Death in the Dorms (2023–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Episode #1.4 - full transcript
Every student at Baruch
was notified by e-mail
about the death
of their schoolmate.
Michael Deng was just
another Baruch student,
just like me
and just like all my friends.
I'd just see him around the
hallways and he always had,
like, a big,
goofy grin on his face.
It's like I never would have
imagined that he would be gone.
The incident
happened in December
during a retreat in the Poconos.
Law enforcement was dispatched
to a hospital.
His prognosis was not good.
We had to figure out
whether he got hurt through an accident
or somebody inflicted
an injury to this kid.
A few things weren't
really adding up for me.
This was an active cover-up.
They're not hardened criminals.
These young men are
19-year-old college students.
I could tell they were lying.
♫ Got that sinking feeling ♫
♫ Dead on the vine ♫
♫ Sky is clouded over ♫
♫ It's gonna have its time ♫
Police are investigating
the death of a freshman
from New York's Baruch College.
It is tragic beyond words.
This prosecutor is trying
to send a real message here.
...is third-degree murder.
...the case impacting
the whole state of Pennsylvania.
A criminal indictment.
...end this kind of behavior
on colleges across the country.
It's also important
to advocate for
our Asian-American community.
If we all keep silent,
this could happen again.
Enough is enough.
My name is Douglas Fierberg.
I'm a trial attorney
that specializes
in representing young people
who've been hurt
and killed in schools.
After Michael Deng's death,
we got contacted
by the Deng family.
There had been criminal
proceedings that were instituted
as a result of Michael's death.
The family wanted guidance
on how those proceedings
would be handled,
and we assisted them in that.
There are differences
in every circumstance
involving a family's trauma.
But at a certain point in time,
their ability or desire
to talk openly to the public
about the death of their son
was spent.
I feel it's important
to talk about this,
because as an Asian-American
professional,
I believe it's important
to advocate for my own people.
It's important
for people to know
that what happened
to Michael Deng
should not happen again.
I remember when I met
Michael's family
in their neighborhood
after Michael passed.
Their house was much
like a shrine to family.
Michael's fingerprints
were all over it.
His cards home to his parents,
telling them how much
he loved them were there.
His trophies were
on the mantelpiece.
His bedroom was never changed
from the moment he passed.
Michael Deng was this only child
in this first-generation
immigrant family
coming from China.
He grew up in Flushing, Queens.
Flushing is a typical
new Chinatown.
You can find all
the Chinese stores,
restaurants, the streets
you feel like in China.
In the typical Asian culture,
a boy is very important
to carry your family name.
As the only child,
you had all the hope
your parents would have
to realize their American dream.
Here, parents came from China.
They sacrifice a lot.
This is also another typical
Asian cultural value...
The parental sacrifice.
The parents would try to meet
the children's needs.
Mary stopped working
and began
studying certain subjects
that she knew she would
have to have deep knowledge of
to help Michael learn.
And Michael's father helped him
excel academically
and ultimately get
into Bronx Science,
one of the elite schools.
I think it's ranked number two
in the entire state of New York.
The reason education
is so important
to Asian-Americans
is because education
is considered
the only path to success.
Think about this as the
first-generation immigrants
can barely survive.
So the hope is for children
to do better.
Michael's parents were
deeply connected to a young man
that not only
was academically gifted,
but also gifted in athletics,
played handball.
He bowled.
He was an outgoing young man.
He loved being
on the handball courts.
He was a good teammate.
One of the characteristics
that stood out to me most about
Michael is his devotion
to his parents
and to being their son.
How his parents' hopes
were blended into that.
Because of his
academic performance,
Michael had many options
for college.
Michael didn't want to stray
too far from the family.
And in this circumstance
at Baruch,
they could experience his life
as he went to college.
Michael saw Baruch College
as a university
with very diverse cultures
and opportunities.
The student body
comes from all walks of life.
It's a very diverse
student population.
And that culture, I think,
was a big draw to Michael.
♫ Renegade, renegade ♫
♫ On my own made a way ♫
♫ Now you can't tell me
nothin' ♫
♫ Where was you when I was
hustlin'? ♫
♫ Probably sleepin'
on your Posturepedic ♫
My name is Jessica Duleba,
and I was an R.A. at the Baruch
Residence Hall for four years.
One of the first times
that I would have met Michael
would have been at our
beginning-of-the-year meeting
that each residence hall
has with its floor.
Michael was studying business,
and Baruch was known
as a business school.
We have a separate
Zicklin School of Business.
It's one of the major draws
of the university.
I'm the Editor-in-Chief of
"The Ticker," Baruch College's
undergraduate student newspaper.
Baruch College is known mainly
for its business programs,
but it has three schools.
In a physical aspect,
Baruch is unique because
we don't have a campus,
so we have a few different
buildings that are, like,
within a three-, four-block
span of each other.
There's a big student-life
community on Baruch's campus,
and it's heavily populated
with cultural clubs.
There was definitely
a club for everyone.
We had Greek life, sports.
You had your cultural groups.
The options socially were there,
and it was a very young,
hip area.
That's where everything
was happening those years.
♫ I hate to waste time
and a day ♫
♫ For real on a real long play ♫
It was definitely a
once-in-a-lifetime experience
to be in Manhattan.
♫ Yeah, yeah ♫
You know, a lot of people
don't know about Baruch College.
And people don't realize
that it is right
in the middle of Manhattan...
We were on 24th and Lexington.
Baruch is known to be
an engine of social mobility.
There are so many students
at Baruch who just want to make
a better life for themselves.
Michael Deng was one of them.
Michael's death was so unique
and tragic
in that he was just
starting out at Baruch.
To be coming in to school
and get cut down
before you get
to live much of your life...
I'm tearing up.
I don't know why.
Oh, my God. I did not expect
to be emotional, but...
He's just never
going to get that.
He's never going to get
that full Baruch experience.
Based off the research I did
for my very first article,
the Michael Deng story really
starts in December 2013.
There was a group of students
that went to the Poconos
that night.
Around 7:30 in the morning
on December 8th, 2013,
law enforcement was dispatched
to a hospital for a young man
who had been brought in
with pretty severe trauma,
who was not conscious
and was not responsive.
Due to the nature
and the severity of the trauma,
law enforcement was requested at
the hospital by hospital staff.
December 8th, 2013,
I was the on-call detective
for that weekend.
I came in to work,
and I got a phone call
from one of our patrolmen.
I arrived at the hospital
at approximately 0940 hours
in the morning.
Upon arrival
in the emergency room,
I observed a male, late teens,
laying in an emergency-room
bed being treated
and attempting to be stabilized
by medical staff.
His prognosis was not good.
They didn't know how long
he was going to last.
I was told that they were
in contact with his mother,
who was coming to the hospital
from New York.
At the time of my arrival,
this was an investigation
into an injury that occurred,
but it was more of a
fact-finding investigation
as to who and where
and what had happened.
When Detective Miller
arrived at the hospital,
he had no way to know
that what he was investigating
would ultimately turn out
to be a homicide.
19-year-old Chun "Michael" Deng
suffering blunt-force
head trauma.
Deng suffered multiple
blows and impacts to his body.
Multiple individuals
were involved in his death.
Michael's mom
showed up to a hospital room
in the middle of nowhere,
not having any idea whatsoever
as to what had been done
to her son.
Her husband is not with her.
Michael's father's in China.
In speaking with Mary about
her experience at the hospital,
the immediate word
that comes to mind is torturous.
When Detective Miller was able
to view Michael,
he was informed
by the medical doctors
that Michael was suffering
from severe brain trauma,
to the point
that they were working hard
to try to save Michael's life
and get him stabilized.
I observed fresh
scratches to his back,
his lower back, his buttocks,
and I observed
some older injuries
to his knuckles and his hands.
After speaking with
the medical staff,
I went out and introduced myself
to the three males
that had brought Michael
to the hospital...
Sheldon Wong,
Charles Lai, and Danny Chen.
I learned that they were
staying at a house
in Tunkhannock Township.
And Michael got injured
while outside playing a game
called "King of the Hill."
It was obvious to
Detective Miller, the story
that he received
was not sufficient to explain
what he was seeing
in the room at that time.
A few things weren't
really adding up for me.
