WUSA9 screenshot
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.
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.
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“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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