Lawsuits place Clemson fraternity death under scrutiny
CLEMSON, S.C. - Just a day after two lawsuits were filed in connection with the September death of a 19-year-old Clemson University fraternity pledge, a prosecutor says the death has been classified as unsolved and has been turned over to the sheriff's unsolved-cases unit.
Tucker Hipps fell headfirst from a bridge into the rocky, shallow waters of Lake Hartwell, near the Clemson campus, on September 22, 2014 during a pre-dawn Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity run with 29 other students.
On Tuesday, a day after two lawsuits were filed in connection with the case, solicitor Chrissy Adams released a statement saying that after extensive interviews, "all students on the run are claiming that they have no knowledge of how Tucker Hipps could have fallen" and no one saw him fall.
Adams says "law enforcement is at a standstill" and unable to continue without further credible leads.
The lawsuits filed Monday - one brought by Hipps' estate and the other a wrongful death suit brought by his parents - lay out in detail the last hours of the 19-year-old's life and allege that a confrontation over his failure to buy fast-food biscuits may have led to his death.
The suits allege fraternity brothers ordered Hipps to bring biscuits, hash browns and 2 gallons of chocolate milk to the fraternity before the run, but he said he didn't have enough money.
During the run, one of the fraternity brothers confronted Hipps about not bringing the food, the lawsuits say, adding that, the two had a confrontation, and "Tucker went over the railing of the bridge into shallow waters of Lake Hartwell head first."
The lawsuits go on to allege that one fraternity member shined a flashlight into the water, while others ran to the side of the bridge before all of them ran back to campus.
It was seven hours after the run before one of the defendants reported to campus police that Hipps was missing, according to the suits. The teen was later found in the lake by searchers.
The lawsuit also alleges that there was a tradition in the fraternity of "requiring, pressuring, encouraging and forcing" pledges to jump off bridges over Lake Hartwell and swim to shore.
Each lawsuit seeks at least $25 million in damages, as well as unspecified punitive damages. The suits also ask for a jury trial.
The son of U.S. Rep. John Carney, D-Del., Samuel Quillen Carney, is one of five defendants named in the lawsuits. Also named are two other fraternity members - Thomas Carter King and Campbell T. Starr - as well as the university and the fraternity.
"No one - certainly no parent - can feel anything but sympathy for this family's grief and anger," John Carney and his wife, Tracey Quillen Carney, said in a statement released by his office on Tuesday. "We have faith that those trusted with investigative legal authority will act based on facts."
"Our advise to Sam since the tragedy in September has been to tell the truth and remember that any detail might help," the statement said. "That continues to be our message to him."
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Mark Reardon, an attorney for the Carney family, said that "when all the facts are known, the conclusion will be that" Samuel Carney "had no role in the tragic accident causing Tucker's death."
The other two students named in the suit have not commented. Clemson said it does not comment on pending litigation.
There has been no ruling as to the manner of Hipps' death. Authorities say it is still under investigation.
The lawsuits filed this week say Hipps was not under the influence of alcohol or any other substance during the early-morning run.
The lawsuits also allege that the fraternity members asked Clemson University for permission for the 5:30 a.m. run, which is prohibited by the hazing policies of both the national fraternity and the school, and when the school didn't respond, the members interpreted that to mean they had permission for the run.
In addition, the lawsuits also say that the local chapter had learned at least two days before Hipps' death that Clemson planned to punish fraternities "for unprecedented conduct issues over the course of the first three weeks of school" and that the problematic issues were "hazing and sexual misconduct."
The school planned to take action the evening of Sept. 22, the day Hipps died, the lawsuits say.
The Clemson website says the school held administrative hearings in November 2014 and again in January to "consider Sigma Phi Epsilon's alleged involvement in incidents that occurred during the new member process that the chapter held in the fall of 2014."
The fraternity was found to be in violation of regulations involving alcohol, hazing, harm to person, failure to comply with official request, disruption of community and ethical standards, and student organization conduct, the website says.
Clemson suspended the fraternity's organizational recognition until December 2019.