At this time,
it's beginning of December.
It's cold.
Ground is frozen.
This event would have happened
in the very early morning hours,
somewhere between
3:00 and 6:00 a.m..
And at that time,
it's very uncommon
for anybody to be outside
due to how cold it is.
In addition to asking
the questions
regarding Michael's injuries,
Detective Miller began
to ask the basic
biographical information.
"Who are you?
Where are you from?"
And it's at that point
that Detective Miller discovers
that these men were from
Baruch College in New York City,
and they described this as
their getaway prior to finals.
Detective Miller was able to get
from these three young men
that there were
other individuals
back at the residence
where Michael was injured.
I spoke to
Detective Sergeant Bray,
who was working with me
that morning,
and we discussed that
he would go to the residence
to try and make contact
with anybody there.
My name is Lucas Bray.
I am the crime sergeant
for our detective unit
at the Pocono Mountain
Regional Police Department.
With the initial call,
I remember knowing
that he was in bad shape.
We had to figure out whether
he got hurt through an accident
or somebody inflicted
an injury to this kid.
I was greeted at the door
by two young college-age males.
I asked if I could come in
and talk to them,
and they invited me in.
I asked them if there was
anyone else in the house.
And they went downstairs
and gathered up a group
of what ultimately ended up
being 23 people, I believe.
This is a pretty large
vacation rental in the Poconos.
There was young men
sleeping in the basement.
There was young men
sleeping on the first floor.
And then there were young men
upstairs on the second floor
sleeping, as well.
I would ask an individual to
come into the dining-room area,
which is where I sat down
with each of them
and then asked
if they knew what happened.
Many of them claimed
that they were asleep
when the injury occurred.
"I went to bed at 11:00,
I woke up at 7:00
and heard Mike got hurt,
but I didn't...
I don't know what happened.
I didn't see anything."
That was pretty much the gist
of everybody's statements.
So in interviewing this many
people, everybody's different.
So the fact that they all gave
almost the same statement,
in that moment,
it was kind of...
I don't want to say "kind of."
It was a huge red flag.
And I realized at this point,
hey, something's not right here.
Of course,
some of the first thoughts
that went through my head were
this was a party gone wrong.
Somebody got hurt.
There was drinking or drug use.
But on first appearance in this
house, there wasn't any of that.
It was odd to me
that this large group
of college-age kids were there
and, you know,
it didn't look like
a scene from "Animal House."
Additionally, Michael,
while he was at the hospital,
did not have any sort of alcohol
in his system,
and the three young men
who brought him did not seem
to be under the influence
of any alcohol
or controlled substances.
However, these men were not
providing the level of detail
that one would expect you
to have
if your friend had suffered
such a traumatic injury.
And police have to
break through that.
They're not hardened criminals.
These young men are
19-year-old college students.
In addition to speaking
with Detective Miller
about what he was facing
at the hospital,
I did also speak
with Detective Bray,
who had indicated to me
that he believed
that he was given
a false narrative
by the young men that
he encountered at the residence.
Detective Bray,
when he is speaking
with each of the individuals,
is removing each person he's
speaking with from the group
so that they don't know what
the person before them shared.
After you would talk to
one who's a little more talkative,
you'd learn a detail from
the interview you did before
that wasn't on point.
So then you'd revisit the person
that just lied to you
in the previous interview
and address it with them.
So what started off
as one interview
for each of the 23 kids
that were there
turned into two
or three or four.
And so Detective Bray
confronted them with
the information provided
by the other individuals.
And it's at that point
that things start
to take a pretty hard turn.
The information
that Andrew Woo Cho provided
was explosive.
When Detective Bray
interviewed Andrew Cho,
Andrew Cho did inform
Detective Bray
that these men were all part
of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity.
I had received a
phone call from Detective Bray.
After hearing the news of this
being a fraternity event,
that changed my outlook
as to what had happened,
because it was apparent to me
that they were omitting facts,
and why would they just say
they were here for a weekend
getaway before finals started
when it was truly
a whole fraternity weekend?
The fact that
they failed to mention
that this was part
of a fraternity,
that they were part
of a fraternity,
was a big piece of information
for them
to just leave out innocently.
I personally didn't have
a whole lot of background
in fraternities or Greek life.
I did ask Andrew if Mike was
a member of this fraternity,
and he said that, that day,
he would have become
a member of their fraternity,
and I believe I asked,
"Did that mean he was a pledge
or along those lines?"
And he said, "Yes, he was."
It was one of those
"a-ha" moments like,
"Oh, this is probably
not an accident."
Or if it was an accident,
something bad was going on that
led to this accident.
We now have learned that this is
a fraternity event,
and that's when we go
to the point of, like,
all right, what more is there?
If they don't even want us
to know it's a fraternity,
we need to look hard.
♫ Gettin' mad
when I hit the scene ♫
♫ Livin' the dream,
chasin' the cream ♫
♫ Be mad when I hit the scene ♫
Greek life at Baruch
was a little different
than it is
at other universities.
Baruch is an urban college,
and Baruch also had
an active Asian fraternity,
and many universities
do not have that.
Pi Delta Psi is an
Asian cultural fraternity.
Delta Psi had a very big draw
for someone like Michael
because these were individuals
that were from
the New York area,
were likely to go
into businesses
still in the New York area,
and represented opportunities
for Michael in his future.
The three males
that brought Michael in...
Sheldon Wong,
Charles Lai, and Danny Chen...
Were still at the hospital
in the waiting room,
and I went back downstairs
to speak with them individually.
During the second round
of interviews,
their body language had changed,
their emotions have changed,
after I confronted them
with the fact that I knew
that this was a fraternity event
and all of them
are fraternity members.
During my interview
with Danny Chen,
he was the first one
where I started to learn
a few things
that had happened at the house
in reference to the fraternity.
Danny Chen confirmed
that they were there pledging
and it was a crossover weekend.
Historically, in fraternities,
there are three big events
that often present dangers,
labeled
"the three deadly nights"
by a former executive director
for a national fraternity.
And those three events
are when potential new members
actually get their bid
to join the fraternity.
There's another night called
"The big/little night"
where there's a big brother
that's revealed
to a younger brother.
And then there's crossing over,
which is the moment in time
when you go from being a pledge
to being a full-fledged member.
Danny Chen is very reluctant,
but does acknowledge
that Michael was injured
during a ritual
called "the glass ceiling."
When I called
Detective Miller at the hospital
to get an update
and give him details,
I learned about this
"glass ceiling" ritual.
I figured out that there were
other pledges still on scene,
and I tried starting with them.
But when I did that, I noticed
some similar inconsistencies
with their statements.
I noticed
they all had knuckle injuries,
and they all gave me some story
about where it came from,
whether it's because they boxed
or they did Muay Thai.
But I could tell they were lying
and they weren't
being forthcoming
about what was going on.
After the second round
of interviews with these males,
I did not feel
that they were being honest.
I felt that they were omitting
a lot of facts
and plainly refusing
to answer any questions
about the fraternity.
When individuals
get seriously injured
in hazing incidents,
police face a wall of silence.
Individuals who are committed
to their brotherhood.
Individuals that are committed
to presenting
a consistent story.
All of the brothers that were
still there on scene
were still sitting in this
living room, kind of all,
you know, laid out around
this living room together.
But they still had
their devices, their phones
and everything with them.
It became so apparent during the
course of all the statements
that there were communications
between all these brothers.
So I called Rob at the hospital.
We knew that the males
were on their phones.
That was observed not only
at the house by Detective Bray,
but also myself at the hospital.
They were very secretive
about what they were doing
on their cellphones.
During the interview with one
of the individuals, Charles Lai,
I confronted him
with the information
that I received
from Detective Bray.
Charles Lai admitted
that he was using his phone
to be in contact
with people at the residence.
When we learned
that they were communicating
and that there was text messages
or calls being made
to the other brothers
that were up at the hospital,
we knew that they were
acting in concert,
basically, with each other
to protect some greater good
which they were trying to do
for the fraternity.
I knew there was
a bigger picture here.
And so we took that opportunity
to secure everybody's phones.
We knew that this was getting
to be quite large
of an investigation.
We needed additional resources.
