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Tyler Hilliard lawsuit

Here is the article link and an excerpt

 

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) — More than a year after Tyler Hilliard died from what his family alleges was a hazing incident, his family is suing the UC Riverside fraternity they claim is responsible for his death.

“We are suffering the loss,” Myeasha Hilliard, Tyler’s mother, said. “We suffer with it every day.”

Tyler, 20, was about to begin his junior year at University of California Riverside when he started pledging the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

On Sept. 15, 2018 fraternity members took the pledges to Mount Rubidoux in Riverside for a run.

“Tyler was subjected to harmful, humiliating and life-threatening hazing rituals that ended at Mount Roubidoux where he apparently collapsed and was taken by ambulance to the hospital where he died the following day,” Attorney Toni Jaramilla said. “We believe he was kicked in the chest as part of a hazing ritual.”

The family is suing the fraternity and the UC Riverside chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha. They are not suing the university. Riverside police are investigating.

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. 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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