Panel: No criminal charges in student’s suicide after hazing

PITTSBURGH >> A Pennsylvania grand jury says no criminal charges should be brought in a university student’s suicide that his family blames on a fraternity hazing.

The grand jury reported Tues- day that 18-year-old Marquise Braham, a student at Penn State-Altoona, had left a note indicating he contemplated killing himself since he was a child. The panel said it found no evidence linking the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity hazing to Braham’s death while home in New York during the school’s 2014 spring break.

“Rather the evidence points to a young man who though he had a sunny and very pleasant exterior, had been contemplating suicide for a very long time,” the grand jury said. “(This) investigation and this Report should shine a light on what can happen to vulnerable 18 year olds when they go off to college.”

While several grand jury witnesses described hazing similar to that alleged by Braham’s family, the grand jury in recommending no criminal charges cited “conflicting views and the unwillingness or inability of the former pledges to name other individual fraternity brothers as hazing them.”

Braham’s family said in a statement that they were “disappointed, though not surprised” by the decision. They said the grand jury was denied access to some “substantial” evidence and testimony from mental health experts and Braham’s friends and relatives.