Seven Indiana College frat bros brutally hazed pledges with hours of sadistic bodily exercises — sending two to the hospital with life-threatening accidents.
The seven college students from the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity allegedly hazed greater than two dozen pledges within the fraternity’s “chapter room” in October 2025, in response to court docket information obtained by CBS4.
The wannabes had been lined up in an empty room with solely a steel trough containing ice water, and instructed to carry out strenuous workouts for roughly three hours, court docket paperwork mentioned.
The brutal exercises included “brother squats,” by which the pledges would lock arms and carry out squats concurrently till exhaustion, the outlet reported.
The pledges had been additionally allegedly pressured to do push-ups, planks and leg lifts, with some then required to plunge into the ice bathtub and recite the fraternity’s creed, WTHR reported.
Two of the pledges had been taken to the hospital after complaining of problem strolling and thigh ache. One in every of them developed darkish urine, court docket paperwork detailed.
Each pledges ended up hospitalized for a number of days with rhabdomyolysis, a situation the place broken muscle tissue breaks down and dangerously releases proteins and electrolytes into the bloodstream.
The situation can result in kidney failure and is life-threatening if not handled shortly, in response to the Cleveland Clinic.
One of many pledges additionally advised investigators that Phi Kappa Psi President Arjunkumar Patel despatched him messages instructing him to lie about his accidents and inform medical doctors his situation was from figuring out on the fitness center, court docket paperwork mentioned.
The frat president then advised the pledge to delete his messages, prosecutors alleged.
Patel has been hit with felony costs for hazing and obstruction of justice. Fraternity members Joseph Moon, Noah Kucera, Logan Conforti, Casey Clarke, Ryan Donohue and Kaptur Nowaczyk had been all charged with two counts of felony hazing, authorities mentioned.
The crew of pledges and fraternity members mentioned Moon, of Elkhart, allegedly oversaw the hazing ritual and determined what grueling actions the pledges ought to partake in, in response to court docket paperwork.
Nowacyk, Donahue, Clarke, Conforti and Kucera — often called Phi Kappa Psi’s “Member Training Committee” — had been current for the degrading exercise session.
Patel was at one other occasion, supervising it from the “outdoors,” the outlet mentioned.
Indiana College’s Phi Kappa Psi chapter was positioned on a cease-and-desist in late October, suspending all group actions.
“The Workplace of Scholar Life holds all fraternities and sororities to excessive requirements of security, accountability and respectful experiences for each member,” Lamar Hylton, vice chancellor for scholar life at Indiana College Bloomington, advised the outlet.
“The allegations made within the costs introduced by the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Workplace are inconsistent with Indiana College’s values and expectations of scholar conduct.”
A stage 6 felony, which all seven members are charged with, carries a most sentence of two.5 years behind bars.
The seven fraternity brothers have been summoned to seem in court docket for an preliminary listening to on Sept. 1.
