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American Robert Violett may be linked to hazing death

Excerpt: The Philippine Star PUERTO PRINCESA CITY – Police formally filed charges of abuse of minors, obstruction of justice and violation of the anti-hazing law against 16 fraternity members and an American national for the fatal hazing of a neophyte last Sunday. The decomposing body of hazing victim Ronald Sequeña, 19, a Mechanical Engineering student at the Palawan State University, was retrieved by Coast Guard divers in the Iwahig River, some 20 kilometers south of this city, three days after it was dumped there.

Four other neophytes of the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity, all minors, landed in hospitals after the initiation rites in Barangay Sta. Lourdes.

Police have under their custody suspects Melly Nolledo, Gianne Verzosa and American national Robert Violett.

Verzosa reportedly owned the vehicle used to transport Sequeña’s body. Violett was arrested when he visited Verzosa at the city jail. Police are hunting down the officers of the fraternity. Claudio Daquer Jr.

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024, the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.

He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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