According to Baton Rouge ABC affiliate WBRZ, an arrest warrant has been signed for former LSU diver Dakota Hurbis alleging that he was the host and ringleader of a hazing event.
The warrant says that LSU police received a tip in April 2021 about an incident involving members of the swimming & diving team at Hurbis’ apartment on October 31, 2020. According to police, upperclassmen taught new recruits the team’s “fight song” and made them drink from a gallon jug of milk or alcohol if they recited the song incorrectly. The choice of milk or alcohol was left to the victim.
LSU has gained national attention for hazing incidents in recent years, which has driven the state to ratchet up punishments for hazing. LSU fraternity member Max Gruver died as a freshman after a night of coerced drinking at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house where he was a member. 10 members of the fraternity were arrested and 4 were indicted on charges of negligent homicide.
That led to the passing of legislation known as the Max Gruver Act, which made the penalty for a hazing conviction a fine of up to $1,000 and 6 months in prison for misdemeanor hazing. In cases where the forced consumption results in a blood alcohol content of .30 or higher, it becomes a felony, which results in maximums of 5 years in prison and upt o a $10,000 fine.
More recently, in 2020, a similar incident at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at LSU left one student hospitalized as his organs failed. His blood alcohol content measured .451. Terry Pat Reynolds was arrested in that incident and was the first person charged under the new Act on one count of felony hazing and 12 counts of misdemeanor hazing.
Hurbis was an NCAA Zone Diving qualifier for LSU as a senior. He finished 16th on the 1-meter springboard and 24th on the 3-meter springboard at the 2021 SEC Championship meet.
Sources close to the LSU Swimming & Diving program tell SwimSwam that Hurbis had been offered a position as a graduate assistant with the program.
LSU announced Rick Bishop as the program’s new head coach this summer. He took over the job from Dave Geyer, who resigned after 11 seasons leading the program.
Arrest warrant? Really? They should be spending their energies vaccinating people in southern LA. Save some lives- As reported at least this sounds like BS
We did this when I was at the university of Louisville. It was called the gallon challenge on our pre season team camping trip. Yes the coaches were there. The winner got a golden gallon of milk as a trophy
Awesome. Let’s make the hazing ringleader a graduate assistant!
FFS…
Feel like there has to be some information we are missing here? This seems pretty tame?
Unsolicited word of advice to college coaches – Get your act together and make sure this doesn’t happen on your team. Sit your upperclassmen down and enforce ZERO tolerance. Coach, it’s going cost you your job in the future (yes it used to be ok, look the other way). Worse than that, it’s going to cost your school their swim program. Sorry, this ain’t your father’s swim team any more.
Does this seem a bit extreme to anyone else? I get it if they’re forcing kids to drink dangerous amounts but it seems like they clearly gave an out with milk and it’s hard to imagine they could’ve been that harsh if they gave an out like that. Compared to what I’ve heard of going on in college (and on swim teams) arrest seems a bit much.
The diver may have been lactose intolerant
the ‘having milk as an option instead of alcohol’ wreaks of 20 year old brains thinking that brilliant loophole will keep them out of trouble
Have you ever chugged a gallon of milk?
Seems like this might have had something to do with Geyer’s resignation.
There is no evidence that this had anything to do with Geyer’s resignation.