Fraternity pledge at MSU hospitalized after smoking ‘dangerous amount of marijuana,’ lawsuit says

EAST LANSING, MI – A fraternity pledge attending Michigan State University in 2021 said he was hospitalized multiple times after being pressured to smoke a “dangerous amount of marijuana” during a hazing ritual.

Then, still sick and weak after his hospital stays, he says he was forced to do physical exercises and suffered a potentially life-threatening condition in which muscle tissue broke down and released toxins into his bloodstream.

“Mr. (Connor) Mui was hospitalized for seven days, not knowing whether he would fully recover or be consigned to a life of regular kidney dialysis to prevent his organs from failing,” Southfield attorney Robert Lantzy wrote in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

Mui filed the lawsuit against Lambda Phi Epsilon, a California nonprofit corporation, the MSU chapter of the fraternity and three chapter leaders.

The lawsuit is assigned to U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney in Kalamazoo.

Messages seeking comment were left with the national fraternity and a representative of the local chapter.

MSU, which is not a defendant in the lawsuit, confirmed that “Lambda Phi Epsilon renewed their Registered Student Organization membership this fall and are part of MSU’s Multicultural Greek Council.”

Less than month after Mui suffered his injuries, another MSU student, Phat Nguyen, 21, pledging at a different fraternity, died of alcohol intoxication at 413 Stoddard Avenue, East Lansing police said.

Nguyen had a blood-alcohol level of 0.386 percent and suffered “acute ethanol toxicity,” according to Frierberg National Law Group, which is representing his family in a civil lawsuit.

Others found unconscious had blood-alcohol levels of 0.467 percent, 0.324 percent and 0.128 percent, police said in court records. A motorist is presumed intoxicated at 0.08 percent.

Two defendants in Nguyen’s death are charged with hazing resulting in death, a 15-year felony, and three counts of hazing resulting in serious injuries, a 93-day misdemeanor. Another pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor charges. Six others had charges dismissed.

The fraternity chapter closed after the death.

Mui enrolled in fall 2021 as a freshman at MSU studying business. As an out-of-state student, he sought to meet other students through Lambda Phi Epsilon.

On Oct. 27, 2021, the fraternity’s pledge master summoned Mui and other pledges to his room at the fraternity house where he “pressured and coerced Mr. Mui and other pledges to smoke dangerous amounts of marijuana, which was passed around, from pledge-to-pledge, in a circle,” Lantzy wrote in the lawsuit.

“Over the course of the next 48 hours, Mr. Mui felt increasingly lethargic until he was so weak he could not walk,” the lawsuit said. He went to the emergency room the following day.

He was discharged Oct. 31, 2021, but returned the same day after he suffered nausea, vomiting and severe headaches, an altered mental state and began to hear voices, the lawsuit said.

He was discharged Nov. 1, 2021, but readmitted the next day.

“For the next five days, Mr. Mui underwent grueling medical tests, evaluations, and procedures, was diagnosed with an altered mental status and was finally discharged on November 6, 2021,” the lawsuit said.

Fraternity chapter members, including the individual defendants, were aware Mui had been hospitalized multiple times after smoking marijuana, the lawsuit.

Mui was told that his hospitalizations put him behind in pledge process, the lawsuit said.

On Nov. 15, 2021, he was called to the fraternity house to do exercises overnight without sleeping – and told to continue despite still being sick, the lawsuit said.

Two days later, Mui went to the emergency room where he was diagnosed with exertional rhabdomyolysis. He spent another seven days in the hospital, the lawsuit said.

“Following that hospitalization, Mr. Mui’s mental and physical condition continued to spiral as a result of the hazing and related misconduct he had been subjected to as a pledge of the Associate Chapter and Lambda Phi Epsilon.”

He has been hospitalized and treated multiple times since the alleged hazing occurred.

He reported hazing to school officials in December 2021. MSU found violations for causing or threatening physical safety of another and hazing, the lawsuit said.

MSU noted on its website that under Michigan’s “Garret’s Law,” hazing that endangers others for the purpose of pledging or affiliating with an organization is a crime.