A Prince George's County jury has awarded $375,000 to a former University of Maryland student who was hospitalized for a week after being beaten severely by members of Omega Psi Phi fraternity during an underground initiation four years ago.
Most of the award -- $300,000 -- was granted to Joseph J. Snell, 26, as punitive damages against the fraternity, an international civic and service
organization with more than 140,000 members. Snell sued the fraternity in 1995 after 24 members agreed to pay his medical expenses but only half of them did so.
In recent years, Omega Psi Phi and the country's seven other black Greek-letter fraternities and sororities have moved to discourage hazing. In 1990, they banned "pledging," several weeks when those seeking membership often were required to dress alike, walk in lines, respond to the whims of "big brothers" or "big sisters," learn history and repeat it on demand.
But Snell said that over a period of about four weeks in 1993, fraternity members at the College Park campus regularly beat him with a hammer, horse-hair whip, broken chair leg and brush. Sometimes, the beatings occurred in a basement room on campus, sometimes in a fraternity brother's Greenbelt apartment, sometimes behind a College Park school at night, he testified.
Once, the fraternity brothers put a space heater next to Snell's face to darken his skin because they claimed he was not "black" enough to become part of the fraternity. Snell, a junior at the time, later called a suicide hotline, was hospitalized and remained terrified and despondent after his release.
What hurt the most, Snell said, was that when he finally told authorities his story, most of his peers at the university ostracized him, did not believe him and even labeled him a troublemaker.
"It brings some closure in that an institution that people still place some degree of faith in validated me," said Snell, who lives and works in Minneapolis. "The jury believed me." Snell's father, Joseph E. Snell Jr., a D.C. police officer, said he was surprised and pleased by the jury's verdict and by his son's strength. "I'm proud of my son for standing up and doing the right thing," he said. "I think it shows character and honor."
Dorsey C. Miller, the national president of Omega Psi Phi, and John S. Epps, the executive director, were attending an annual meeting and could not be reached for comment, said a secretary who answered the telephone at Epps's office in Decatur, Ga. Telephone calls to John Clark, the attorney for the organization, were not returned. And telephone calls to Omega Psi Phi's national headquarters in the District were not answered.
The fraternity argued during trial that the beatings were committed by rogue members whose actions were not authorized by the fraternity. In a news release posted on a Web site maintained by Omega Psi Phi on the Internet, Miller outlined the organization's anti-hazing policy. "We are taking this unprecedented step to let the public know that Omega Psi Phi does not approve of any physical or mental harassment or hazing in any of its activities," Miller is quoted as saying.
Criminal hazing charges were filed against 24 members of the fraternity after the incident became public, but the charges either were dropped or placed on the court's inactive docket after the members agreed to apologize, pay Snell's medical expenses and perform community service. The University of Maryland also banned the fraternity from its College Park campus for five years. That ban expires next year.
The fraternity has 10 days to file a motion asking Circuit Court Judge Arthur M. Ahalt to reduce the punitive damages. Doug Fierberg, Snell's attorney, said this is one of the largest judgments a Maryland jury has awarded in a hazing case in which the victim survived. After the three-day trial, which ended last Thursday, the six-member jury found the international chapter and College Park chapter of the fraternity responsible for the hazing. The award included $75,000 to compensate Snell for his physical and emotional injuries.
"Omega Psi Phi never issued an apology, never admitted to it, never tried to make it right," Fierberg said. "Omega Psi Phi never punished any of their members who did the abuse. Every one of them retained their membership privileges. That was big for the jury."
Drury Bagwell, assistant vice president for student affairs at the university, said the jury award sends a message about hazing. "I hope the message is that society will not tolerate people abusing each other," Bagwell said.
Snell, who completed his bachelor's degree in criminal science through an exchange program at Moorhead State University in Minnesota, said his family's support helped him survive.
"I was really proud that my family and friends were always around me," he said. "When the opposition would badger me, I could look back and see my mom, or my dad or my aunt. That was really good."
