The University of Southern Mississippi and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. are facing a federal lawsuit from a student who was hospitalized after a hazing incident that resulted in  surgery and a blood transfusion. 

Rafeal Joseph filed a complaint Monday in federal court in Hattiesburg against the university; Valencia Walls, associate director of USM’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority life; Omega Psi Phi, a national Black fraternity organization; Nu Eta, USM chapter of the fraternity; and multiple other people. 

According to the lawsuit, the abuse began in December 2022 when Joseph and other fraternity pledges for the Nu Eta chapter met in the library to have a “haze talk.” Members told pledges they would take their money and food and deprive them of sleep, and that the members would use intimidation and threaten pledges with physical abuse and beatings with a 2×4 plank of wood cut into the shape of a paddle, the lawsuit says. 

The culmination of the hazing occurred in April 2023 during the fraternity’s “Hell Night,” a ritual where members beat Joseph and pledges severely with a wooden paddle, the lawsuit alleges. Joseph was sent to the emergency room, spent nearly 11 days in the hospital and had to relearn how to walk, the suit says. 

University officials were made aware of the abuse and did nothing to help Joseph or discipline his abusers, according to the lawsuit. 

The University of Southern Mississippi and Omega Psi Phi did not respond to Mississippi Today’s request for comment by press time Tuesday. 

“We see violent incidents like these time and again across the nation but, instead of taking action, fraternity leaders and university officials alike sweep it under the rug and write it off as ‘boys will be boys,’” Bakari Sellers, a civil rights attorney at Strom Law Firm, who is representing Joseph, said in a press statement. “This isn’t youthful indiscretion. This isn’t tradition and it sure isn’t brotherhood. It’s criminal violence and abuse and it needs to end.” 

The lawsuit also alleges that in fall 2022, a student who pledged Nu Eta, months prior to Joseph also suffered hazing injuries, including a torn ligament in his knee. It required the student to use crutches to participate in the fraternity’s probate ceremony. USM did not investigate hazing-related injuries suffered by this student or take action against the fraternity, according to the lawsuit. 

“If someone struck a stranger with a 2×4, they’d face criminal charges,” Shequeena McKenzie, an attorney in Jackson who is also representing Joseph, said in a press statement. “USM’s response suggests that the same conduct inside a fraternity is somehow acceptable.”

Joseph is seeking compensation to cover medical bills, loss of income and attorney fees. He is also seeking a court order to stop defendants from continuing alleged behavior while leaving room for other remedies to be granted during a jury trial. 

It is another instance in a high-profile hazing case against Omega Psi Phi. Earlier this year, Caleb Wilson, a Southern University student in Louisiana, died in an off-campus hazing incident involving the Beta Sigma chapter of the fraternity. Three members of the organization were later expelled from the fraternity and charged with crimes related to Wilson’s death.