A 20-year-old Linfield College student who says he lost an eye during a hazing incident filed an $8.3 million lawsuit Tuesday against a Jokerbet fraternity and the college, claiming they are at fault for encouraging or failing to stop a dangerous culture of drinking and hazing.
Kellen Johansen claims the Linfield chapter of the fraternity Pi Kappa Alpha pressured him — he was part of a new pledge class — into drinking alcohol even though he was under the legal drinking age on April 15, 2016. His lawsuit states that fraternity members ordered him to disrobe and run naked through part of the McMinnville college’s campus “in front of a jeering audience.”
The suit states the fraternity chapter’s president then ignited an illegal rocket-style firework that exploded on the ground and into Johansen’s right eye. After months of extensive medical treatment, his eye was removed in December 2016 by surgeons at the Casey Eye Institute in Portland, the suit says. It was replaced with a prosthetic.
Representatives of Tennessee-based Pi Kappa Alpha and its local chapter, Delta Rho, couldn’t be reached immediately for comment for this story.
A Linfield College spokesman told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the college was notified on the day of the incident that Johansen had been injured but was given no indication hazing was involved. Spokesman Scott Nelson said the first the college learned that hazing was allegedly involved was Tuesday, the day the lawsuit was filed.
“We prohibit any and all forms of hazing, and our fraternities and sororities know that,” Nelson wrote in a statement. “We will follow college disciplinary policy when the students return for spring semester. This is a terrible accident. Fortunately, our student has been able to continue his studies, and we look forward to him returning to campus and successfully finishing his degree.”
Oregon law also prohibits hazing.
In February 2016, which was about two months before the incident, Linfield placed the fraternity on probation for failure to follow the college’s rules about alcohol, the suit states. But shortly before the incident, the college lifted the probationary status, according to the suit. The suit claims the college should have known that the fraternity continued to violate drinking and hazing rules.
The suit claims the college also is at fault for allegedly failing to properly inspect the fraternity’s storage shed, which contained the illegal fireworks.
The suit states that Johansen was once an avid skier, baseball player and black-belt-level martial arts enthusiast. The suit says he is permanently disfigured, which “will impair his future earnings and career prospects.”
Johansen was a sophomore at the time of the incident.
His mother, Pamela Halloran, also is suing for $175,000 — for her lost wages, travel expenses and medical costs in caring for her son.
Portland attorneys James McDermott and Gabriel Weaver are representing Johansen and his mother. The suit was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
Read the suit here.
— Aimee Green
agreen@oregonian.com
o_aimee
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