I responded back
to police headquarters
to meet with Assistant District
Attorney Kimberly Metzger,
where we were going to prepare
search warrants
for the residents, the vehicles,
and their cellular phones.
We knew that time was ticking.
Every person that we spoke to
was not from Pennsylvania.
They were all from New York.
So we knew that as soon
as they left here,
the chances of getting
a good statement from them
or collecting the evidence
that we need could be gone.
When I arrived at the house
for the very first time,
I met with Detective Bray.
There was nothing
that would ever show
that this was
a fraternity group.
It wasn't until we started
a search that we found
all of their jerseys
and sweatshirts and pants
and their banners
and all these things that would
show that this was a fraternity.
There were candles and
these candlestick-holder-looking
staffs that were
all symbolic, ritual-type things
that they used during the course
of their pledge process.
In addition to the
fraternity memorabilia that was found,
inside of a garbage can
in the kitchen,
investigators found clothing
that was identified
as belonging to Michael Deng.
And that indicated that
they undressed him
and changed his clothing.
To me, finding clothing
in a garbage can
that were not ripped
or torn, but just wet,
I took that as you were trying
to hide something
or you're trying to destroy
some type of evidence
that you knew
we may be looking for.
These individuals didn't just
fail to give information.
This was an active cover-up.
Fraternities are often secret.
They have to establish some
basis for them being special.
There are certain rituals
that are to be kept secret
amongst the members.
And often, that secrecy
becomes twisted.
Everyone has an interest
in mystery
and wanting to know
what something is about.
So that same mystery
that will draw you in
and make you want to pledge
can also be the same thing
that causes the problems,
because no one knows about it.
Michael was drawn to the idea
that this type of organization
could help him socially,
professionally.
At the same time, he didn't know
the risks that were inherent
in joining
this particular fraternity.
I think it's typical
everywhere that, you know,
you try to find your place
where you want to belong,
whether it's
like-minded people...
When you go to college,
especially,
you try to find your group
and kind of
where you want to belong
and kind of
what you want to leave behind.
It's terrible that to get
into something that means
brotherhood resulted in that.
You know, why do you have to
prove yourself to call someone
your friend or your brother?
While the cops are
breaking open the story,
Mary's alone.
The hospital and Mary were
trying to keep Michael alive
long enough for Michael's father
to arrive from China
so he could be with his son
before he passed.
Piece by piece,
interview by interview,
these brothers started
opening up
about what happened to Michael.
On the morning
of December 9th, 2013,
just before 11:00
in the morning,
we were informed
that Michael had passed away
from his injuries.
While we appreciated
on December 8th
that Michael's prognosis
was grim,
it's not until he actually
passes away the next morning
that this takes on
a whole new level
of seriousness,
because at this point now,
we're dealing with a homicide.
Going into December 2013,
Michael Deng was just another
freshman at Baruch College
who happened to be pledging for
an Asian-American fraternity.
Then, after December 2013,
everyone at Baruch
knew his name,
including the national news.
Every student at Baruch
was notified by e-mail
about the death
of their schoolmate.
Most were shocked and appalled.
At the death of
the 19-year-old freshman.
I believe it was December 12th
that we first got the e-mail
from our
residence hall director.
It was a shock to find out
that one of my students
had passed away
because we weren't given
a lot of details
in the very beginning.
There were a lot of students
that were coming
to ask me questions,
especially that it was
my student.
This did cause emotional
distress for a lot of students
because whether you know
him personally,
it's still another student
that, you know, lost his life.
To know that they go through
this extreme pressure of,
you know, being a part of
something, you know, and to
actually harm their health,
like, it's just disgusting.
Should never be pushed
to the limit
where somebody loses his life.
I did get some initial
statements about there
being this
"glass ceiling" type ritual,
but now it was our obligation
to figure out
who did what and who did more.
Police needed
to understand the nature
of the fraternity structures,
because it's only then that the
police can understand ultimately
who might be responsible
for traditions
and rituals
that have taken place.
During this weekend here in the
Poconos with this fraternity,
there were a total
of four pledges
that were crossing
over this weekend.
And Michael Deng
was just one of four.
As I'm learning about Greek life
and the fraternity structure
through the interviews,
I learned that Kenny Kwan
was the P.A.,
or the pledge assistant,
and his role
was overseeing the rituals.
Sheldon Wong was the pledge
educator and had oversight,
I guess, of all of the pledges
and the process, from start
to finish, with them.
Charles Lai was described
by Danny Chen to
be Michael's "big," or his
big brother in the fraternity.
And so when Detective Miller
went back to speak
with Charles Lai, Charles Lai
does acknowledge that
and provides additional
information about the ritual.
We learned the
"glass ceiling" for the pledges
were supposed to symbolize
the glass ceiling
that the Asian culture faces
here in the United States.
The glass ceiling
is usually considered,
at least for Asian Americans,
that once you hit a certain
level in your profession,
your career, you can only see
what's above you,
but you can never get there.
They were showing
the pledges that no matter
what type of resistance you get
while in any aspect of life,
you can always call out
for your big brother
or your fraternity
for assistance.
And here you have an incident
where a young man
wanted to pledge in this
fraternity and was proud of it,
and the fraternity
causes his death.
Michael Deng's death
definitely had a big effect
on the Baruch community,
because it's not every day that
someone dies at Baruch College
from a hazing incident.
Deaths do occur,
but they're typically, you know,
from health-related issues.
It's different
when it's a hazing death.
He died trying to basically
just find a place
he belonged and find friends.
And that's part of what
just makes the whole situation
so upsetting
for Baruch students.
December 10th of 2013,
myself and Assistant District
Attorney Kimberly Metzger,
we attended the autopsy
of Michael Deng.
And that autopsy revealed
that Michael suffered
substantial trauma.
Not only to his head, resulting
in substantial brain injury,
but also to his back,
to his internal organs.
Michael was bruised basically
from the top of his skull
all the way down
to his tailbone.
Initially,
the fraternity members
described to the police
that this was essentially
a "King of the Mountain"
type of activity
that would have perhaps
resulted in a bruise here
or a scrape there.
But the nature and extent
of Michael's injuries
were so severe
that something more had happened
to cause this level of abuse.
Ultimately, it was determined
that there were at least
three tiers
of this particular ritual
that Michael had to go through
to accomplish the goal of
bursting through
the glass ceiling.
The first mentions
of the "glass ceiling" ritual
start pretty innocuous.
They describe that the pledge
is blindfolded,
wearing his backpack.
That the pledge,
while blindfolded,
would be told to call out
for his big brother
on the other side of a field.
And as he called out, he would
try to navigate forward.
There would be other young men,
other brothers,
standing in his way.
As that pledge made
his way forward
through that second tier,
the physical contact
would become more aggressive.
Then the pledge educator
would indicate
the beginning of the third tier
of the glass ceiling.
The physical contact
becomes much more severe.
We knew that Michael was
one of four pledges that had to
partake in the last ritual
called the "glass ceiling."
And we knew that the other
three pledges
had a different experience
than what Michael did.
Michael's ritual was different
in the fact of
he got it a little bit harder.
During the function,
many members were upset
with Michael
because he wasn't
following the rules.
He was asking why they were
pushing him, shoving him.
Many members were getting
frustrated with Michael
because he seemed
to want to fight back.
At one point, Michael
is knocked to the ground
so severely that
he can't stand up on his own.
And he's told by members
of the fraternity
that he must continue forward.
When he doesn't
continue forward,
it's at that point that
Kenny Kwan took a running start.
It became apparent
that Michael went unconscious
after this last violent hit
from Kenny Kwan.
It was described that he was
laying there motionless.
They said he was stiff
and rigid in posture.
The way they were
describing him to me
is something that I was familiar
with and our detectives are...
It's called
decorticate posturing.
That's the body's reaction
to major head trauma.
Danny described that
when Michael wouldn't get up,
the other young men
brought him inside
and we're trying to get him,
basically,
back to consciousness.
They did not want
emergency personnel or police
coming to the house
and seeing how many individuals
were at the house.
They thought that one
of the ways to get him
to regain consciousness
was to put sugar on his lips.
They tried to warm him up,
tried to figure out
what was wrong with him.
