Florida investigators say beatings left two hospitalized
A U.S. Secret Service agent and two other men were arrested Sunday after Florida state investigators said they uncovered evidence of an alleged hazing ritual in Miami that left two men hospitalized with severe injuries, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
Investigators arrested Marquez Christopher Pinder, 29, on Sunday. Two other men — Jared Lamar James, 26, and Elijah Delano Dyous, 29 — were also arrested for allegedly helping orchestrate the beatings, which prosecutors said were part of a fraternity hazing ritual in April.
Pinder, James, and Dyous face charges including felony counts of hazing with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with great bodily harm, and attempted manslaughter.
“In Florida, hazing is abuse and it is a crime,” Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. “It’s victims too often lie in their graves and in hospital beds.”
According to court documents, a University of Miami graduate student and another young man suffered injuries that could have been fatal. One victim required skin grafts to his backside and suffered kidney damage, while the other had a tube placed in his windpipe to help him breathe.
According to the Miami Herald, the alleged beatings occurred after the victims failed to correctly answer questions relating to initiation into the Miami chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, a historically Black fraternity where Pinder served as a “dean of pledges.”
Miami prosecutors said the alleged hazing began on April 1 at an apartment in the Sweetwater district close to Florida International University. The graduate student victim was not affiliated with FIU, prosecutors said.
The hazing continued for two days at the Sweetwater location before moving to another residence for a fourth day, according to authorities.
The beatings stopped on the fourth night when one of the victims had blood seeping through the seat of his pants, according to a warrant. The fraternity leaders then ordered the victims to strip off their clothes and place them in garbage bags, the warrant said.
The warrant said that injuries to one alleged victim “would have resulted in renal failure leading to death.” The second victim denied being paddled but acknowledged receiving emergency medical care. Medical records showed he had been hospitalized with injuries to his backside and “was intubated during his stay in the hospital to prevent further physical deterioration and death.”
Pinder is a 2021 Florida International University graduate assigned to the Secret Service’s Miami field office. He was first employed by the service in 2023, according to his LinkedIn page.
Pinder’s attorney, Justin Beckham, described the case pending against his client as “grossly overcharged,” according to the Guardian.
A spokesman for the Secret Service said “any misconduct will be addressed swiftly and appropriately upon completion of the investigative and judicial process.”
Rundle’s statement referenced previous hazing deaths in Florida. Chad Meredith, a University of Miami baseball recruit, died in 2001 while pledging the Kappa Sigma fraternity after being induced to swim across Lake Osceola in the middle of the night and drowning, Rundle said. Robert Chapman died after being pummeled by fellow members of Florida A&M University’s Marching 100 band during a ritual known as “crossing Bus C,” according to Rundle. Andrew Coffey died after pledging for the Florida State University chapter of Pi Kappa Phi after being assigned to drink a bottle of bourbon, Rundle said.
“Among some, fraternity hazing might be seen as a tradition creating a sense of belonging and brotherhood, but since 2001, hazing in Florida has killed Chad Meredith, Robert Champion and Andrew Coffey while seriously injuring others,” Rundle said. “This case, with the victims requiring hospitalization, provides clear-cut examples of hazing’s danger.”
Days before Pinder’s arrest, in a separate and unrelated case, the Secret Service said publicly that an agent assigned to Vice President JD Vance’s protective detail had become “the subject of an administrative investigation, and potential criminal inquiry, involving allegations of compromising operational and information security,” CNN reported.