9 Face Hazing Charges In FSU Frat Pledge Death

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Nine men are facing hazing charges in the death of a Florida State University fraternity pledge, Tallahassee police said Tuesday.

Arrest warrants were signed Tuesday by a Leon County judge for Luke E. Kluttz and Clayton M. Muehlstein, both 22; Brett A. Birmingham and Anthony Petagine, both 20; and Conner R. Ravelo, Christopher M. Hamlin, Anthony Oppenheimer, John B. Ray and Kyle J. Bauer, all 21, the Associated Press reported.

All nine will be charged with "College Hazing-Cause Injury or Death" in 20-year-old Andrew Coffey’s death.

Two of the men are from the Tampa Bay area. Hamlin is from Valrico and Oppenheimer is from Wesley Chapel. Hamlin is the son of Marc Hamlin, an assistant chief for the Tampa Police Department, News Channel 8 reported.

The Tallahassee Democrat reported that State Attorney Jack Campbell said he was “totally stunned” to learn of the Tallahassee Police department’s media release late Tuesday announcing the hazing charges.

“The charges have not been filed,” he told the Tallahassee Democrat this morning. “The warrants are sitting on my secretary’s desk.”

Campbell said the charges will be filed as soon as the Leon County Clerk’s Office opens Wednesday morning. He did not know why the police department announced the charges early. He said he’d been working with the department and the Florida State University police on the case and had talked to the Coffey family about his intention to file charges Wednesday.

Coffey was a pledge at Pi Kappa Phi and died of alcohol poisoning on Nov. 3 after he was found unresponsive after a party. The state medical examiner said that Coffey had a blood alcohol level of .447 at the time of the autopsy.

Florida State suspended its fraternities and sororities and Pi Kappa Phi’s national office closed the FSU chapter soon after Coffey's death.

The grand jury did find that although Coffey’s alcohol consumption was not physically forced, an environment of hazing existed that culminated in his death. The fraternity’s "Big Brother Night" party, which was held at an off-campus home, encouraged binge drinking, according to the Associated Press.

The party introduced pledges to their big brothers and included drinking large amounts of liquor straight from the bottle. Coffey consumed a bottle of bourbon he was given, police said. He passed out and was described as "snoring loudly" on a couch in the living room while others played pool.

A fellow pledge tried to awaken Coffey the next morning and found he didn’t have a pulse. Phone records show the pledge called and texted five fraternity members before calling 911.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Read the Tallahassee Democrat story here.

Image via the Associated Press