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Man gets prison sentence in '12 YSU frat hazing case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
One of nine men accused of hazing a pair of pledges to a Youngstown State University fraternity told a judge Thursday that he was young and not thinking clearly in 2012 when the conduct occurred.
Now, three years older, Raheem Satterthwaite said the reality that he might be separated from his three young daughters brings the reality of his fate home.
“At 22, I wasn’t thinking about going to jail, leaving my daughter over hazing,” Satterthwaite told Judge Shirley Christian during his sentencing hearing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. “I’m 25 now. I look at her; I can’t leave her.”
Judge Christian sentenced Satterthwaite to a year in prison on charges of inciting to violence, a third-degree felony; and assault, a misdemeanor, for his role in the hazing early in 2012. He was given credit for 219 days he spent in the county jail.
Prosecutors said two men who wanted to pledge the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity were beaten consistently, including paddlings and beatings with fists and a clothes hanger, in early 2012 by nine men.
One of the victims went to a hospital twice because of his injuries.
Of the nine defendants in the case, six have pleaded guilty and been sentenced. Three others are set for trial that is to begin July 27.
Assistant Prosecutor Nick Brevetta asked Judge Christian to impose a two-year prison sentence because one of the victims had to seek medical treatment and also because of Satterthwaite’s extensive juvenile criminal record in Pennsylvania.
Lynn Maro, Satterthwaite’s lawyer, asked the judge to impose a sentence of probation. She said Satterthwaite has been turning his life around since he was a juvenile and that he earned a scholarship to YSU as a student at the George Junior Republic juvenile facility in Grove City, Pa., where he was sent by authorities in Philadelphia. She supplied the court with letters of support from teachers of Satterthwaite’s at the school who still keep in touch with him.
She said her client works and has three daughters to support. With probation, he would be forced to behave himself because he knows if he got into trouble, he would go to prison.
Maro also said the other defendants all received probation and Satterthwaite’s sentence was harsher than theirs.
Maro also said Satterthwaite’s name was never mentioned during a preliminary hearing in 2012 in municipal court when the victims detailed the abuse they took.
Brevetta said he was recommending a harsher sentence because of Satterthwaite’s criminal record. Judge Christian said she was bothered by two misdemeanor charges Satterthwaite picked up in 2013 and 2014 after he was indicted.
Judge Christian said it is apparent that Satterthwaite is trying to do good, but the fact he was picked up on new charges while he had a pending case does not bode well for him.
She also said there was no way anyone could condone the behavior that led to the victims’ injuries.