Parents allege hazing led to daughter’s death in lawsuit filed against a sorority and Cal State Fullerton
A mother and father have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Cal State Fullerton and a campus sorority, alleging that a night of alcohol-fueled hazing resulted in their daughter’s death.
The parents, in a civil lawsuit filed this week in Orange County Superior Court, allege that negligence by both the college and the Chi Sigma Phi sorority led to the March 17 death of 19-year-old Bea Angelika Macabasco Castro.
According to the lawsuit, Castro had been “rushing” the sorority for several months, a process that required her “to consume significant amounts of alcohol at various events, some of which took place on the (Cal State Fullerton) campus.”
On March 16, the lawsuit alleges, Castro attended an initiation in which “several” members of the sorority hazed her by forcing her to consume “large amounts of alcohol.” The initiation occurred at several locations, the lawsuit says, including the Cal State Fullerton campus and a Fullerton hotel.
According to the lawsuit, Castro ended up at a private home in Garden Grove, where she was found unresponsive. She was taken to the Garden Grove Hospital Center, where she was pronounced dead of what turned out to be “acute ethanol intoxication,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of financial damages from the sorority and the campus, as well as the owner of the Garden Grove home.
It wasn’t clear if a criminal investigation of the death was carried out. The Garden Grove Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.
“The loss of a child is profound,” said Ellen Treanor, an associate vice president at Cal State Fullerton. “We are so sorry for the inconsolable grief the parents must be suffering. The lawsuit that was filed will be responded to through proper channels by our legal counsel.”
The attorneys who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Castro’s parents did not respond to requests for comment.
A death earlier this year believed to be tied to a UC Irvine fraternity led the Orange County District Attorney’s Office to pursue changes to state law that would allow felony charges to be filed against those who furnish alcohol to a minor that results in great bodily injury or death.
In the Irvine fraternity case, five members of a Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity are facing misdemeanor charges related to the January death by alcohol poisoning of 18-year-old Noah Domingo. They are accused of furnishing alcohol to a minor, though prosecutors have acknowledged that there is no evidence the fraternity members hazed Domingo.