One of four students facing charges in the death of a pledge in a New York fraternity testified that his frat secretly encouraged hazing, reports Reuters.
Daniel Li, 23, is former president of Pi Delta Psi fraternity at Baruch College.
Li took the stand and testified during the pretrial hearing that his frat’s national office devised a plan to hide such incidents.
He said chapters were encouraged to lie to police about how pledges were injured. Li told the court a special email address was even set up to report such incidents to give the group time to come up with an excuse.
He said the national office only pretended to be concerned about hazing, but actually condoned it.
“In actuality, the national fraternity knew very well (that hazing went on),” Li said.
Michael Deng died after being tackled while blindfolded during a pledge ritual.
Li, Charles Lai, 24; Kenny Kwan, 26; Raymond Lam, 22; and Sheldon Wong, 23, all face third degree murder charges.
You can read more details of Deng’s death in Reuters.
