• Hazing Deaths Database:
  • Blog
  • Storytelling
  • Bio
  • High School Sexual Hazing Incidents
  • Campus Speaker: Hazing & Binge Drinking
  • Hank Nuwer: selected media coverage
  • World Hazing Incidents
  • “Hazing,” “Sons of the Dawn,” “Legend of Jesse Owens”

Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site

Follow me on Social Media

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Utah State update: Judge chooses lighter sentencing option

July 7, 2009 By Hank Nuwer Leave a Comment

USU student sentenced to 14 days in jail for hazing death
Crime » Christopher Ammon, 20, also got 200 hours of community service and $500 fine.

By Arrin Newton Brunson

Special To The Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:

Logan » A judge sentenced 20-year-old Utah State University student Christopher Ammon to 14 days in jail and 200 hours of community service for his role in November’s drinking death involving a Sigma Nu pledge.

First District Judge Thomas Willmore also ordered Ammon to pay a $500 fine. Ammon pleaded no contest earlier this year after a misdemeanor hazing charge was changed to unlawful sale or supply of alcohol to a minor, also a class B misdemeanor.

Ammon was a Sigma Nu member who took 18-year-old freshman Michael Starks to a sorority for an abduction prank, but left before the alleged hazing occurred. Starks was pledging last fall to the now-defunct Sigma Nu chapter.

According to court papers, as a reward for being the group’s top pledge, fraternity members chose Starks to take part in the capture ritual involving Chi Omega, a neighboring sorority.

While in the company of several sorority members Nov. 20 at an off-campus home, Starks consumed a lethal amount of vodka.

Ammon was remorseful for the death of the freshman fraternity pledge, said his attorney Dean Zabriskie.

“He no longer drinks,” Zabriskie said. “It was a wake-up call for all these young people.”

Ammon’s jail term starts Aug. 10, after his summer job ends and before USU’s fall semester starts.

“If I could do anything to go back and change that night, I would,” Ammon told Willmore.

Starks’ older brother George asked Willmore to use his discretion to teach a lesson to Ammon and his 12 co-defendants, all former USU Greek members.

“We ask you to really make sure that, when deciding what their penalties are going to be, you do everything possible to make sure they realize their role,” Starks said. “They have a lot to look forward to. Michael doesn’t.”

Willmore said he wants all the defendants involved in the tragedy to take responsibility for their actions.

“You could have gone and said, ‘Don’t give them alcohol,'” Willmore told Ammon. “You knew it would be there.”

The judge ordered Ammon to spend his community service teaching high school and college students about the dangers of binge drinking, underage drinking and hazing.

Felony hazing charges were dismissed against the Greek chapters, which had their charters revoked by their national organizations. Two members await sentencing for supplying alcohol, while four others are pursuing motions to dismiss hazing counts against them.

Reporter Brian Maffly contributed to this report.

Filed Under: Hazing News

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Inquiries

Hank Nuwer

Correspondence: Hank Nuwer at Hnuwer@hanknuwer.com   Phone number upon request.  Available presentations USA, … Email to book a date.

Sons of the Dawn

Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey: Hank's novel is for teens 11-18 but also meant to be enjoyed by … Read More

Hazing Deaths Database:

… Read More

Thank you, AFA

New scholarship from Brazil: Hazing at the university and gender violence: a literature integrative review

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7213/psicolargum.39.103.AO02 Trotes na universidade e violência de gênero: uma revisão integrativa de literatura Hazing at the university and gender violence: a literature integrative review   Novatadas en la universidad y violencia de género: una revisión integradora de la literatura Adriane Roso https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7471-133X Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), adriane.roso@ufsm.br Janine Gudolle de Souza https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6477-4190 […]

A Poland-Union City Love story.

Here is the link. Hank   My wife Gosia earned her Green Card in October 2019. She gave eight-weeks’ notice at her chief accountant job in Poland and shipped what she could to Indiana. “Wait, how did a fellow from Indiana meet a Polish lass,” you may ask? I persuaded Gosia in June of 2015 […]

No charges in Cornell hazing death

New York Post

Archives


Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site is proudly powered by WordPress