Because he was wet and dirty,
they put dry clothes on him
before someone made the decision
to take him to the hospital.
We knew that there was a gap
from the time
Michael suffered his injury
to the time he arrived
at the hospital.
We knew that was more
than 15 minutes,
like some of the members said.
We had all these
different statements,
but none of them said
that it was a couple of hours.
We came to understand there was
approximately two hours of delay
from the onset of the injury,
when the individuals knew
that Michael was in trouble,
between then
and when he ultimately
got medical care.
And we know that had he gotten
timely medical care,
he would have survived.
In the days following
Michael's death, Andy Meng,
the national president
of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity,
sent out a statement
on behalf of the fraternity,
giving condolences
to Michael's family and friends
for his death.
In that statement, the
fraternity made sure to label
that event
as an unsanctioned event
and said that they would be
looking into it.
From early on,
the national fraternity
is trying to distance itself,
but we weren't convinced.
December 20th, 2013,
Detective Bray and I,
we responded into Manhattan
to go to Baruch College.
During that trip, we were also
going to meet Mary
at Michael's dorm room.
We were told,
as the R.A.s, to make sure
that nobody would go
into that room,
that it was now, you know,
under police surveillance
and that they had to come
through the room first,
before anything could be
moved or touched.
There could have been evidence
in the room.
Within the residence hall,
it was pretty eerie,
just because that room
ended up being off-limits
when that first happened,
so, you know,
no one really wanted
to go there or go to that area.
We also met with his roommate
and spoke to him about Michael.
He described Michael
as a very caring guy,
a great roommate,
a good student.
But he hasn't really
seen him recently
because he was pledging
this fraternity.
And when he did see him,
he was exhausted
or he was running
late to things.
In speaking with Mary
about her last few
conversations with Michael,
she saw him as being fatigued,
being a little frazzled.
And she interpreted
that as being due to the stress
of establishing himself
on campus.
Mary did not know that Michael
was even pledging a fraternity.
Being in a fraternity
is a unique American tradition.
Mary hadn't gone
to a U.S. college.
Neither had Michael's father,
and so Mary had no basis
for knowing that Michael
was joining something
and what in particular
that meant.
At this point in time,
Mary was most focused on
grappling with her own grief,
in part because her focus
in her life had been on her son
and raising him and her family.
In any homicide case,
it's always important
to get some type of justice.
So, you know, meeting Mary
and having a face
and an attachment now,
it made it even more important
to get her
the answers she deserved.
We also collected
his computer, his iPad,
and some other documents
from his dorm room
that would hopefully assist us
with this investigation.
This is a paddle
that was made by Michael.
And it was for his big brother.
It says, "Dear Big, hey there."
By the time you're reading this,
I should"... and in parentheses,
it says "hopefully"... "be done
with this process."
You know, it's eerie to see
that this was, you know,
the last thing
that Mike had done for this guy
who was supposed to be
his big brother,
who, you know,
ultimately contributed
and participated in those hits
that led to Mike's death.
During the first couple
of months of 2014,
we were still waiting
on a lot of evidence to come in.
One of the items
that was recovered
in the search of the residence
was a camera that someone
had brought with them
for the crossing weekend,
and they had been
snapping photos throughout
the weekend of the brothers
inside of the house.
And so through that,
as well as some of
the information we received back
from a search of Michael's
dorm room back in New York City,
we were able to piece together
the kind of missing pieces.
There were individuals that
had been present at the house
but had left prior
to the police arriving.
It turned out there were
nine of them
that had left prior to this.
So at this time, we had over
30 suspects in Michael's death.
It took a long time
to understand
what levels of culpability
for each of the 37 defendants
that were ultimately charged
in this case.
Through the communications that
we found on Charles Lai's phone,
it was clear that he was
in direct communication
with Andy Meng... again,
the national president
of Pi Delta Psi...
Throughout the morning
of December 8th, 2013.
What we saw was Andy Meng
directing Charles Lai
and other members of that colony
to cover up and hide
and make sure that
the national fraternity
was not at all attached
to this hazing event.
So here you have Andy Meng,
the national president, saying,
"Oh, I'm sorry
for the death of Michael."
We also knew that this
just wasn't colony-based
at Baruch College.
This just wasn't a chapter of
the fraternity that went rogue
and did something
they weren't supposed to.
This extended all the way
to the national president
of the fraternity
for the entire country.
Once 2015 came around,
we really had a better concept
of the fraternity,
and it's at that point that we
had enough to charge them.
There's a reason why hazing is
not permitted in fraternities...
Because of events like this.
Enough is enough.
They have to take responsibility
for the death they caused
and the cover-up
that they created.
Michael Deng was the victim
of a hazing incident.
Multiple individuals
were involved in his death.
At the point that we were
going to be charging
37 individual defendants,
what we decided was that we were
going to charge in groups.
And so the first group
was primarily everybody
that was charged with hazing.
Everybody that lied to us during
the course of the investigation,
that was considered
hindering apprehension.
And so then we eventually get up
to what we call the top tier.
Individuals that hit Michael
were responsible
during that last phase of the G.
And it also included
Sheldon Wong.
While Sheldon Wong
had no sort of
physical contact with Michael,
he was responsible
for overseeing the event,
and he, by his own statements,
could have stopped the events
at any point,
and he chose not to.
It wasn't until after
we started charging
that members started
to come forward with definitive,
hard proof of
the fraternity's knowledge
of these hazing rituals.
Daniel Li provided to us a copy
of what the fraternity called
their Pledge Education Manual.
That controlled
how the pledging process,
not only for the Baruch colony,
but for every colony and every
chapter of Pi Delta Psi.
While the actual requirements
of the "glass ceiling" ritual
were not laid out in writing
in the Pledge Education Manual,
that was clearly done
on purpose.
One of the first lines is about
how there should be
one copy printed
and then the electronic
copy should be deleted,
that any other copies
should be destroyed
because what was written in that
Pledge Education Manual
was explosive.
But what wasn't written
was even worse.
And the fraternity knew that.
What did you do
that night at the frat house?
The main actors who had
initially been charged
with murder in the third degree
ultimately pled their cases
down to voluntary manslaughter,
and each faced incarceration
as a result of their conviction.
The national fraternity was
the only defendant
that faced a jury trial
in this case.
The individuals that were
brought in
to testify in defense
of the fraternity tried
to make it seem
as if this stuff could happen
without any input from
the national fraternity.
But despite that, those jurors
saw that they, too, acknowledged
that they went through
the exact same process,
even if it had been six
or 10 years before trial.
Police had done such
a thorough investigation
and got such damning evidence
that the national organization
has no credible defense.
The fraternity was
ultimately convicted
of involuntary manslaughter,
aggravated assault,
hindering apprehension,
and hazing.
It took four years
to bring this case
to a conclusion.
And over that four years,
we worked tirelessly
to bring justice
for Michael and for his family.
And while it's a point of pride
for us in the work that we did,
there's no reason that we should
be prosecuting a fraternity
for the death of a pledge,
because it shouldn't happen.
As eager as college students
can be to find
that sense of belonging,
it's also important
to learn a big lesson
that your life
is more important.
Your individuality
is more important.
Following Michael Deng's death,
Baruch College
instated a moratorium
that basically prevents
any Greek life organization
from recruiting new members.
What happens when
an organization
can't recruit new members?
Well, the current members
just keep going to class,
and eventually they graduate,
and eventually there's
no one left in the club
and there's no current members.
And if there's no members
in the club
and there's no one who's running
things they can't afford
and there's no budget,
then the club gets labeled
as inactive.
It's horrifying that
somebody like Michael,
with all the promise Michael
had, would die in a ritual
where he's trying to succeed.
Because Michael really
could have gone through
the glass ceiling
on his own, without help,
with his family behind him,
and with every characteristic
he had already demonstrated
in his life.
Michael was full of promise,
full of pride for his family,
and full of life.
♫ Do we step into the light,
let the sunlight burn us? ♫
♫ Peel off the skin that's kept
the truth inside us ♫
♫ Let the stones crush
all our weary bones ♫
♫ When the walls come down ♫
♫ Let the tears pour out,
wash away all the past ♫
♫ We can drown in the flood,
let this breath be our last ♫
♫ As the stones crush
all we've ever known ♫
♫ When the walls come down ♫
was notified by e-mail
about the death
of their schoolmate.
