By Mike Schneider
Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. — The parents of a Florida A&M band member who died after being hazed filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against the owner and driver of the charter bus where the ritual took place, and revealed new details about what might have happened the night Robert Champion died.
The suit describes two types of hazing that took place before Champion died. During the first, pledges of a band clique known as “Bus C” run from the front to the back of the bus while other band members slap, kick and hit them, the lawsuit said. A pledge who falls can be stomped and dragged to the front of the bus to run again
In another ritual known as “the hot seat,” a pillow case was placed over the pledge’s nose and mouth while the pledge was forced to answer questions. If a pledge got a right answer, the pillow case was removed briefly; a pledge with a wrong answer was given another question without a chance to take a breath, the lawsuit said.
A fellow pledge who was hazed with Champion said band members on the bus treated Champion more brutally than others, according to the lawsuit.
An attorney for the Champion family said he doesn’t know exactly why he was on the bus. Champion was a drum major, a leader in the band, and had been a vocal opponent of hazing, attorney Chris Chestnut said.
Champion suffered blunt trauma blows and he died from shock caused by severe bleeding, authorities said. Detectives are investigating the death as a homicide.
The lawsuit said bus company managers knew that FAMU band members held hazing rituals regularly on buses after football games but did nothing to stop them, and they often times told bus drivers to ignore the hazing.
The bus driver on the night of Champion’s death even stood guard outside the bus and forced the 26-year-old Champion back on the bus after he had exited to vomit, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit doesn’t explain how Champion was forced back on the bus.
“Am I suggesting that this bus driver hit him? No,” Chestnut said. “Am I suggesting that she knowingly aided and abetted? She opened a bus, it was running, the air condition is on. If that’s not participation, then I don’t know. You availed a venue.”
Ray Land, the owner of Fabulous Coach Lines, said in an email Monday that he needed some time to prepare a statement. He told The Associated Press last year that the bus driver was helping students unload their instruments when Champion collapsed.
The lawsuit names the bus driver as Wendy Millette, of Branford, Fla., where the bus company is located. No one answered the phone at that listing.
FAMU president James Ammons originally fired band director Julian White after Ammons said he failed to report hazing he knew about. White, who is now on administrative leave, denies that he didn’t do enough.
Three people were charged after alleged band hazing ceremonies Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, when Bria Shante Hunter’s legs were beaten with fists and a metal ruler to initiate her into the “Red Dawg Order,” a band clique for students who hail from Georgia.
The Board of Governors — which oversees Florida’s 11 public universities — launched its own investigation in November into whether FAMU officials had ignored past warnings about hazing. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement also is investigating the band’s finances.
