Katharina Buczek
Daniel Santulli, a nineteen-year-old student at the University of Missouri, was found unresponsive and with a blood alcohol content six times greater than the legal limit after a fraternity party.
Now, Santulli’s parents are suing Phi Gamma Delta for the alleged hazing that left their son with severe brain damage.
From Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Santulli decided to pledge for Phi Gamma Delta during his freshman year of college.
According to Stewart Tilghman Fox Bianchi & Cain (STFBC), the law firm who filed the suit, Santulli “suffered a month of abuse” while pledging.
Santulli was responsible for “Retrieving food, alcohol, and marijuana on command, buying things for fraternity members with his own money, and cleaning the bedrooms at the chapter house.”
On October 19, 2021, the hazing allegedly culminated into a “pledge dad reveal night.” On this night, “all pledges were ordered to report to the chapter house via text. They were blindfolded before their appointed ‘pledge dad.'”
This tradition is not unique to Phi Gamma Delta but rather is when an older member of any Greek life organization acts as a “mentor” to younger pledges.
After Santulli’s pledge dad was appointed to him, Santulli was given an entire bottle of vodka that “he was pressured to finish before the end of the night.”
Santulli complied until around midnight when he allegedly collapsed on a couch. Eventually, a fraternity member did find Santulli and deemed him unresponsive. STFBC also said that Santulli had “pale skin and blue lips.”
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