Michael Deng was just
another Baruch student,
just like me
and just like all my friends.
I'd just see him around the
hallways and he always had,
like, a big,
goofy grin on his face.
It's like I never would have
imagined that he would be gone.
The incident
happened in December
during a retreat in the Poconos.
Law enforcement was dispatched
to a hospital.
His prognosis was not good.
We had to figure out
whether he got hurt through an accident
or somebody inflicted
an injury to this kid.
A few things weren't
really adding up for me.
This was an active cover-up.
They're not hardened criminals.
These young men are
19-year-old college students.
I could tell they were lying.
♫ Got that sinking feeling ♫
♫ Dead on the vine ♫
♫ Sky is clouded over ♫
♫ It's gonna have its time ♫
Police are investigating
the death of a freshman
from New York's Baruch College.
It is tragic beyond words.
This prosecutor is trying
to send a real message here.
...is third-degree murder.
...the case impacting
the whole state of Pennsylvania.
A criminal indictment.
...end this kind of behavior
on colleges across the country.
It's also important
to advocate for
our Asian-American community.
If we all keep silent,
this could happen again.
Enough is enough.
My name is Douglas Fierberg.
I'm a trial attorney
that specializes
in representing young people
who've been hurt
and killed in schools.
After Michael Deng's death,
we got contacted
by the Deng family.
There had been criminal
proceedings that were instituted
as a result of Michael's death.
The family wanted guidance
on how those proceedings
would be handled,
and we assisted them in that.
There are differences
in every circumstance
involving a family's trauma.
But at a certain point in time,
their ability or desire
to talk openly to the public
about the death of their son
was spent.
I feel it's important
to talk about this,
because as an Asian-American
professional,
I believe it's important
to advocate for my own people.
It's important
for people to know
that what happened
to Michael Deng
should not happen again.
I remember when I met
Michael's family
in their neighborhood
after Michael passed.
Their house was much
like a shrine to family.
Michael's fingerprints
were all over it.
His cards home to his parents,
telling them how much
he loved them were there.
His trophies were
on the mantelpiece.
His bedroom was never changed
from the moment he passed.
Michael Deng was this only child
in this first-generation
immigrant family
coming from China.
He grew up in Flushing, Queens.
Flushing is a typical
new Chinatown.
You can find all
the Chinese stores,
restaurants, the streets
you feel like in China.
In the typical Asian culture,
a boy is very important
to carry your family name.
As the only child,
you had all the hope
your parents would have
to realize their American dream.
Here, parents came from China.
They sacrifice a lot.
This is also another typical
Asian cultural value...
The parental sacrifice.
The parents would try to meet
the children's needs.
Mary stopped working
and began
studying certain subjects
that she knew she would
have to have deep knowledge of
to help Michael learn.
And Michael's father helped him
excel academically
and ultimately get
into Bronx Science,
one of the elite schools.
I think it's ranked number two
in the entire state of New York.
The reason education
is so important
to Asian-Americans
is because education
is considered
the only path to success.
Think about this as the
first-generation immigrants
can barely survive.
So the hope is for children
to do better.
Michael's parents were
deeply connected to a young man
that not only
was academically gifted,
but also gifted in athletics,
played handball.
He bowled.
He was an outgoing young man.
He loved being
on the handball courts.
He was a good teammate.
One of the characteristics
that stood out to me most about
Michael is his devotion
to his parents
and to being their son.
How his parents' hopes
were blended into that.
Because of his
academic performance,
Michael had many options
for college.
Michael didn't want to stray
too far from the family.
And in this circumstance
at Baruch,
they could experience his life
as he went to college.
Michael saw Baruch College
as a university
with very diverse cultures
and opportunities.
The student body
comes from all walks of life.
It's a very diverse
student population.
And that culture, I think,
was a big draw to Michael.
♫ Renegade, renegade ♫
♫ On my own made a way ♫
♫ Now you can't tell me
nothin' ♫
♫ Where was you when I was
hustlin'? ♫
♫ Probably sleepin'
on your Posturepedic ♫
My name is Jessica Duleba,
and I was an R.A. at the Baruch
Residence Hall for four years.
One of the first times
that I would have met Michael
would have been at our
beginning-of-the-year meeting
that each residence hall
has with its floor.
Michael was studying business,
and Baruch was known
as a business school.
We have a separate
Zicklin School of Business.
It's one of the major draws
of the university.
I'm the Editor-in-Chief of
"The Ticker," Baruch College's
undergraduate student newspaper.
Baruch College is known mainly
for its business programs,
but it has three schools.
In a physical aspect,
Baruch is unique because
we don't have a campus,
so we have a few different
buildings that are, like,
within a three-, four-block
span of each other.
There's a big student-life
community on Baruch's campus,
and it's heavily populated
with cultural clubs.
There was definitely
a club for everyone.
We had Greek life, sports.
You had your cultural groups.
The options socially were there,
and it was a very young,
hip area.
That's where everything
was happening those years.
♫ I hate to waste time
and a day ♫
♫ For real on a real long play ♫
It was definitely a
once-in-a-lifetime experience
to be in Manhattan.
♫ Yeah, yeah ♫
You know, a lot of people
don't know about Baruch College.
And people don't realize
that it is right
in the middle of Manhattan...
We were on 24th and Lexington.
Baruch is known to be
an engine of social mobility.
There are so many students
at Baruch who just want to make
a better life for themselves.
Michael Deng was one of them.
Michael's death was so unique
and tragic
in that he was just
starting out at Baruch.
To be coming in to school
and get cut down
before you get
to live much of your life...
I'm tearing up.
I don't know why.
Oh, my God. I did not expect
to be emotional, but...
He's just never
going to get that.
He's never going to get
that full Baruch experience.
Based off the research I did
for my very first article,
the Michael Deng story really
starts in December 2013.
There was a group of students
that went to the Poconos
that night.
Around 7:30 in the morning
on December 8th, 2013,
law enforcement was dispatched
to a hospital for a young man
who had been brought in
with pretty severe trauma,
who was not conscious
and was not responsive.
Due to the nature
and the severity of the trauma,
law enforcement was requested at
the hospital by hospital staff.
December 8th, 2013,
I was the on-call detective
for that weekend.
I came in to work,
and I got a phone call
from one of our patrolmen.
I arrived at the hospital
at approximately 0940 hours
in the morning.
Upon arrival
in the emergency room,
I observed a male, late teens,
laying in an emergency-room
bed being treated
and attempting to be stabilized
by medical staff.
His prognosis was not good.
They didn't know how long
he was going to last.
I was told that they were
in contact with his mother,
who was coming to the hospital
from New York.
At the time of my arrival,
this was an investigation
into an injury that occurred,
but it was more of a
fact-finding investigation
as to who and where
and what had happened.
When Detective Miller
arrived at the hospital,
he had no way to know
that what he was investigating
would ultimately turn out
to be a homicide.
19-year-old Chun "Michael" Deng
suffering blunt-force
head trauma.
Deng suffered multiple
blows and impacts to his body.
Multiple individuals
were involved in his death.
Michael's mom
showed up to a hospital room
in the middle of nowhere,
not having any idea whatsoever
as to what had been done
to her son.
Her husband is not with her.
Michael's father's in China.
In speaking with Mary about
her experience at the hospital,
the immediate word
that comes to mind is torturous.
When Detective Miller was able
to view Michael,
he was informed
by the medical doctors
that Michael was suffering
from severe brain trauma,
to the point
that they were working hard
to try to save Michael's life
and get him stabilized.
I observed fresh
scratches to his back,
his lower back, his buttocks,
and I observed
some older injuries
to his knuckles and his hands.
After speaking with
the medical staff,
I went out and introduced myself
to the three males
that had brought Michael
to the hospital...
Sheldon Wong,
Charles Lai, and Danny Chen.
I learned that they were
staying at a house
in Tunkhannock Township.
And Michael got injured
while outside playing a game
called "King of the Hill."
It was obvious to
Detective Miller, the story
that he received
was not sufficient to explain
what he was seeing
in the room at that time.
A few things weren't
really adding up for me.
At this time,
it's beginning of December.
