News & Notes | April 25 - The Princetonian

The former president of the Phi Kappa Tau (PKT) fraternity at Rider University has settled a civil suit filed by the family of Gary DeVercelly, who died of alcohol poisoning at a PKT party in March 2007.

Michael Torney, who was president of the Rider chapter of PKT at the time, will pay $150,000 to the DeVercelly family, The Princeton Packet reported. Also named in the civil suit were PKT members and Rider students Adriano DiDonato, Dominic Olsen and Vincent Calogero.

The 18-year-old DeVercelly was a freshman business administration major at Rider and had been pledging the PKT fraternity when he died after reaching a blood alcohol concentration of .426 — more than five times New Jersey’s legal limit — after binge drinking at an initiation event held at the fraternity house on Rider’s campus.

Lawrence Township police found DeVercelly passed out on a bed at the PKT fraternity house at around 2 a.m. on March 29, 2007. He had fallen unconscious about an hour before, after drinking about three-quarters of a liter of vodka in a 15-minute time period. DeVercelly was in cardiac arrest and was rushed to Capital Health System’s Fuld Campus in Trenton after receiving initial care from emergency responders. He died about 30 hours later.

According to the lawsuit, DeVercelly was carried to a second-floor room by PKT members after he had become increasingly ill from the effects of ingesting large amounts of alcohol. The fraternity members provided him with a towel and bucket and at one point attempted to induce vomiting by placing their fingers in his mouth, the lawsuit states, adding that help was not summoned until DeVercelly's lips had already turned blue and he began foaming at the mouth.

Torney, DiDonato and Olsen were also charged with aggravated hazing in connection with the incident. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

DiDonato’s and Olsen's cases were settled through a pre-trial intervention program that sentenced them to 100 hours of community service, alcohol counseling and fines of $125 each. If the terms of their sentence are successfully fulfilled, the charges will be erased from their criminal records.

Torney, however, was not eligible for the program because he had previously pled guilty to an earlier drug charge in Morris County.