Secret Service Agent and 2 Others Charged in Near-Fatal Fraternity Hazing

A Secret Service agent based mostly in South Florida was arrested Sunday on prices that he took half in paddling a brand new fraternity member so severely that the scholar suffered kidney injury and almost died, in line with courtroom data.

The agent, Marquez Pinder, 29, was booked right into a Miami jail on felony prices of hazing, tried manslaughter and aggravated battery with a lethal weapon, jail data present. Prosecutors have charged two different males with the identical counts; neither are Secret Service brokers.

According to an arrest warrant reviewed by The New York Times, investigators recognized the sufferer as a University of Miami legislation scholar and the fraternity concerned as Kappa Alpha Psi, which formally prohibits hazing.

The Secret Service put Mr. Pinder on go away a few month in the past, his protection lawyer, Justin Beckham, mentioned on Sunday night. Mr. Beckham declined to debate particulars of the case however mentioned it was “grossly overcharged.”

“He has served his country honorably, first in the military and then the Secret Service,” Mr. Beckham mentioned. “We look forward to fighting these charges.”

The beatings occurred on 4 events at off-campus residences in April, and the sufferer suffered extreme kidney injury, in line with the warrant. He had attended the University of Miami as an undergraduate and got interested in becoming a member of the fraternity’s chapter; He formally joined in February and was a member of a neighborhood alumni chapter as a result of he’s in graduating faculty, the warrant mentioned.

A second sufferer had related accidents, the warrant mentioned. In a press release on Sunday evening, Michael Townsend, particular agent in cost of the Secret Service’s Miami workplace, mentioned the company was cooperating with native investigators on the case. He mentioned the company “remains committed to accountability, professionalism, and integrity, and any misconduct will be addressed swiftly and appropriately upon completion of the investigative and judicial process.”

The arrest is one other embarrassing episode involving brokers at an company that has additionally been criticized for safety lapses amid a drain in personnel.

Two months in the past, an off-duty Secret Service agent was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure after the police in Miami mentioned he had masturbated in a resort hallway. He has pleaded not responsible, courtroom data present. In March, an agent by accident shot himself in the leg at Philadelphia International Airport. Also that month, a Secret Service officer was arrested on allegations that he despatched sexually express materials to a younger lady.

The prosecution of Mr. Pinder and the opposite two males additionally serves to focus on the persistent downside of the faculty hazing tradition in Florida and throughout the nation.

This yr, as an example, three fraternity members at an Arizona college have been charged in connection with the hazing dying of an 18-year-old undergraduate scholar. And this month, Ohio State University introduced a fraternity chapter had its status revoked after a scholar was hospitalized throughout a hazing episode.

To deal with widespread hazing, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in December 2024 signed into legislation a bipartisan bill requiring universities to report such episodes yearly and to introduce scholar teaching programs.

Mr. Pinder was charged beneath a Florida legislation that has made hazing a felony if it outcomes in critical damage or dying, even when the sufferer consents. The legislation was handed in 2005 after a University of Miami freshman drowned throughout a hazing episode. The legislation was expanded in 2019 after the ingesting dying of a Florida State University scholar.

In the legislation’s most high-profile check, greater than a dozen members of a marching band have been charged in the 2011 beating death of Robert Champion at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. Most obtained probation or have been ordered to carry out group service; The purported ringleader was sentenced to greater than six years in jail.

“In Florida, hazing is abuse and it is a crime,” Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the state legal professional for Miami-Dade County, mentioned in a press release on Sunday night. “Its victims too often lie in their graves and in hospital beds.”

In the case involving the Secret Service agent, the 2 victims have been every made to take a seat in a half squat with one arm pointed ahead, and they have been repeatedly struck with paddles in the event that they incorrectly answered questions concerning the fraternity and its historical past, in line with the warrant.

The beatings stopped on the ultimate day solely after one of many victims bled by their underwear and pants, in line with the warrant. The fraternity members “became upset” and ordered the 2 victims to eliminate their garments in a rubbish bag and go house, the doc mentioned.

But the well being of the legislation scholar started to fail: He skilled vomiting, fevers and intense ache on his buttocks, which required surgeons to carry out in depth pores and skin grafts to restore. According to the warrant, the scholar suffered acute kidney injury and would have died had he not sought emergency care.

Detectives discovered that the opposite sufferer, a Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue worker, had been handled for related accidents and was intubated throughout an emergency hospital keep. That man admitted to investigators that he had been in the residences however denied having been paddled, in line with the warrant.

As proof, detectives obtained textual content messages, surveillance footage displaying the fraternity members at one of many condominium complexes, and images of paddles wrapped in electrical tape, the phrases “kaboom” and “kapow” written on them.