I was upset after reading your opinions article on the Kappa hazing trial.
You extracted your evidence of the victim’s alleged injuries from a Tallahassee Democrat article.
However, the newspaper’s information came solely from the victim’s father, and there was no proof that what was reported was actually true.
As you know, there was a trial in the matter.
At the actual trial, it was determined that many of the injuries originally reported in the Tallahassee Democrat – the injuries you mentioned in your opinion – and the degree of those injuries were fallacious.
The alleged victim had a hematoma – we call it a bruise in layman’s terms – but no internal bleeding.
His 25 stitches resulted from cosmetic surgery.
He was able to resume normal activity, did not sustain a multiple-week recovery and was not physically inhibited from returning to school.
He didn’t come home in “blood-soaked” clothes because if he did the hospital would have saved them as evidence and called the police.
And his hearing loss is disputed because it was brought up weeks after the alleged hazing and after his family hired a civil attorney.
His doctor even testified in a deposition, under oath, that his injuries “weren’t that serious.”
Because of these facts, the jury was unclear on whether or not he sustained serious bodily injury.
And rightly so!
This trial did not reflect any insufficiencies in our judiciary.
I guess as a journalist, you would prefer to look to the media as a source of facts. Luckily, the people who created our legal system were smarter than that.
Good thing you guys are striving to be journalists and not judges, lawyers or legislators.
One thing: if you’re going to write about a legal issue, please have some fundamental understanding of the law.
Ranaldo Allen, a Jacksonville native, is a member of the Alpha Xi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. and a FAMU alumnus. He was a business administration student.