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Newsletter > May 2019 > "Charges Dismissed Against Pi Kappa Alpha"
Charges Dismissed Against Pi Kappa Alpha
Tim Burke, Manley Burke, tburke@manleyburke.com
In December of 2017, in a highly unusual, indeed inexplicable move, Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity, Inc. was indicted for hazing.
Some fifteen months later, in a short Court Order, Judge Kelley Andrews—Presiding Judge of the County Criminal Court at Law No. 6, Harris County Texas—quashed the indictment and the charges against the national fraternity were dropped.
Hazing was alleged to have taken place by some members of the fraternity’s chapter at the University of Houston (“Houston”). But none of the individuals who engaged in conduct were criminally charged. Instead, in a curious move, individuals who were responsible for the conduct at Houston were granted immunity in exchange for their grand jury testimony against the national fraternity.
The undergraduate delegates of the other Pi Kappa Alpha chapters across the country, when informed of the conduct, voted unanimously to revoke the charter of the chapter at the University of Houston. Pi Kappa Alpha has a strong policy against hazing and remains committed to seeing that its members who violate fraternity policy or the laws regarding hazing are held accountable for their actions.
Civil litigation remains pending in which those who individuals who actually engaged in the conduct that caused the injury to a potential new member may still be held accountable.
1See Tim Burke, PKA International Indicted, Fraternal L. (Jan. 2018).