MIT FRAT INDICTED IN DRINKING DEATH

BOSTON (AP) -- Prosecutors took the extraordinary step Thursday of charging
an MIT fraternity -- the organization, not its members -- with manslaughter
in the case of a student who drank himself to death at a party a year ago.

The case against the MIT chapter of Phi Gamma Delta is believed to be the
first in the nation in which a fraternity has been charged with homicide,
District Attorney Ralph Martin said.

The fraternity was indicted on charges of manslaughter and hazing in the
death of Scott Krueger, an 18-year-old student who fell into a coma last
September after a drinking binge at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology frat he was pledging in Boston's Fenway neighborhood.

No individual fraternity members will face charges, not even those who
bought the alcohol.

Manslaughter normally is punishable by a $1,000 fine and 1 1/2 years in
jail, and hazing carries a $3,000 fine and 1 1/2 years behind bars. But
because there is no way to put an organization behind bars, the most the
fraternity faces is a fine.

``My office determined that the indictments should be aimed at the
fraternity that promoted and orchestrated the activities that ultimately
led to Scott Krueger's death, not at the people who were sent on a
purchasing errand,'' Martin said.

Officers at the Phi Gamma Delta national headquarters in Lexington, Ky.,
were not available for comment, a staffer said.

The fraternity chapter was shut down after Krueger's death. He was found in
a coma Sept. 27 in the basement room where he was living and died two days
later. His mother said fraternity members told him he had to drink a
certain amount of alcohol before he could leave their party.

In other cases around the country involving fraternity drinking deaths,
individuals have been charged with homicide. But the fraternities
themselves have usually faced charges involving only alcohol violations.

Krueger's parents, Bob and Darlene Krueger of suburban Buffalo, said the
indictment puts the responsibility on those who should pay for their son's
death: the organization that sanctioned the partying.

The couple said they may also sue MIT as well as the fraternity. Ms.
Krueger accused the school of leading the couple to believe that on-campus
housing was provided for all freshmen. She said many freshmen end up in
fraternities days after their arrival on campus.

``We entrusted MIT with our son and they failed us miserably,'' she said.

``If such a death could occur at MIT, it could happen anywhere,'' said
Rosalind Williams, MIT's dean of students and undergraduate education.
``Dangerous drinking is a problem that needs to be addressed on many fronts
and by all concerned.''

MIT recently announced that all freshmen starting in 2001 will be required
to live in campus dorms.

In August, a Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at Louisiana State University in
Baton Rouge pleaded no contest to purchasing alcohol for underage drinkers
and agreed to pay $22,600 in a plea bargain over the drinking death of a
20-year-old pledge.

After a freshman at Frostburg State University in Cumberland, Md., drank
himself to death at a fraternity party, eight people were fined $1,000 each
and placed on five years' probation last November for selling alcohol
without a license. Manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges against
the eight were dropped.

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Checked-by: Mike Gogulski