Lawsuit claims San Diego State fraternity pledge nearly died during alcohol-fueled hazing incident

Former San Diego State University student Benjamin Brennan

The suit filed by Benjamin Brennan claims that he was detained and forced to drink alcohol, resulting in a blood-alcohol content of 0.489 that put him in a coma.

San Diego Union-Tribune

April 8, 2023 1:51 PM PT

A former San Diego State University student alleges in a lawsuit filed Thursday in San Diego Superior Court that he nearly died during an alcohol-fueled hazing incident while he was pledging to the Kappa Sigma fraternity in April 2021.

Benjamin Brennan of San Luis Obispo claims in the suit that he ended up in a coma after fraternity members detained him during an initiation ritual and forcibly made him consume alcohol and drugs “in amounts that would literally kill most people.”

Brennan, who was a 19-year-old freshman at the time, further alleges that he ended up with a blood-alcohol level of 0.489 percent. In California, it is unlawful for a person under 21 to drive if they have a blood-alcohol level of 0.01 percent or higher. The threshold is 0.08 percent for those over 21.

The lawsuit states that one of the fraternity members drove Brennan to a nearby hospital and “dumped his lifeless body ... while attempting to avoid responsibility.”

Brennan is seeking an unspecified amount in damages, to be determined later.

The alleged incident occurred at an off-campus dwelling occupied by Kappa Sigma, which was operating as a fraternity even though it had been suspended by San Diego State in 2020. The school says it suspended the fraternity, in part, because of incidents of hazing and the forced consumption of alcohol.

James P. Frantz, of Frantz Law Group, speaks about a lawsuit that was filed against the Kappa Sigma Fraternity

The plaintiffs named in Brennan’s lawsuit include the national office of Kappa Sigma in Charlottesville, Va., the fraternity’s San Diego State chapter, and nine people associated with the local chapter at the time. The lawsuit also names Water Wheel Properties and 5505 Lindo Paseo Development.

Mitchell B. Wilson, executive director of Kappa Sigma’s national office, said in an email Friday: “We are aware of the pending lawsuit and once we receive it, we will review it closely.

“What happened to Benjamin Brennan is unacceptable under any circumstances, and the Kappa Sigma Fraternity has taken action against the individuals who were involved,” he wrote. “As an organization, we continue to adamantly oppose hazing, the misuse of alcohol and placing the health and safety of any person at risk.”

The Union-Tribune is not identifying the nine people named in the lawsuit at this point because it did not have adequate time to contact all of them to request a comment. One former student, when reached, declined comment.

The incident has caused anger and pain for Brennan’s stepfather, Kirk Gibson, and his wife, Lindsay.

“We want to see the bad behavior of this fraternity and its members stopped. This lawsuit is the only way we can send a message to Kappa Sigma and its members as well as other fraternities that allow this type of behavior,” the couple, who live in Pittsburgh, told the Union-Tribune in an email.

“If this had not happened, Ben would be a junior at SDSU pursuing his business degree. Instead, this life-altering event left him physically and mentally injured and has sent him into a tailspin.

“He has had to drop out of SDSU leaving him with enormous student debt and nothing to show for it. He has been unable to continue in school and is trying to focus on the medical care that he will need well into the future, if not the rest of his life, to get back to some semblance of normality,” they wrote. “We are just grateful Ben didn’t die.”

Some fraternities and sororities have been associated with trouble and injury for years at San Diego State and in the surrounding College Area neighborhood.

A Union-Tribune investigation published in November 2020 found that 19 fraternities and sororities got in various levels of trouble with the university from 2014 through 2019. Campus documents showed that the problems ranged from raucous parties where kegs of beer, hard alcohol and drugs were on hand to property damage. There were at least 18 instances in which students were taken to hospitals after drinking too much or suffering some sort of injury.

The investigation was published one year after Dylan Hernandez, a freshman from Florida, fell out of the top of a bunk bed at a campus dorm, hit his head, and later died. Prior to the accident, Hernandez had been heavily drinking at a party thrown by Phi Gamma Delta, which he was in the process of joining.

The Hernandez incident occurred on “Big Bro” night — the night when pledges learn who their big brother will be. The Brennan incident also occurred on Big Bro night.

Brennan was attempting to join a fraternity that had experienced a lot of run-ins with the university.

San Diego State put Kappa Sigma on probation in 2015 because of violations of the school’s alcohol policy. Four years later, the fraternity was given an immediate interim suspension while San Diego State investigated alcohol and health and safety violations. Further sanctions followed.

“Kappa Sigma was suspended from SDSU in 2020 and expelled in 2022,” SDSU said in a statement. “The chapter appealed the university’s decision earlier this year, and the university has upheld the expulsion.”

“The chapter is not an approved, recognized student organization ... and has not been since May 2020,” the statement added.

Union-Tribune staff writer Alex Riggins contributed to this report.