As alleged in our complaint, per the fraternity’s secret tradition, Pi Beta Chi (“PBX”) members planned a February 2, 2023 rush event that involved hazing prospective members with alcohol while transporting them and other fraternity members to a remote strip club named Paradise City Gentlemen’s Club in Mathias, West Virginia.

PBX had lost its recognition at James Madison University (“JMU”) years earlier as a result of dangerous hazing and related misconduct, after which, under the direction of Defendant John C. Marshall, it continued operating at JMU “underground” and deliberately free from oversight.  Its credo, “[the] relentless and unwavering pursuit of Freedom – the right to act, speak, think, and organize as one wants without hindrance or restraint from tyranny,” reflected PBX’s values against subjugating itself, its members, and their traditions to outside review, including the legal and university regulations enacted to keep JMU students safe from fraternity misconduct that has hurt and killed countless students and others in Virginia and across the country for decades.

The cars were driven by fraternity members, who, though labeled as “designated drivers,” helped load kegs and other alcohol purchased with fraternity funds into the cars.

Some fraternity members brought drugs, including marijuana and whippets – a slang term for nitrous oxide, an inhalant that deprives the brain of oxygen and causes its users to experience effects similar to those from alcohol, including sedation, reduced coordination, and passing out. Fraternity members also purchased a handle (1.75 liters) of alcohol for each rushee, which the rushees would be compelled, forced, and pressured to consume throughout the night as part of the February 2, 2023 rush event tradition to demonstrate their commitment to becoming a brother. After arriving at Paradise City, fraternity members ushered Josh and the other rushees inside the Club, where, as throughout the night, the rushees were hazed.

Despite his obviously degrading physical condition, fraternity members plied Josh with so much alcohol that he was rendered unconscious and had to be carried out of the Club by fraternity members who mocked him and his condition with demeaning and racist slurs in their GroupMe chat.

Josh was dumped into a car without a seat belt and driven towards JMU’s campus by a fraternity member – allegedly seen by members smoking marijuana and doing whippets in the Paradise City parking lot – who was impaired, incapable of safely transporting Josh back to Harrisonburg, and would later be charged with three counts of negligent homicide. Within minutes, the car, traveling 83 miles per hour, crossed the center line, accelerated to 95 miles per hour, plowed through a fence, and slammed into a tree.

Josh and two other passengers, John “Luke” Fergusson and Nicholas Troutman, died in the wreckage.