Michigan State University’s chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha is being sued by a man who says he was the victim of a beating during a party at the fraternity in October 2023.
The plaintiff alleges he was invited to the party, only to arrive and be pushed and punched down a set of stairs and off the front porch, leaving him with broken bones and other wounds.
The lawsuit — which was filed last month in Ingham County — is the latest in a series of allegations against the fraternity, which is commonly known as Pike.
Just days before the alleged beating in October 2023, a group of MSU administrators reported the frat to campus police for hazing and sexual abuse. In February 2024, someone else submitted a report to campus police about violence at the fraternity. A month later, another report alleged more violent hazing by its members. A month after that, yet another report was submitted, this time alleging that someone got "curb stomped" at the fraternity.
In January, Pike was placed on probation by the university, one day after The State News published a story about the history of uninvestigated reports. The sanction will expire at the end of 2026, according to a university webpage.
Still, the fraternity appears to be active. Its Instagram page has been advertising rush events since the academic year began. Just last week, campus police received a new report of hazing at the fraternity, according to the university’s crime and fire log.
Pike’s listed president, finance junior Benjamin Virkus, did not respond to requests for comment at time of publication.
In January, the fraternity’s then-president, Frederic Fresard, told The State News that the previous allegations were untrue and "could be a mad ex-girlfriend, somebody joking around, or, as in most cases, another fraternity."
Claims in lawsuit
The plaintiff in the lawsuit is Austin Johnson, who is described as "an adult resident of Grosse Ile, Michigan." It’s unclear if he is affiliated with MSU. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment at time of publication.
The complaint describes a party at the Pike house on October 29, 2023. Johnson was invited to the party and attended with his friend Maximus Athens, according to the complaint. (Athens did not respond to a request for comment at time of publication.)
When they arrived, Johnson and Athens were at first welcomed in, then stopped by a man at the top of the stairs, the complaint says. He told them they could not enter the house's upstairs area, and Johnson "replied ‘okay’ and began to walk back down the stairs to leave the house."
"Once (Johnson) and Athens were near the bottom of the stairs, an individual pushed them down the rest of the stairs, causing (them) to fall into each other and onto the ground," the complaint says.
It continues, "After (Johnson) picked himself up off the ground, he asked the individual for reasoning for the aggression and hostility, to which the individual punched (Johnson) in the face and pushed (Johnson) off of the porch backwards."
Two or three other individuals then "began to jump in," according to the complaint. Johnson could not see them "due to being in a ball to protect himself from being hit."
The incident left Johnson with a broken ankle, tibia and fibula, as well as "face and chin lacerations," according to the complaint.
The complaint names both the MSU chapter of Pike and its national organization as defendants. It argues that the chapter had a legal duty to protect invited guests like Johnson from such attacks and that the national organization is liable because it failed to train and monitor its member organizations to prevent such incidents.
One of the reports filed with campus police against Pike seems to describe an incident similar to the one alleged in the lawsuit, though the dates don’t line up. An anonymous report alleges a beating on Halloween night of 2023, while the lawsuit describes an incident on October 29, 2023.
The anonymous reporter said they "witnessed a poor kid get curb stomped and absolutely beat up for no apparent reason" at Pike.
"I could hear screams coming from the kid," they wrote. "They beat the living s--- out of him, not letting him stop until he was almost passed out."
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The report was made months after the alleged beating, in April 2024. The reporter said they waited to come forward because they did not know the names of the perpetrators and because "I am scared for my own personal safety."
They eventually reported the incident because they were "scared that this may happen again to some unfortunate kid," the report said.
"There needs to be someone watching these boys for the rest of the semester or they need to be off."
