Dance & Aux Forum

Police: Hazing took place at FAMU professor's home

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Witnesses told police that two Florida A&M University faculty members were present as band fraternity pledges were hazed at the home of one of the professors in early 2010, according to an investigative report released Wednesday.

Authorities said no charges will be filed because investigators cannot prove the Kappa Kappa Psi hazing happened within a two-year statute of limitations. The case has been closed.

The allegations also are under administrative and legal review by the university, which "will take appropriate action against faculty members or students, up to and including dismissals," Florida A&M President James Ammons said in a brief statement. He called the allegations "extremely disturbing."

The Tallahassee Police Department report says band director Julian White told campus police about the allegations on Nov. 21 after another faculty member brought them to his attention.

That was two days after the hazing death of FAMU drum major Robert Champion while the March 100 band was in Orlando for a football game. Champion suffered from blunt trauma while aboard a band bus and died from shock due to severe internal bleeding. His death is being investigated as a homicide. No arrests have been made.

Champion's death was just one in a series of hazing events involving the FAMU band.

Witnesses to the 2010 incident told police that fraternity members repeatedly slapped pledges on the back or neck, known as "prepping" and "necking." One pledge, whose identity was not disclosed in the report, told police his buttocks were bruised because he also was paddled with a thick piece of wood.

Officer Shane Porter lists Diron Holloway, the band's director of saxophones, and Anthony Simons, an assistant professor of music, as suspects in his report.

"Through investigation it was determined hazing did occur at faculty member Diron Holloway's residence," Porter wrote.

The anonymous victim told Porter that about 14 pledges, several fraternity members and the two professors ate a spaghetti dinner at Holloway's home before the hazing began. He said Holloway joined in the prepping and necking.

Asked if he participated in prepping, Holloway told an investigator: "It's possible to say that I did do something under the circumstances of all of them coming in at once, maybe I did do something."

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More details http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/college/report-details-2010-faculty-involved-famu-hazing/1222361