First of 37 defendants sentenced in fraternity hazing death
STROUDSBURG, Pa. -- The first of 37 suspects charged in the fraternity hazing death of a New York City college student in eastern Pennsylvania has been sentenced.
Twenty-five-year-old Ka-Wing Yuen was placed on five years’ probation Monday, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and pay a $100 fine.
He pleaded guilty Jan. 10 to conspiracy to hinder apprehension and conspiracy to haze for helping cover up the death of Chun “Michael” Deng.
Deng was an 18-year-old pledge of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity at Baruch College when he died in December 2013. Authorities said Deng, one of four pledges, suffered major brain trauma during an initiation game called “the glass ceiling.”
Police said Deng was blindfolded and wearing a backpack with 20 pounds of sand and then forced to run a human gauntlet while other fraternity members physically tried to keep him from passing through by pushing him to the ground, the station reported.
Police said fraternity members tackled and otherwise assaulted the blindfolded victim until he lay dying at a rental house in the Poconos. Instead of calling 911, prosecutors said Deng’s frat brothers carried him inside and placed him by a fire, before searching the Internet for his symptoms and changing his clothes.
A medical examiner ruled he died of “closed head injuries due to blunt force trauma.”
Five members await trial on murder charges. Yuen was one of 32 others charged in the aftermath.
