Pledge is set on fire for ‘skit’ at fraternity party, California officials say
Four fraternity members were charged after a pre-planned skit at a party left one of them with third-degree burns, California prosecutors say.
The Phi Kappa Psi members at San Diego State University were each charged “with at least one felony” in relation to the February 2024 incident, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office said in a Jan. 6 news release. They were identified as Caden Cooper, 22; Lucas Cowling, 20; Christopher Serrano, 20; and Lars Larsen, 19.
In an emailed statement to McClatchy News, a university spokesperson said the fraternity was placed on interim suspension.
“The university prioritizes the health and safety of our campus community and has high expectations for how all members of the university community, including students, behave in the interest of individual and community safety and wellbeing,” the spokesperson said.
Three of the fraternity members — Cowling, Serrano and Larsen — planned a skit for a frat party the evening of Feb. 17, 2024, prosecutors said.
At the time, however, the chapter was on probation after the university found two of its events in the fall of 2023 violated university policies about alcohol, hazing and the health and safety of students, according to a November 2023 school disciplinary action letter.
The probation, which was in place through May 2024, prohibited the chapter from hosting events with alcohol, as well as required the chapter to host educational workshops on the topics of membership expectations and risk management and hazing prevention, the letter states.
Despite the probation, the underage pledges, Serrano and Larsen, drank alcohol and moved forward with the skit, prosecutors said.
Serrano set Larsen on fire, leaving him with burns to 16% of his body, prosecutors said.
Larsen suffered third-degree burns and “spent weeks in the hospital,” prosecutors said.
The university received an anonymous call about “an alleged hazing incident” involving the fraternity last February, the spokesperson said.
After confirming the details from the anonymous call, the case was sent to university police for investigation, the spokesperson said.
Cooper, who served as the fraternity’s president, along with Larsen and Cowling lied about the incident to law enforcement, prosecutors said.
The trio also deleted evidence on social media and instructed other fraternity members to also delete evidence and told them to not speak to anyone about the incident, prosecutors said.
Among the charges the men are facing include “recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, conspiracy to commit an act injurious to the public and violating the social host ordinance,” according to prosecutors.
The men pleaded not guilty at their Jan. 6 arraignment, prosecutors said.
They “were released on their own recognizance” under certain conditions, including they not participate in fraternity parties, fraternity recruitment events and “to obey all laws,” prosecutors said.
If convicted, the men could face two months in prison and probation up to seven years, according to prosecutors.
The men are expected to appear in court on March 18 for a readiness hearing and again on April 16 for a preliminary hearing, prosecutors said.
This incident is not the first troubling incident with Greek life at the university, the Los Angeles Times reported.
It follows the 2020 death of a 19-year-old pledge who hit his head with a blood alcohol limit three times higher than the legal limit and a 2023 lawsuit, wherein a former student said he was “dumped at a hospital in an alcohol-induced coma while pledging in 2021,” the newspaper reported.
This story was originally published January 7, 2025 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Pledge is set on fire for ‘skit’ at fraternity party, California officials say."
