The National
Spinal Cord
Injury Association

Disability in the News

Fraternity To Pay Injured Pledge

KENT - Chad Johnson's ill-advised dive into a mud pit after a tug of war match three years ago cost the Kent State University sophomore use of his arms and legs.

It also cost his would-be fraternity $1.75 million.

Two years after filing suit against Kent State, the local and national Delta Upsilon fraternity and several other fraternities and students, Johnson and Delta Upsilon agreed to a settlement last week. The local chapter and its national organization agreed to pay Johnson $1.75 million rather than argue in court whether Johnson dived of his own accord or was hazed into doing so by fraternity members.

Johnson, then a fraternity pledge, broke his neck in the dive, damaging his spinal cord and leaving him a quadriplegic with only slight movement in his limbs. He claimed fraternity members ordered him and other pledges to dive into only a few inches of mud and refusal could have cost him membership.

In return for the payment, Johnson, 23, of Olmsted Falls, forfeits all future claims for damages or medical expenses, which his lawyers estimated two years ago could mount to several million dollars. Kent State and the other defendants were dropped from the claim.

"I think it's perfectly fair," Johnson said yesterday. "It will give me enough money to pay for some equipment that I've needed and that's exactly what I needed."

Gregory Baran, the Mansfield attorney who represented the fraternity, could not be reached. Students at the Delta Upsilon house at the university said the students involved had graduated and referred questions to Baran.

Mitchell Weissman, one of Johnson's two attorneys, said both sides would have taken a risk if the case went to court. If jurors had found the fraternity had hazed Johnson, it could have lost millions. If they ruled Johnson simply made a bad choice, he could have ended up with nothing.

"It was clearly a compromise," Weissman said. "What a jury would have done, nobody knows."

Weissman said Johnson did not want to participate in the charity tug of war in April 1995 because he had the flu and it was chilly that day. But fraternity members pressed Johnson, a former all-conference football player at Olmsted Falls High School, to compete.

After the match, Weissman said, a senior in the fraternity ordered him and others to dive into the pit. Johnson landed on his chest but his head was forced underneath him, breaking his neck.

He now lives with his parents in Olmsted Falls and must use a wheelchair. He has no movement in his legs and limited control of his arms. An electronic device implanted in his chest allows him to crudely clutch pens, pencils or silverware in one hand.

In July he plans to move to Chicago to study film at Columbia College and hopes to eventually work in film editing and directing in Los Angeles.

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