Harry Draughn is claiming in a lawsuit that he was hazed while trying to join a Maryland alumni chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, the Washington Post reports. What’s more alarming is that Draughn says the man who led the hazing is a Maryland police officer.
Jesse Stewart Jr. is reportedly the intake chairman of the Hyattsville/Landover Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi—and the de facto hazing ringleader, according to the lawsuit. Draughn is suing both the chapter and Stewart for more than $2 million.
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Draughn claims that he was beaten, smacked with a cane and forced to perform duties in his underwear.
Draughn’s attorney, Jimmy Bell, referring to Kappa Alpha Psi’s allegedly less-than-stellar reputation regarding hazing, said that the fraternity had just recently reinstituted its membership intake after a ban. “It makes no sense that a month later my client is being hazed,” Bell said. “They didn’t fix the problems. That is failed leadership.”
Stewart, who has been a member of the Prince George’s County Police Department for 21 years, has been suspended, and the department has launched an investigation into the allegations.
“When one of our officers is accused of wrongdoing, we take those allegations seriously,” Police Chief Mark A. Magaw said in a Tuesday statement. “The Prince George’s County Police Department holds our officers to high standards whether they are on or off duty.”
Read more at the Washington Post.
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