A Bar Near LSU Faces Criminal Charges and Civil Suits After a Student Dies By KARLA HAWORTH Baton Rouge, La. The night Benjamin Wynne died, unconscious fraternity pledges were everywhere: crumpled in the shopping carts that wheeled them out of Murphy's Bar; passed out in the back of pickup trucks; sprawled on the floors and couches of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house at Louisiana State University, where they slept off a fog of cheap beer and hard liquor. ALSO SEE: An overview and related stories At least 10 pledges were passed out on the floor or slumped over tables at Murphy's, where their new brothers had taken them to celebrate their acceptance into the fraternity. One pledge lay across a table next to two of the bar's employees, who seemed unconcerned, one witness said. Police say the employees, like everyone else on the night of August 25, 1997, did nothing to stop the free flow of alcohol to the 37 S.A.E. pledges and 46 active members who were under the legal drinking age. That lack of action, police say, was disastrous: Mr. Wynne, a 20-year-old junior, died that night of alcohol poisoning after drinking heavily at the bar. Murphy's, located a block from the L.S.U. campus, never reopened after that night, but criminal charges and civil lawsuits against it are still unfolding. HBM Inc., which owns the bar, faces 87 misdemeanor counts of serving alcohol to people under 21, with a total possible fine of $8,700. Prosecutors also are seeking $15,000 from Murphy's to cover some costs of the investigation into Mr. Wynne's death. Mr. Wynne's family and Donald K. Hunt, an S.A.E. pledge who remained in the hospital for several days after the raucous night, also have filed civil lawsuits against Murphy's and the fraternity. Anthony J. Marabella, Jr., a lawyer for HBM, declined to comment. Michael Palmintier, a lawyer for the Wynne family, says Murphy's was hallowed among students because they knew they could drink there "without consequences." According to the local branch of the state Office of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Murphy's paid $1,650 in fines in December 1996 for allowing 11 underage people to drink alcohol there. Its liquor license was suspended for 10 days in 1996 for operating the bar in a way that was "adverse to the public health, safety, and morals," the office said. "The way that this bar was being managed was outrageous," says Mr. Palmintier. He says the bar should have stopped serving Mr. Wynne when he became intoxicated. "The manager knew that these kids were below the drinking age, and still they got served." Concern about binge drinking -- and about consequent deaths -- has prompted many universities and community coalitions to lobby for changes in the way bars operate. Some efforts would establish greater penalties for bars that serve underage drinkers. Other activists say student newspapers accept too many advertisements that promote binge drinking. A 1997 survey by the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that taverns in many college towns promote $1 shots, free beer, and discounts on drinks until a certain hour. L.S.U.'s Daily Reveille ran more column inches of advertisements for discounted drinks than most other student papers, according to the survey, which was conducted before Mr. Wynne's death. Afterward, the newspaper banned such advertisements. Although authorities don't have a complete picture of what happened on the night Mr. Wynne died, they know that the S.A.E. pledges were expected -- some say forced -- to drink until they threw up and passed out. The celebration at Murphy's was an S.A.E. tradition on "bid night," when fraternities choose new members. According to police, fraternity members first led the 39 pledges to a keg party at an off-campus apartment. At around 7 p.m., the pledges were loaded into pickup trucks and taken to Murphy's, which the fraternity had rented. (In Louisiana, 18-year-olds can enter bars but are not allowed to consume alcohol.) That was when the real drinking began. Four bartenders, including the S.A.E. president, Jason Griffin, served $2,185.50 worth of drinks in just two hours. Some witnesses said they saw S.A.E. members holding drinks to pledges' mouths or physically forcing them to drink. Large trash cans were set up around the bar to serve as "puke stations." One sorority member said that Mr. Wynne had approached her but was too intoxicated to speak. She later saw two S.A.E. members supporting him while a third poured more alcohol into his mouth. Mr. Wynne, who had passed out in Murphy's, was taken back to the fraternity house at about 10:30 p.m., where he was put in a room with about 25 other pledges. An S.A.E. brother said that when he checked on the pledges, at about 11:45 p.m., he noticed that Mr. Wynne's skin was blue, and that he had vomit coming out of his mouth. He tried to give Mr. Wynne CPR, but he was pronounced dead early the next morning. Authorities estimated that Mr. Wynne had downed more than two dozen drinks in just a few hours. The owners of Murphy's and their lawyers have been tight-lipped about the bar's role in Mr. Wynne's death. But members of S.A.E. have argued that Mr. Wynne bore responsibility for his actions, even if he was not of legal drinking age. In September, the fraternity pleaded no contest to 86 counts of purchasing alcohol for underage drinkers, which let to an $8,600 fine. Prosecutors waived it when the fraternity agreed to donate an equivalent sum to a community coalition. The fraternity was also required to pay $14,000 to help cover the cost of the investigation. The L.S.U. administration suspended Sigma Alpha Epsilon from the campus until 2001. According to police, Mr. Hunt, who was one of Mr. Wynne's best friends, later told authorities that he and Mr. Wynne had planned to be "the last ones standing" on bid night, and had agreed to "pace" their drinking. Both were "suicide pledges," jargon for students who rush only one fraternity. The record also shows that Mr. Wynne had had a history of problems while drinking. In January 1995, when he was 17, he was stopped for a traffic violation and was arrested for drunken driving. He pleaded guilty. The next month, he was charged with aggravated battery for throwing Mardi Gras beads at a policeman during the carnival. That case was never pursued. Mr. Palmintier, the lawyer representing the Wynne family, says Mr. Wynne's drunken-driving conviction does not mean that he was an alcoholic. The lawyer blames Murphy's and S.A.E. for putting Mr. Wynne in a dangerous position, and for failing to take care of him after he had passed out. "They put all of these boys together in a darkened room and hid them to let them sleep this off," Mr. Palmintier says. "They took these kids out of a safety net that normal people have. Perhaps Ben shouldn't have participated in this party. But he did it as a young man trying to be accepted." Following Mr. Wynne's death, L.S.U. won a $700,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to find ways to reduce high-risk drinking. J. Marcus Wright, director of the branch of the Office of Alcoholic Beverage Control in East Baton Rouge, says the grant's goal will not be easy to reach. The culture of Louisiana, particularly in the southern part of the state, is very accepting of underage drinking, he says, and Mr. Wynne's death hasn't changed attitudes much. "I really felt like the friends of the victim and the friends' parents were mitigating their children's responsibility in this," Mr. Wright says. "It was like they felt that their sons weren't responsible -- that kids are just going to do this kind of thing." The prevalence of bars and the promotion of drink specials may also contribute to the drinking culture. In an area known as "Tigerland," about a mile from the campus, four bars are bordered by several apartment complexes, where about 2,000 students live. A banner outside of a convenience store advertises $31.99 kegs of Natural Light. Marquees outside the bars advertise happy hours, "Ladies Nights," $1 shots, and other discounted drinks. "We're fighting a cultural mindset," Mr. Wright says. "We can change it only through time and education." http://chronicle.com Section: Students Page: A59