Michael” Deng, forcing him to wear a heavy backpack and then repeatedly tackling him in a hazing ritual, reports ABC News.

RELATED: Putting an End to Hazing Deaths

When Deng suffered a head injury, fraternity members called the national president and waited an hour to take Deng to the hospital, according to NBC News.

Deng had suffered repeated blunt force trauma to his head, torso and thighs, and a medical examiner said that the delay between when he passed out and when he was taken to the hospital “significantly contributed” to Deng’s death.
Deng was the last of several pledges to be hazed that weekend. The hazings happened at a rented home in the Pocono Mountain region of Pennsylvania.

RELATED: How to Assess Your Hazing Prevention and Response Program

Kwan, Lai, Lam and Wong admitted to the abuse and trying to cover it up. They will be sentenced in December and could face 22 to 36 months in prison.

In January, another defendant in the case – 25-year-old Ka-Wing Yuen – pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to hinder apprehension by evidence tampering and conspiracy to commit hazing.

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Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.

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