Seven arrested in Southern band hazing probe

The seventh and final suspect in a Southern University marching band hazing investigation has surrendered to Baton Rouge authorities early Wednesday, one day after six other students were arrested on charges of aggravated second-degree battery and ritualistic acts.
The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office said 20-year-old Clifton Taylor has been booked with aggravated second-degree assault and ritualistic acts.
Taylor and six other students—Harvey Harrison, 19, of Augusta, Ga., Carlos-Andres Carter, 19, of Stone Mountain, Ga., Jeremy Dixon, 22, of Natchez, Miss., Joseph L. Webb, 21, of Columbus, Ga., Lagarian Bridgewater, 22, of Baton Rouge and Aubrey Harris Jr., 20, of Canton, Miss.—are accused of severely beating three members of the band, hospitalizing two, with a wooden board.
The incident allegedly occurred last week during an initiation into an unofficial fraternity for the marching band’s French horn section.
Second-degree battery is defined as battery committed without the victim’s consent in which the offender intentionally inflicts “serious bodily injury.” Serious bodily injury involves unconsciousness, extreme physical pain or protracted and obvious disfigurement, protracted loss or impairment of a body part, organ, or mental faculty, or a substantial risk of death.
The second-degree battery charge carries either a punishment of up to five years with or without hard labor, up to a $2,000 fine or both.
State law concerning “ritualistic acts” covers hazing and includes “ritualistic mutilation, dismemberment or torture of a human” as part of an initiation or ceremony.
That subsection requires punishment from five to 25 years with up to $25,000 in fines.
According to a probable cause report released by the sheriff’s office, three members of the band were beaten last Thursday with a two-by-four wooden board as part of an initiation into the band’s French horn section. Two of the victims have since been hospitalized and are in serious condition in the intensive care unit at a Baton Rouge hospital. Their names have not been released.
The third person withdrew from the alleged initiation, sheriff’s deputies said. EBRSO spokesperson Kellie Engels did not know whether he was injured.
According to a witness, “the three subjects were blindfolded and told to remove their shirts,” as part of the alleged initiation ritual, the report said.
“They then had water splashed on them as senior members of the organization struck them numerous times with open hands. The three victims were then told to bend over at the waist, and the senior members began striking them numerous times with a large wooden board, commonly referred to as a two-by-four.
One victim elected to stop the ritual after he had been struck over 50 times with the board,” the report said.
In a statement to sheriff’s investigators, the witness identified seven members of the band’s French horn section as being present and participating in the ritual.
The alleged incident happened at a home on McClure Road in East Baton Rouge Parish—nearly five miles north of the Southern campus in the Alsen neighborhood—as part of a hazing ritual to be “initiated into an unofficial fraternity known as ‘Mellow Phi Fellow’ for the French horn section of the band,” the probable cause report said.
The band took part in Saturday’s annual Bayou Classic football game in New Orleans, featuring Southern University and Grambling State. Grambling defeated Southern, 29-14.