Texas Frat Boys Indicted in Hazing Death                        Top of  page
Wednesday, December 13, 2006                                                             Article

Three fraternity members were indicted on hazing charges in the alcohol-related death last year of Phanta.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Family sues fraternity over alcohol death.                                        Top of  page
Lawsuit claims members wrote 'vulgar' messages on him after he passed out.

 By Tony Plohetski                                            Article

 ThePhanta's  family filed a lawsuit against the fraternity and more than 40 current and former members .

UT student's alcohol level over 6 times legal limit                            Top of  page

Autopsy shows 'incredible' blood content of 0.50 percent when he died at

a fraternity Dec. 10

 By JANET ELLIOTT

 Phanta "Jack" Phoummarath had a level of 0.50.

 Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

The American Statesman

Thursday, January 26, 2006

UT to look into frat allegations; student who fell to death was intoxicated.                                            Top of page

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Wednesday, March 07, 2007

"UT freshman Phanta "Jack" Phoummarath was found dead in the Lambda Phi Epsilon house on Dec. 10, 2005. He died with a blood alcohol level of .41, more than five times the legal limit."

By Robert Kleeman

Sept. 25, 2007, 3:03PM
3 plead no contest over UT pledge's 2005 death              Top of  page

© 2007 The Associated Press                              Article

"Three leaders of a suspended University of Texas fraternity pleaded no contest Tuesday to the misdemeanor charge of hazing following the death of an 18-year-old pledge from alcohol poisoning.  Former Lambda Phi Epsilon President Benny Chan, 24, former pledge captain Andrew Nguyen, 22, and former "Hellmaster" Kamal Pulukuri, 23, were each sentenced to two years deferred adjudication, a form of probation."

"His fraternity "family" — fraternity and sorority members — had given him four to six bottles of liquor. After dragging him upstairs, they scribbled vulgarities on his body and painted his lips, ears and toenails while he was passed out.  Some of his friends played video games in the same room as Phoummarath, Sorrels said. His blood-alcohol level was 0.41, more than five times the legal limit, officials said."

paige.hewitt@chron.com

Frat leaders in UT hazing death speak out

11:30 AM CST on Saturday, November 10, 2007                    Top of  page

By Len Cannon / 11 News                                                 Article

"In the week leading up to the fatal night, the pledges had been forced to do hours of exercises with no water, were whipped with a paddle and deprived of sleep. On the night Phoummarath passed out, he had a blood alcohol level five times the legal limit. It would be 12 hours before anyone noticed he wasn’t breathing. “I was there before the paramedics, and I was going to give him CPR, but he was long passed.” "

“I should have stepped in and stopped him, because I should have been a better leader, and better equipped to look after him,” said Andrew Nguyen, Phoummarath’s pledge captain.

Personal Injury Fraternity Death Case Settles for $4.2 Million

Family Hopes to Educate Young People to Save Lives on College Campuses.   Article      

(PRWEB) July 28, 2008 -- The family of Jack Phoummarath,  for $4.2 Million. Phoummarath, an 18-year-old freshman went through the Lambda Phi Epsilon pledge process in the Fall of 2005, died from acute alcohol poisoning with a blood content level of .50.

With the settlement proceeds, the Phoummarath family has created an educational video entitled, "Enough is Enough."

A powerful video about tragic death

COMMENTARY          

By LISA FALKENBERG Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle     Article

Aug. 20, 2008, 11:17PM      Top of  page

"THE first image is instantly sobering: The body of an 18-year-old college freshman, skin scrawled with felt-tip marker obscenities, soaked sweat shirt emblazoned with the Greek symbols of his new fraternity, lying lifeless on the hard wooden floor of a garage apartment.  Then, a photo like so many that casually paper MySpace pages these days.  "Jack" Phoummarath alive, smiling with friends, sporting a badge of college-age coolness: a full bottle of Crown Royal.  The searing juxtaposition opens an anti-hazing video, entitled Enough is Enough, produced as part of a settlement in Phanta's 2005 drinking death.

"Texas A&M University appears to be ahead of the game. In Aggieland, the video will be required viewing for an estimated 1,000 new pledges this year, with fraternity pledges seeing it in a couple of weeks, the morning they get invitations to join chapters. Prospective sorority members will see it in November."

Watch the video — www.inmemoryofjack.com

Read full Article

lisa.falkenberg@chron.com 

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