It's cold.
Ground is frozen.
This event would have happened
in the very early morning hours,
somewhere between
3:00 and 6:00 a.m..
And at that time,
it's very uncommon
for anybody to be outside
due to how cold it is.
In addition to asking
the questions
regarding Michael's injuries,
Detective Miller began
to ask the basic
biographical information.
"Who are you?
Where are you from?"
And it's at that point
that Detective Miller discovers
that these men were from
Baruch College in New York City,
and they described this as
their getaway prior to finals.
Detective Miller was able to get
from these three young men
that there were
other individuals
back at the residence
where Michael was injured.
I spoke to
Detective Sergeant Bray,
who was working with me
that morning,
and we discussed that
he would go to the residence
to try and make contact
with anybody there.
My name is Lucas Bray.
I am the crime sergeant
for our detective unit
at the Pocono Mountain
Regional Police Department.
With the initial call,
I remember knowing
that he was in bad shape.
We had to figure out whether
he got hurt through an accident
or somebody inflicted
an injury to this kid.
I was greeted at the door
by two young college-age males.
I asked if I could come in
and talk to them,
and they invited me in.
I asked them if there was
anyone else in the house.
And they went downstairs
and gathered up a group
of what ultimately ended up
being 23 people, I believe.
This is a pretty large
vacation rental in the Poconos.
There was young men
sleeping in the basement.
There was young men
sleeping on the first floor.
And then there were young men
upstairs on the second floor
sleeping, as well.
I would ask an individual to
come into the dining-room area,
which is where I sat down
with each of them
and then asked
if they knew what happened.
Many of them claimed
that they were asleep
when the injury occurred.
"I went to bed at 11:00,
I woke up at 7:00
and heard Mike got hurt,
but I didn't...
I don't know what happened.
I didn't see anything."
That was pretty much the gist
of everybody's statements.
So in interviewing this many
people, everybody's different.
So the fact that they all gave
almost the same statement,
in that moment,
it was kind of...
I don't want to say "kind of."
It was a huge red flag.
And I realized at this point,
hey, something's not right here.
Of course,
some of the first thoughts
that went through my head were
this was a party gone wrong.
Somebody got hurt.
There was drinking or drug use.
But on first appearance in this
house, there wasn't any of that.
It was odd to me
that this large group
of college-age kids were there
and, you know,
it didn't look like
a scene from "Animal House."
Additionally, Michael,
while he was at the hospital,
did not have any sort of alcohol
in his system,
and the three young men
who brought him did not seem
to be under the influence
of any alcohol
or controlled substances.
However, these men were not
providing the level of detail
that one would expect you
to have
if your friend had suffered
such a traumatic injury.
And police have to
break through that.
They're not hardened criminals.
These young men are
19-year-old college students.
In addition to speaking
with Detective Miller
about what he was facing
at the hospital,
I did also speak
with Detective Bray,
who had indicated to me
that he believed
that he was given
a false narrative
by the young men that
he encountered at the residence.
Detective Bray,
when he is speaking
with each of the individuals,
is removing each person he's
speaking with from the group
so that they don't know what
the person before them shared.
After you would talk to
one who's a little more talkative,
you'd learn a detail from
the interview you did before
that wasn't on point.
So then you'd revisit the person
that just lied to you
in the previous interview
and address it with them.
So what started off
as one interview
for each of the 23 kids
that were there
turned into two
or three or four.
And so Detective Bray
confronted them with
the information provided
by the other individuals.
And it's at that point
that things start
to take a pretty hard turn.
The information
that Andrew Woo Cho provided
was explosive.
When Detective Bray
interviewed Andrew Cho,
Andrew Cho did inform
Detective Bray
that these men were all part
of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity.
I had received a
phone call from Detective Bray.
After hearing the news of this
being a fraternity event,
that changed my outlook
as to what had happened,
because it was apparent to me
that they were omitting facts,
and why would they just say
they were here for a weekend
getaway before finals started
when it was truly
a whole fraternity weekend?
The fact that
they failed to mention
that this was part
of a fraternity,
that they were part
of a fraternity,
was a big piece of information
for them
to just leave out innocently.
I personally didn't have
a whole lot of background
in fraternities or Greek life.
I did ask Andrew if Mike was
a member of this fraternity,
and he said that, that day,
he would have become
a member of their fraternity,
and I believe I asked,
"Did that mean he was a pledge
or along those lines?"
And he said, "Yes, he was."
It was one of those
"a-ha" moments like,
"Oh, this is probably
not an accident."
Or if it was an accident,
something bad was going on that
led to this accident.
We now have learned that this is
a fraternity event,
and that's when we go
to the point of, like,
all right, what more is there?
If they don't even want us
to know it's a fraternity,
we need to look hard.
♫ Gettin' mad
when I hit the scene ♫
♫ Livin' the dream,
chasin' the cream ♫
♫ Be mad when I hit the scene ♫
Greek life at Baruch
was a little different
than it is
at other universities.
Baruch is an urban college,
and Baruch also had
an active Asian fraternity,
and many universities
do not have that.
Pi Delta Psi is an
Asian cultural fraternity.
Delta Psi had a very big draw
for someone like Michael
because these were individuals
that were from
the New York area,
were likely to go
into businesses
still in the New York area,
and represented opportunities
for Michael in his future.
The three males
that brought Michael in...
Sheldon Wong,
Charles Lai, and Danny Chen...
Were still at the hospital
in the waiting room,
and I went back downstairs
to speak with them individually.
During the second round
of interviews,
their body language had changed,
their emotions have changed,
after I confronted them
with the fact that I knew
that this was a fraternity event
and all of them
are fraternity members.
During my interview
with Danny Chen,
he was the first one
where I started to learn
a few things
that had happened at the house
in reference to the fraternity.
Danny Chen confirmed
that they were there pledging
and it was a crossover weekend.
Historically, in fraternities,
there are three big events
that often present dangers,
labeled
"the three deadly nights"
by a former executive director
for a national fraternity.
And those three events
are when potential new members
actually get their bid
to join the fraternity.
There's another night called
"The big/little night"
where there's a big brother
that's revealed
to a younger brother.
And then there's crossing over,
which is the moment in time
when you go from being a pledge
to being a full-fledged member.
Danny Chen is very reluctant,
but does acknowledge
that Michael was injured
during a ritual
called "the glass ceiling."
When I called
Detective Miller at the hospital
to get an update
and give him details,
I learned about this
"glass ceiling" ritual.
I figured out that there were
other pledges still on scene,
and I tried starting with them.
But when I did that, I noticed
some similar inconsistencies
with their statements.
I noticed
they all had knuckle injuries,
and they all gave me some story
about where it came from,
whether it's because they boxed
or they did Muay Thai.
But I could tell they were lying
and they weren't
being forthcoming
about what was going on.
After the second round
of interviews with these males,
I did not feel
that they were being honest.
I felt that they were omitting
a lot of facts
and plainly refusing
to answer any questions
about the fraternity.
When individuals
get seriously injured
in hazing incidents,
police face a wall of silence.
Individuals who are committed
to their brotherhood.
Individuals that are committed
to presenting
a consistent story.
All of the brothers that were
still there on scene
were still sitting in this
living room, kind of all,
you know, laid out around
this living room together.
But they still had
their devices, their phones
and everything with them.
It became so apparent during the
course of all the statements
that there were communications
between all these brothers.
So I called Rob at the hospital.
We knew that the males
were on their phones.
That was observed not only
at the house by Detective Bray,
but also myself at the hospital.
They were very secretive
about what they were doing
on their cellphones.
During the interview with one
of the individuals, Charles Lai,
I confronted him
with the information
that I received
from Detective Bray.
Charles Lai admitted
that he was using his phone
to be in contact
with people at the residence.
When we learned
that they were communicating
and that there was text messages
or calls being made
to the other brothers
that were up at the hospital,
we knew that they were
acting in concert,
basically, with each other
to protect some greater good
which they were trying to do
for the fraternity.
I knew there was
a bigger picture here.
And so we took that opportunity
to secure everybody's phones.
We knew that this was getting
to be quite large
of an investigation.
We needed additional resources.
