NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- A freshman pledging a Rutgers University fraternity died after an all-night party, marking the second case of alcohol poisoning in a week among New Jersey college students, authorities said.
The party that ended Friday morning at the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity at Rutgers left the student-run house 'destroyed' and several other people suffering from apparent alcohol poisoning, officials said.
James Callahan, 18, of North Bergen, was pronounced dead Friday morning at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he had been taken around 6 a.m. after spending several hours under the observation of fraternity members, officials said.
Several other students also became ill after the party and one other freshman was hospitalized but released after treatment, Middlesex County Prosecutor Alan A. Rockoff said.
The party followed an incident the previous week at Princeton University, about 15 miles southwest, in which 39 students were taken to the campus infirmary for alcohol-related illness. The Princeton students were attending several parties Feb. 6 to join campus eating clubs, the university's equivalent of fraternities.
The graduate board of one Princeton eating club, the Cloister Inn, announced Friday that at as result of the incident it had indefinitely discontinued alcohol service to student members.
Princeton officials said 16 students had to be taken to the infirmary because of excessive alcohol consumption during a similar sign-in period last year.
About 40 or 50 fraternity members and guests attended the party at Rutgers that began around 11:30 p.m. Thursday, Rockoff said. They had apparently been consuming large amounts of 'kamikazes,' a mixture of vodka, triple sec and lime juice, police said.
Callahan also had been drinking, although toxicology tests to positively determine his cause of death were expected to take several days, university spokesman Richard Jerome said.
The fraternity house was 'literally destroyed' during the party, said city Building Inspector Michael Gupko, who ordered the building vacated and padlocked.
'There were doors and windows broken, all the fire extinguishers were emptied out. Exit signs were ripped down and the pool table busted,' Gupko said. 'The only thing working was the fire alarm.'
Rockoff said investigators began studying evidence at the fraternity house to determine if anyone will be charged in the death.
