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Frat boys still not charged in death of Oakland Gardens student: DA

By Alex Robinson

More than seven months after the hazing death of a Baruch College freshman from Oakland Gardens in the Pocono Mountains, prosecutors said they are not ready to determine who will be charged and when charges will be filed.

The Monroe County district attorney’s office said it is only 75 percent of the way through its investigation into the death of Chun “Michael” Deng, 19, despite a published report quoting the Pocono Mountain Regional Police chief, Harry Lewis, who said most of the 30 fraternity members involved in the incident would soon face charges.

“That’s a very premature statement to make,” said Detective Wendy Serfass, an investigator in the Monroe County DA’s office. “There has been no final decision on who, how and when charges will be made.”

Lewis told The New York Times that prosecutors have not filed charges yet as they were still waiting for a medical report and a digital animation that would depict what happened the night of Deng’s death.

Serfass said the Monroe DA’s office was still waiting on a number of reports from other agencies and the investigation was ongoing.

“There are so many factors we have to look at,” she said.

Deng was one of four students pledging to the Pi Delta Psi fraternity at a fraternity event in the Pocono Mountains on a Dec. 7-9 weekend last year. The four participated in a “glass ceiling” hazing ritual during which blindfolded pledges wearing backpacks full of 20 pounds of sand attempted to get from one part of the yard to another while frat members tried to stop them, court records show.

One frat member told police Deng was brought into the house, where around 20 brothers were staying, after he was pushed to the ground and he laid unconscious for more than an hour, court papers said.

The fraternity brothers Googled Deng’s symptoms, changed his clothes and then drove him to the hospital where he arrived at 6:42 a.m., the documents said. He was pronounced dead Dec. 9 of what the Monroe County DA described as “major brain trauma.”

The Luzerne County coroner’s office in Pennsylvania later ruled Deng’s death a homicide.

Deng’s family is waiting to see what shape the case’s criminal proceedings might take before launching a civil lawsuit against those responsible for his death, the attorney representing the family said.

“They intend to bring a civil suit for those held responsible for Michael’s death, but they don’t want it to interfere with the criminal process,” the attorney, Douglas Fierberg, said.

The attorney said the drawn-out investigation has brought a “heap of additional uncertainty” for the family.

“They’ve lost their only child and he was a wonderful young man with a bright future,” he said.

Reach reporter Alex Robinson by e-mail at arobinson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.