Band temporarily disbanded at SU; DA probes hazing

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Feb 4, 2009 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The new East Baton Rouge Parish district attorney said he is moving forward with prosecution of seven Southern University band members arrested for hazing late last year.

But the process is taking longer than expected because the two primary victims live out of state, as do five of the seven who were arrested, District Attorney Hillar Moore said.

On campus, Southern University Chancellor Kofi Lomotey said the marching band has been temporarily “disbanded” for the semester. The marching band does not perform much during the spring because football is over.

“The band has been disbanded and students are having to reapply, in a sense,” Lomotey said.

Such actions are important to “increase expectations” and highlight the seriousness of the matter, he said. “That kind of behavior is not to be accepted,” Lomotey said of hazing concerns.

Southern’s recent hazing incident was part of a Nov. 25 initiation into the marching band’s unofficial French horn fraternity — “Mellow Phi Fellow” — prior to the annual Bayou Classic football game, according to arrest records. The hazing occurred at a home north of Baton Rouge.

The three victims were allegedly beaten with a 2-by-4-inch wooden board, arrest records stated.

Two of the three students were hospitalized with injuries that, at least at one point, threatened possible organ failure, according to East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office records.

The two who were hospitalized — but since released — are back home in Mississippi and Georgia, Moore said, as are five of the alleged perpetrators.

Law enforcement and the university refuse to release the names of the victims.

Moore said his office recently received all of the reports and photographs taken by sheriff’s deputies.

Arrangements are being made to meet with the victims for more in-depth information, Moore said.

The next decision is whether to proceed with charges against all seven who were arrested through a grand jury investigation or by charging them through a bill of information, which is a not a grand jury indictment but a formal charge of the crime, Moore said.