I responded back
to police headquarters
to meet with Assistant District
Attorney Kimberly Metzger,
where we were going to prepare
search warrants
for the residents, the vehicles,
and their cellular phones.
We knew that time was ticking.
Every person that we spoke to
was not from Pennsylvania.
They were all from New York.
So we knew that as soon
as they left here,
the chances of getting
a good statement from them
or collecting the evidence
that we need could be gone.
When I arrived at the house
for the very first time,
I met with Detective Bray.
There was nothing
that would ever show
that this was
a fraternity group.
It wasn't until we started
a search that we found
all of their jerseys
and sweatshirts and pants
and their banners
and all these things that would
show that this was a fraternity.
There were candles and
these candlestick-holder-looking
staffs that were
all symbolic, ritual-type things
that they used during the course
of their pledge process.
In addition to the
fraternity memorabilia that was found,
inside of a garbage can
in the kitchen,
investigators found clothing
that was identified
as belonging to Michael Deng.
And that indicated that
they undressed him
and changed his clothing.
To me, finding clothing
in a garbage can
that were not ripped
or torn, but just wet,
I took that as you were trying
to hide something
or you're trying to destroy
some type of evidence
that you knew
we may be looking for.
These individuals didn't just
fail to give information.
This was an active cover-up.
Fraternities are often secret.
They have to establish some
basis for them being special.
There are certain rituals
that are to be kept secret
amongst the members.
And often, that secrecy
becomes twisted.
Everyone has an interest
in mystery
and wanting to know
what something is about.
So that same mystery
that will draw you in
and make you want to pledge
can also be the same thing
that causes the problems,
because no one knows about it.
Michael was drawn to the idea
that this type of organization
could help him socially,
professionally.
At the same time, he didn't know
the risks that were inherent
in joining
this particular fraternity.
I think it's typical
everywhere that, you know,
you try to find your place
where you want to belong,
whether it's
like-minded people...
When you go to college,
especially,
you try to find your group
and kind of
where you want to belong
and kind of
what you want to leave behind.
It's terrible that to get
into something that means
brotherhood resulted in that.
You know, why do you have to
prove yourself to call someone
your friend or your brother?
While the cops are
breaking open the story,
Mary's alone.
The hospital and Mary were
trying to keep Michael alive
long enough for Michael's father
to arrive from China
so he could be with his son
before he passed.
Piece by piece,
interview by interview,
these brothers started
opening up
about what happened to Michael.
On the morning
of December 9th, 2013,
just before 11:00
in the morning,
we were informed
that Michael had passed away
from his injuries.
While we appreciated
on December 8th
that Michael's prognosis
was grim,
it's not until he actually
passes away the next morning
that this takes on
a whole new level
of seriousness,
because at this point now,
we're dealing with a homicide.
Going into December 2013,
Michael Deng was just another
freshman at Baruch College
who happened to be pledging for
an Asian-American fraternity.
Then, after December 2013,
everyone at Baruch
knew his name,
including the national news.
Every student at Baruch
was notified by e-mail
about the death
of their schoolmate.
Most were shocked and appalled.
At the death of
the 19-year-old freshman.
I believe it was December 12th
that we first got the e-mail
from our
residence hall director.
It was a shock to find out
that one of my students
had passed away
because we weren't given
a lot of details
in the very beginning.
There were a lot of students
that were coming
to ask me questions,
especially that it was
my student.
This did cause emotional
distress for a lot of students
because whether you know
him personally,
it's still another student
that, you know, lost his life.
To know that they go through
this extreme pressure of,
you know, being a part of
something, you know, and to
actually harm their health,
like, it's just disgusting.
Should never be pushed
to the limit
where somebody loses his life.
I did get some initial
statements about there
being this
"glass ceiling" type ritual,
but now it was our obligation
to figure out
who did what and who did more.
Police needed
to understand the nature
of the fraternity structures,
because it's only then that the
police can understand ultimately
who might be responsible
for traditions
and rituals
that have taken place.
During this weekend here in the
Poconos with this fraternity,
there were a total
of four pledges
that were crossing
over this weekend.
And Michael Deng
was just one of four.
As I'm learning about Greek life
and the fraternity structure
through the interviews,
I learned that Kenny Kwan
was the P.A.,
or the pledge assistant,
and his role
was overseeing the rituals.
Sheldon Wong was the pledge
educator and had oversight,
I guess, of all of the pledges
and the process, from start
to finish, with them.
Charles Lai was described
by Danny Chen to
be Michael's "big," or his
big brother in the fraternity.
And so when Detective Miller
went back to speak
with Charles Lai, Charles Lai
does acknowledge that
and provides additional
information about the ritual.
We learned the
"glass ceiling" for the pledges
were supposed to symbolize
the glass ceiling
that the Asian culture faces
here in the United States.
The glass ceiling
is usually considered,
at least for Asian Americans,
that once you hit a certain
level in your profession,
your career, you can only see
what's above you,
but you can never get there.
They were showing
the pledges that no matter
what type of resistance you get
while in any aspect of life,
you can always call out
for your big brother
or your fraternity
for assistance.
And here you have an incident
where a young man
wanted to pledge in this
fraternity and was proud of it,
and the fraternity
causes his death.
Michael Deng's death
definitely had a big effect
on the Baruch community,
because it's not every day that
someone dies at Baruch College
from a hazing incident.
Deaths do occur,
but they're typically, you know,
from health-related issues.
It's different
when it's a hazing death.
He died trying to basically
just find a place
he belonged and find friends.
And that's part of what
just makes the whole situation
so upsetting
for Baruch students.
December 10th of 2013,
myself and Assistant District
Attorney Kimberly Metzger,
we attended the autopsy
of Michael Deng.
And that autopsy revealed
that Michael suffered
substantial trauma.
Not only to his head, resulting
in substantial brain injury,
but also to his back,
to his internal organs.
Michael was bruised basically
from the top of his skull
all the way down
to his tailbone.
Initially,
the fraternity members
described to the police
that this was essentially
a "King of the Mountain"
type of activity
that would have perhaps
resulted in a bruise here
or a scrape there.
But the nature and extent
of Michael's injuries
were so severe
that something more had happened
to cause this level of abuse.
Ultimately, it was determined
that there were at least
three tiers
of this particular ritual
that Michael had to go through
to accomplish the goal of
bursting through
the glass ceiling.
The first mentions
of the "glass ceiling" ritual
start pretty innocuous.
They describe that the pledge
is blindfolded,
wearing his backpack.
That the pledge,
while blindfolded,
would be told to call out
for his big brother
on the other side of a field.
And as he called out, he would
try to navigate forward.
There would be other young men,
other brothers,
standing in his way.
As that pledge made
his way forward
through that second tier,
the physical contact
would become more aggressive.
Then the pledge educator
would indicate
the beginning of the third tier
of the glass ceiling.
The physical contact
becomes much more severe.
We knew that Michael was
one of four pledges that had to
partake in the last ritual
called the "glass ceiling."
And we knew that the other
three pledges
had a different experience
than what Michael did.
Michael's ritual was different
in the fact of
he got it a little bit harder.
During the function,
many members were upset
with Michael
because he wasn't
following the rules.
He was asking why they were
pushing him, shoving him.
Many members were getting
frustrated with Michael
because he seemed
to want to fight back.
At one point, Michael
is knocked to the ground
so severely that
he can't stand up on his own.
And he's told by members
of the fraternity
that he must continue forward.
When he doesn't
continue forward,
it's at that point that
Kenny Kwan took a running start.
It became apparent
that Michael went unconscious
after this last violent hit
from Kenny Kwan.
It was described that he was
laying there motionless.
They said he was stiff
and rigid in posture.
The way they were
describing him to me
is something that I was familiar
with and our detectives are...
It's called
decorticate posturing.
That's the body's reaction
to major head trauma.
Danny described that
when Michael wouldn't get up,
the other young men
brought him inside
and we're trying to get him,
basically,
back to consciousness.
They did not want
emergency personnel or police
coming to the house
and seeing how many individuals
were at the house.
They thought that one
of the ways to get him
to regain consciousness
was to put sugar on his lips.
They tried to warm him up,
tried to figure out
what was wrong with him.
Because he was wet and dirty,
they put dry clothes on him
before someone made the decision
to take him to the hospital.
