Three N.Y. students charged in frat death

GENESEO, N.Y., April 1 (UPI) -- Officials in upstate New York say they have charged three fraternity members with criminally negligent homicide in the drinking death of a pledge.

The trio are members of a fraternity known around SUNY Geneseo as the Orange Knights or Pigs, which was banned from campus in 1996 after two students were hospitalized for over-drinking, the New York Post said Wednesday.

The Post said the defendants were also charged with hazing and unlawfully dealing with a minor in the death of sophomore Arman Partamian, 19, Queens.

Partamian died during a multi-day initiation that involved large amounts of alcohol. The Post said toxicology tests revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.55 percent, nearly seven times the legal limit to drive in New York and above the level considered lethal.