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8 tied to YSU frat to face felony hazing charges
and Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
The probe of alleged hazing incidents involving a fraternity at Youngstown State University is widening.
City officials filed felony charges Wednesday against eight people and named an additional victim of hazing involving a frater-nity at YSU.
There were 16 arrest warrants for felonious assault issued against eight men. They are between age 21 and 32 and list addresses in Campbell, Youngstown and Austintown.
Police and prosecutors contend that on Feb. 2, Resean M. Yancey, 20, was hospitalized for serious injuries from being hazed multiple times to join the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.
During the investigation, detectives discovered another victim, Breylon Stubbs, 22, who they say also was the victim of a similar hazing with the same fraternity.
According to the police report filed Feb. 2, Stubbs took Yancey to the hospital after Yancey was injured.
Yancey’s family declined to comment, and neither Stubbs nor his family could be reached.
City Prosecutor Jay Macejko said both men were beaten with fists and various objects over an extended period beginning in early January. One of the victims sought medical attention on two separate occasions, and the other victim sought medical attention once and was placed on a respirator while in the hospital.
“I am shocked at the severity of these incidents,” he said. “We hear rumors of hazing every now and then, but this is a case where reports were made and an investigation followed. I am just shocked at the severity.”
Macejko said none of the men accused has a significant criminal background, and in most cases, they are gainfully employed.
The alleged beatings did not take place on the YSU campus. Officials say the assaults took place at a home on Woodford Avenue in the city.
The investigation is ongoing, and there may be additional charges and arrests. Of the eight people charged, only one is an active student at YSU. The remaining seven men are former YSU students and currently involved with the local Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.
The fraternity was suspended last week, and the university is conducting an investigation that could lead to revocation of Kappa Alpha Psi’s charter on campus.
University President Cynthia E. Anderson commended the city and YSU police for the expediency of the investigation. She said she was surprised but more disappointed to learn that most of those charged are former YSU students.
Even though the alleged beatings occurred off campus, it could lead to discipline of the student under the student code of conduct.
Jack Fahey, vice president for student affairs, said that if a student is involved in a behavior off campus that reflects on the campus community, it can result in discipline.
Anderson said she met last week with the leaders of all fraternities and sororities on campus and reiterated YSU’s policies against hazing.
Any campus student organization or person participating in an activity that threatens the safety of the campus community will be dealt with promptly and severely, Anderson said in a statement.
Kappa Alpha Psi was chartered at YSU in 1946. Its website says the YSU chapter was the university’s first black Greek-letter organization and is “currently the oldest chapter of any fraternity at YSU.”
Kappa Alpha Psi is part of the National Panhellenic Council but not the Interfraternity Council at YSU.
Kappa Alpha Psi has had problems at other campuses.
In 2010, the Student Judicial Board at Georgia State University ruled that Kappa Alpha Psi would be permanently suspended from campus due to alleged hazing, according to its student newspaper. The board concluded that on Dec. 16, 2009, a student was “slapped in the face three times and punched in the stomach, an area of his body that had a surgical scar from a previous injury.”