We knew that there was a gap
from the time
Michael suffered his injury
to the time he arrived
at the hospital.
We knew that was more
than 15 minutes,
like some of the members said.
We had all these
different statements,
but none of them said
that it was a couple of hours.
We came to understand there was
approximately two hours of delay
from the onset of the injury,
when the individuals knew
that Michael was in trouble,
between then
and when he ultimately
got medical care.
And we know that had he gotten
timely medical care,
he would have survived.
In the days following
Michael's death, Andy Meng,
the national president
of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity,
sent out a statement
on behalf of the fraternity,
giving condolences
to Michael's family and friends
for his death.
In that statement, the
fraternity made sure to label
that event
as an unsanctioned event
and said that they would be
looking into it.
From early on,
the national fraternity
is trying to distance itself,
but we weren't convinced.
December 20th, 2013,
Detective Bray and I,
we responded into Manhattan
to go to Baruch College.
During that trip, we were also
going to meet Mary
at Michael's dorm room.
We were told,
as the R.A.s, to make sure
that nobody would go
into that room,
that it was now, you know,
under police surveillance
and that they had to come
through the room first,
before anything could be
moved or touched.
There could have been evidence
in the room.
Within the residence hall,
it was pretty eerie,
just because that room
ended up being off-limits
when that first happened,
so, you know,
no one really wanted
to go there or go to that area.
We also met with his roommate
and spoke to him about Michael.
He described Michael
as a very caring guy,
a great roommate,
a good student.
But he hasn't really
seen him recently
because he was pledging
this fraternity.
And when he did see him,
he was exhausted
or he was running
late to things.
In speaking with Mary
about her last few
conversations with Michael,
she saw him as being fatigued,
being a little frazzled.
And she interpreted
that as being due to the stress
of establishing himself
on campus.
Mary did not know that Michael
was even pledging a fraternity.
Being in a fraternity
is a unique American tradition.
Mary hadn't gone
to a U.S. college.
Neither had Michael's father,
and so Mary had no basis
for knowing that Michael
was joining something
and what in particular
that meant.
At this point in time,
Mary was most focused on
grappling with her own grief,
in part because her focus
in her life had been on her son
and raising him and her family.
In any homicide case,
it's always important
to get some type of justice.
So, you know, meeting Mary
and having a face
and an attachment now,
it made it even more important
to get her
the answers she deserved.
We also collected
his computer, his iPad,
and some other documents
from his dorm room
that would hopefully assist us
with this investigation.
This is a paddle
that was made by Michael.
And it was for his big brother.
It says, "Dear Big, hey there."
By the time you're reading this,
I should"... and in parentheses,
it says "hopefully"... "be done
with this process."
You know, it's eerie to see
that this was, you know,
the last thing
that Mike had done for this guy
who was supposed to be
his big brother,
who, you know,
ultimately contributed
and participated in those hits
that led to Mike's death.
During the first couple
of months of 2014,
we were still waiting
on a lot of evidence to come in.
One of the items
that was recovered
in the search of the residence
was a camera that someone
had brought with them
for the crossing weekend,
and they had been
snapping photos throughout
the weekend of the brothers
inside of the house.
And so through that,
as well as some of
the information we received back
from a search of Michael's
dorm room back in New York City,
we were able to piece together
the kind of missing pieces.
There were individuals that
had been present at the house
but had left prior
to the police arriving.
It turned out there were
nine of them
that had left prior to this.
So at this time, we had over
30 suspects in Michael's death.
It took a long time
to understand
what levels of culpability
for each of the 37 defendants
that were ultimately charged
in this case.
Through the communications that
we found on Charles Lai's phone,
it was clear that he was
in direct communication
with Andy Meng... again,
the national president
of Pi Delta Psi...
Throughout the morning
of December 8th, 2013.
What we saw was Andy Meng
directing Charles Lai
and other members of that colony
to cover up and hide
and make sure that
the national fraternity
was not at all attached
to this hazing event.
So here you have Andy Meng,
the national president, saying,
"Oh, I'm sorry
for the death of Michael."
We also knew that this
just wasn't colony-based
at Baruch College.
This just wasn't a chapter of
the fraternity that went rogue
and did something
they weren't supposed to.
This extended all the way
to the national president
of the fraternity
for the entire country.
Once 2015 came around,
we really had a better concept
of the fraternity,
and it's at that point that we
had enough to charge them.
There's a reason why hazing is
not permitted in fraternities...
Because of events like this.
Enough is enough.
They have to take responsibility
for the death they caused
and the cover-up
that they created.
Michael Deng was the victim
of a hazing incident.
Multiple individuals
were involved in his death.
At the point that we were
going to be charging
37 individual defendants,
what we decided was that we were
going to charge in groups.
And so the first group
was primarily everybody
that was charged with hazing.
Everybody that lied to us during
the course of the investigation,
that was considered
hindering apprehension.
And so then we eventually get up
to what we call the top tier.
Individuals that hit Michael
were responsible
during that last phase of the G.
And it also included
Sheldon Wong.
While Sheldon Wong
had no sort of
physical contact with Michael,
he was responsible
for overseeing the event,
and he, by his own statements,
could have stopped the events
at any point,
and he chose not to.
It wasn't until after
we started charging
that members started
to come forward with definitive,
hard proof of
the fraternity's knowledge
of these hazing rituals.
Daniel Li provided to us a copy
of what the fraternity called
their Pledge Education Manual.
That controlled
how the pledging process,
not only for the Baruch colony,
but for every colony and every
chapter of Pi Delta Psi.
While the actual requirements
of the "glass ceiling" ritual
were not laid out in writing
in the Pledge Education Manual,
that was clearly done
on purpose.
One of the first lines is about
how there should be
one copy printed
and then the electronic
copy should be deleted,
that any other copies
should be destroyed
because what was written in that
Pledge Education Manual
was explosive.
But what wasn't written
was even worse.
And the fraternity knew that.
What did you do
that night at the frat house?
The main actors who had
initially been charged
with murder in the third degree
ultimately pled their cases
down to voluntary manslaughter,
and each faced incarceration
as a result of their conviction.
The national fraternity was
the only defendant
that faced a jury trial
in this case.
The individuals that were
brought in
to testify in defense
of the fraternity tried
to make it seem
as if this stuff could happen
without any input from
the national fraternity.
But despite that, those jurors
saw that they, too, acknowledged
that they went through
the exact same process,
even if it had been six
or 10 years before trial.
Police had done such
a thorough investigation
and got such damning evidence
that the national organization
has no credible defense.
The fraternity was
ultimately convicted
of involuntary manslaughter,
aggravated assault,
hindering apprehension,
and hazing.
It took four years
to bring this case
to a conclusion.
And over that four years,
we worked tirelessly
to bring justice
for Michael and for his family.
And while it's a point of pride
for us in the work that we did,
there's no reason that we should
be prosecuting a fraternity
for the death of a pledge,
because it shouldn't happen.
As eager as college students
can be to find
that sense of belonging,
it's also important
to learn a big lesson
that your life
is more important.
Your individuality
is more important.
Following Michael Deng's death,
Baruch College
instated a moratorium
that basically prevents
any Greek life organization
from recruiting new members.
What happens when
an organization
can't recruit new members?
Well, the current members
just keep going to class,
and eventually they graduate,
and eventually there's
no one left in the club
and there's no current members.
And if there's no members
in the club
and there's no one who's running
things they can't afford
and there's no budget,
then the club gets labeled
as inactive.
It's horrifying that
somebody like Michael,
with all the promise Michael
had, would die in a ritual
where he's trying to succeed.
Because Michael really
could have gone through
the glass ceiling
on his own, without help,
with his family behind him,
and with every characteristic
he had already demonstrated
in his life.
Michael was full of promise,
full of pride for his family,
and full of life.
♫ Do we step into the light,
let the sunlight burn us? ♫
♫ Peel off the skin that's kept
the truth inside us ♫
♫ Let the stones crush
all our weary bones ♫
♫ When the walls come down ♫
♫ Let the tears pour out,
wash away all the past ♫
♫ We can drown in the flood,
let this breath be our last ♫
♫ As the stones crush
all we've ever known ♫
♫ When the walls come down ♫