BATON ROUGE - The family of Caleb Wilson, a Southern University fraternity pledge who died in what police described as a hazing incident last winter, filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Friday.

The lawsuit was filed in the 19th Judicial District Court against the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, including the national organization and the Beta Sigma chapter on Southern's campus; individual fraternity members; and the state of Louisiana through the Southern University Board of Supervisors.

Investigators say Wilson, 20, died this year during an Omega Psi Phi hazing ritual in which he was repeatedly punched in the chest.

The university and fraternity did not return requests for comment. 

In 1990, the Omega Psi Phi fraternity participated in an anti-hazing summit and voted to end the traditional pledge process, replacing it with a short selection process in which prospective members would submit written applications, and attend interviews and seminars, according to the lawsuit. 

The Wilson family's lawsuit lists a number of hazing incidents that preceded the national organization's adopting an anti-hazing policy. It included:

-the 1977 death of a University of Pennsylvania pledge who died after being beaten and forced to do strenuous running;
-the 1978 death of a pledge at North Carolina Central University forced to run multiple miles and complete "grueling exercises," and
-the alcohol-related death of a junior at Tennessee State University in 1983.

In their lawsuit, Wilson's relatives say hazing was deeply engrained in the national Omega Psi Phi fraternity and that leaders should have known it would continue "underground" after the 1990 ban. 

"Omega Psi Phi ... has negligently, recklessly, and/or with an utter disregard of the dictates of prudence, empowered, entrusted, and purportedly relied on unpaid, untrained, and inexperienced college students and recent college graduates with conflicted loyalties to oversee and manage its undergraduate and graduate chapters," and that they underreport underground pledging and hazing, the lawsuit says.

The family also says that after Wilson collapsed following a fourth punch to the chest, other fraternity members lied about what happened, delaying proper medical treatment.

"Had Caleb received reasonable, appropriate and timely emergency medical assistance immediately or shortly after he collapsed on February 26, 2025, including during the time he was consciously suffering, he would have survived," they said.

The fraternity said in the spring that three members arrested on hazing accusations had been expelled from the group. Caleb McCray and Kyle Thurman were expelled from the Beta Sigma chapter and Isaiah Smith was expelled from the Lambda Alpha chapter, the group said.

Isaiah Smith was the "Dean of Pledges" for the fraternity and believed to be in charge of the new members at the time of Wilson's death, according to arrest documents.

McCray was accused of manslaughter and felony hazing; Thurman and Smith were booked for felony hazing.