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Prosecutors filed charges Wednesday against 13 people allegedly involved in the hazing death of the Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Eleven of the as-yet unnamed defendants face felony hazing charges, and prosecutors could file up to 20 more misdemeanor charges stemming from incidents involving different victims who were not seriously injured. Champion died after other students on the university’s famed marching band, long plagued by a culture of hazing, “punched, kicked and suffocated” him on a bus during a trip. Seven FAMU students have been charged in unrelated hazing incidents since Champion’s death. The state attorney said that in Champion’s case, he pursued only hazing charges because with the number of people involved, the burden of proof for homicide charges would have been difficult to meet. Even so, the Sentinel reported, the case could be difficult to prosecute because so many people were allegedly involved -- more than 20. Meanwhile, the university's own effort to address the hazing problem has run into obstacles, the Sentinel reported.
