STROUDSBURG -- Four members of a fraternity pleaded guilty Monday for the death of a 19-year-old pledge in the Poconos.

Chen Michael Deng died after a hazing ritual at a house in Monroe County in December of 2013.

Charles Lai said nothing as he left the Monroe County Courthouse after admitting responsibility for the death of Chen.

Lai and three of his fraternity brothers from Pi Delta Psi entered guilty pleas to felony charges of voluntary manslaughter as an accomplice and hindering apprehension by concealing evidence.

Prosecutors charged Lai, Raymond Lam, Kenny Kwan, and Sheldon Wong, along with 32 members of the fraternity from Baruch College in New York as well as the fraternity itself for Chen's death.


Chen, who was a pledge, died after a hazing ritual at a home near Long Pond in December of 2013.

At East Stroudsburg University, parents and future students say hazing needs to stop.

“It happens a lot, but it shouldn't be. Death shouldn't be happening. No one should be dying because of it,” said student Caitlyn Blake from New Jersey.

“They killed that kid, plain and simple. If you hit someone with your car and you had been drinking, you'd be going to jail,” said parent Patty Cummings from Saylorsburg. “They didn't hit someone with a car, but they did the same thing.”

This comes as a fraternity at Penn State University is facing charges after a pledge died during a hazing ritual back in February. In both cases, investigators say the brothers not only waited to get the victims help, they also tried to cover up what happened.

“It's completely wrong and disgusting. It really is. No one should ever leave someone like that,” said student Kathryn Cummings from Saylorsburg.

“What happened at Penn State is disgusting that those guys, kids left that guy laying on the ground for that many hours,” said Cummings.

The four Pi Delta Psi brothers were also facing third-degree murder charges. Those were dropped in exchange for their guilty pleas.

Sentencing is scheduled for December. If given the maximum sentence, they face 27 years in prison.

“I think they should be charged to the fullest extent. For me, it's like an eye for an eye. You take somebody's child away, they don't have them anymore,” said parent Michelle Blake from New Jersey.

The only defendant in this case facing the murder charge is the fraternity. That trial starts in November.

A trial date for the 32 other members has yet to be scheduled.

 

They can incarcerate the guilty with Sandusky.

 

I haven't seen the details of how they actually killed him?

 

The great university of LSU has a strong fraternity system on the Baton Rouge campus. Every few years, someone was either killed or maimed during pledge week. The movie "Animal House" didn't help anything and into the 80's, it got worse. Eventually, it was too much, even for Louisiana and the hammer came down. No more providing alcohol to freshmen in the frat house. This drove the drinking off campus. Most of the bars are closed on Monday night, so some of the frats started having private parties on Monday nights. This ended up with a death by alcohol poisoning, and that got shut down.

There was one fraternity that decided enough was enough. They were going to change things and do it differently. Instead of a drunken party, they would have a solemn ceremony to stress the bond of brotherhood and the honor of being a fraternity brother. Then it got a little weird. All the pledges stripped to their boxer shorts and blind folded. All were loaded into a panel truck and taken across the river to a cow pasture, where there would be a bonfire to light the solemn ceremony. At the pasture, all the blind folded pledges formed a line with their hand on the shoulder of the pledge in front of them. They had been commanded to not let go of their brother. This included weak attempts to knock their hand off the shoulder. Each pledge was braced to hold tight as they marched across the highway and into the pasture. There were about ten young men still in the road when headlights appeared. No one had foreseen this happening. The frat brothers supervising the pledges yelled at them to get off the road and even tried to pull them clear, but the pledges froze in place and would not be moved. One was killed and the others just injured.

Drinking is a problem, but the real problem is taking men in their early 20's and putting them in charge of this kind of circus.

 

Um, no.

East Strousdsburg and Penn State are two different universities