Sentences Issued in Pi Delta Psi Death

Tim Burke, Manley Burke, tburke@manleyburke.com

On January 8^th, Judge Margherita Patti-Worthington of the Common Pleas Court in Monroe County Pennsylvania issued her final sentences in death of Michael Deng which resulted from a brutal hazing practice of Pi Delta Psi.  The National Fraternity was fined $112,500 and placed on 10 years’ probation prohibiting it from operating anywhere in Pennsylvania during that time.  It must also notify all colleges across the country where it has or has had groups of its conviction.  Three members of the chapter involved were sentences to up to 24 months in jail, a fourth was sentenced to time served.  Each also will serve seven additional years of supervision.  Earlier 30 other individuals had been sentenced to various terms of probation ranging between 6 to 36 months.  The former national president of the fraternity was sentenced to 36 months’ probation.

The conviction of the national fraternity may be appealed, but there are clear facts in the record, that unlike the overwhelming majority of other national and international Greek organizations, Pi Delta Psi was slow in taking steps to eradicate hazing and may have actually encouraged it in a misguided effort to build strength in its members.  (See Fraternal Law November 2017 Special Edition “GUILTY! A National Fraternity Criminally Convicted”)