BEXAR COUNTY, Texas -- The parents of Dalton Debrick filed a $1 million wrongful death lawsuit in Bexar County Thursday.
Dalton Debrick's parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit Thursday night. Their 18-year-old son died from acute alcohol poisoning following a fraternity event in 2014. An autopsy reportedly showed his blood alcohol content was more than four times the legal limit at the time of his death.
In the lawsuit, Debrick’s parents allege their son was part of a hazing ceremony. It describes Debrick and 29 other pledges being coerced into drinking a keg of beer in less than 30 minutes. After that, they were reportedly broken into groups of 10-11 and asked to finish a handle, or roughly 2-liters, of whiskey.
Debrick's parents accuse the frat members of negligence for forcing the pledges to drink so much, and failing to get Debrick medical attention. The lawsuit claims that, rather than take Debrick to a hospital, the fraternity brothers left him unconscious and covered in vomit in a bedroom, where he died overnight.
The incident was never officially declared as hazing, but Debrick's mother argued in a 2015 interview with CBS news, that her son's text messages from that day show otherwise.
"It was my son's own words that he was having to do 'fraternity activities,’” said Debra Debrick. “His own words, what more do you need?”
Two of the 21 defendants named in the civil suit are from San Antonio. Joe Anthony Garcia from Helotes has an open misdemeanor charge from that incident for providing the alcohol to a minor.
The other defendant, Cale Haby, was never criminally charged. The case was officially ruled an accident.
Neither Garcia nor Haby responded to requests for comment. The attorney representing the Debrick family also did not respond for comment.