Hazing charges avoided

Fraternity member to write paper on hazing, pay fines after incident
By From Wire Services

STILLWATER (AP) — An Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity member will have to write a paper on hazing and pay restitution after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of hazing.

Lyall Cobb Storandt, 22, entered his plea on Friday in connection with the beating of a 20-year-old pledge at Oklahoma State University earlier this year.

OSU banned the fraternity after Storandt and five other members were charged in Payne County District Court in March with hazing a Tulsa pledge between Jan. 23 and Feb. 11.

They allegedly beat him repeatedly with paddles and forced him to do activities such as calisthenics. The student subsequently withdrew from the university.
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Storandt, of Oklahoma City, will have to pen a five-page paper on hazing, perform 50 hours of community service and pay $625 in restitution, in accordance with a plea bargain recommended by Payne County Assistant District Attorney Tyson Branyan.

Storandt will not have a criminal record if he completes the conditions of his probation.

Another fraternity member, 21-year-old Mitchel Anthony McCowan of Stillwater, asked for a trial, which Special District Judge Michael Stano set for February.

Pretrial hearings were scheduled for the other four defendants.

Michael Dexter Combs, 21, a junior from Edmond, will return to court Dec. 18; Corrion Quentrelle Cox, 23, a senior from Oklahoma City; Joshua David Goree, 23, a senior from Bartlesville, and Jason Donel Taylor, 23, from Tulsa, were scheduled for Dec. 20 hearings.

A hazing charge carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $500 fine, on conviction.

OSU originally banned the fraternity for at least 15 years. But that suspension was modified in March to “at least five years,” university spokesman Gary Shutt said.

“The suspension may be extended beyond the five-year period if any of the fraternity members involved in the hazing incident is still enrolled at OSU,” Shutt said.