ORLANDO - Thirteen people were charged Wednesday in one of the biggest college hazing cases ever prosecuted in the United States, accused in the death of a Florida A&M University drum major who authorities say was mercilessly pummeled by fellow members of the marching band.
I don't understand it. I can understand the football team or some elite fraternity, but the band? The band?
The charges came more than five months after Robert Champion, 26, died aboard a chartered bus parked outside an Orlando hotel following a performance against a rival school.
While the most sensational hazing cases have typically involved fraternities, sororities, or athletic teams, the FAMU killing in November exposed a brutal tradition among marching bands at some colleges around the United States.
“The death . . . is nothing short of an American tragedy,’’ said State Attorney Lawson Lamar. “No one should have expected that his college experience would include being pummeled to death.’’
*************************
Champion’s death has jeopardized the future of FAMU’s legendary marching band, which has performed at the Grammys, presidential inaugurations, and Super Bowls and represented the United States in Paris at the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. FAMU, based in Tallahassee, has suspended the band and set up a task force on curtailing hazing.
Hazing has long been practiced in marching bands, particularly at historically black colleges like FAMU in the South, where the band is often as revered as the football team and members are campus celebrities.
Much of the hazing reported at FAMU has involved students trying to get into certain cliques within the band....
--more--"
Related: Official finds fatal blow unclear in Florida A&M hazing
Florida A&M Frog March
"Fla. troopers faulted for role in crashes" Associated Press, April 27, 2012
TALLAHASSEE - A Highway Patrol lieutenant did not have any formal training or know the procedures before he reopened a fog- and smoke-shrouded highway where a series of crashes killed 11 people in January, investigators said in a report released Thursday.
Related: Foggy Florida Highway
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement report concluded troopers made errors but found no criminal violations....
--more--"
Also see: Woman arrested in fatal Fla. crash
"Police chief’s wife runs over toddler
TITUSVILLE - The wife of the police chief in a central Florida community accidentally ran over and killed a family friend’s 22-month-old son in a parking lot, authorities said. Pamela Bodenheimer, 51, was backing up from a parking spot Friday night at Titusville High School when she drove over Brady Hutto. She told police she did not see the boy. No charges have been filed (AP)."
