SANTA ANA- The family of a 19-year-old man sued the University of California, Irvine, over his death during a fraternity football hazing.Kenny Luong of Rosemead suffered head injuries when he was tackled during an August 2005 game that pitted nine pledges against 30 to 40 members of UC Irvine’s Lambda Phi Epsilon chapter. He never regained consciousness and died two days later at a hospital.
No safety equipment was used during the game, said attorney Richard Cohn, who filed the lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court on Tuesday.
“This football game was nothing more than a contrivance designed to be a vehicle through which physical abuse could be inflicted upon the young pledges,” Cohn said.
“Those responsible must be punished so that this will never happen to any other family,” Luong’s mother, Sophia Luong, said at a news conference. “If there is no threat of punishment, the hazing will just continue or become worse. I do not want to see any more senseless death like this.”
