Baruch Hazing Death Leads To Fraternity Ban

MANHATTAN, NY — A Pennsylvania judge banned an entire fraternity from the state after a freshman pledge with a Baruch College chapter of the group died during a hazing ritual there.

Chun "Michael" Deng was killed in December 2013 in a fraternity hazing ritual gone while trying to "rush" Baruch's chapter of Pi Delta Psi, an Asian-American fraternity.

On Monday, Judge Margherita Patti-Worthington banned the entire fraternity from operating in the state for at least 10 years.

Prosecutors made the rare move to charge the fraternity in connection with Deng's death, in addition to charging dozens of the fraternity's members.

Deng was killed during a weekend mountain retreat to Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. He died of head injuries during a "glass ceiling" ritual. During the hazing ritual, Deng and other pledges were asked to cross an icy lawn while blindfolded, carrying backpacks filled with sand and being pounded by fraternity members. Prosecutors said that Deng was knocked out after being tackled to the ground, and that fraternity members waited hours before seeking help.

Four men, all of them former Baruch students and fraternity members, previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in Pennsylvania.

Image credit: AP Photo/Rich Schultz. Image caption: Sheldon Wong, right, leaves the Monroe County Courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pa., Monday May 15, 2017. Wong pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the death of Chun "Michael" Deng, a fraternity pledge at Baruch College in New York.