Deposition: Florida A&M drum major wanted to be hazed

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ORLANDO – A Florida A&M drum major who died after being hazed on a bus asked to go through the ordeal because it was seen as an honor, a defendant in the case said in a deposition released Wednesday.

By Don Juan Moore, AP

Florida A&M Drum Major Robert Champion performs during halftime of a football game in 2011. Prosecutors in Orlando are releasing thousands of documents in Champion's hazing death.

By Don Juan Moore, AP

Florida A&M Drum Major Robert Champion performs during halftime of a football game in 2011. Prosecutors in Orlando are releasing thousands of documents in Champion's hazing death.

Robert Champion, 26, had asked all season to go through the hazing ritual, known as "crossing over," defendant Jonathan Boyce said.

"It's a respect thing, you know," Boyce told detectives. "Well, he was wanting to do it all … all season."

Champion died last November after enduring a hazing ritual conducted by other band members on a bus outside a hotel in Orlando where FAMU had played its archrival in football. His death revealed a culture of hazing in the famed band, which has performed at Super Bowls and presidential inauguration parades. An autopsy concluded Champion suffered blunt trauma blows to his body and died from shock caused by severe bleeding.

Champion's parents have said their son was a vocal opponent of the routine hazing in the band.

In an interview earlier this year, Champion's father, Robert Sr., said the reason his son was hazed was because of his opposition to it.

Prosecutors in Orlando on Wednesday released more than 2,300 pages of documents in the hazing death of Champion last year. Thirteen people have been charged, including 11 who are charged with a third-degree felony and two who are charged with misdemeanors.

The documents mainly consist of transcripts of interviews with the 11 defendants in the felony hazing case as well as other witnesses. Among the documents are hundreds of pages of redacted student records.

One hazing ritual called "the hot seat" involved getting kicked and beaten with drumsticks and bass drum mallets while covered with a blanket on a band bus called "Bus C," band member Marc Baron told investigators. Baron isn't charged and wasn't on the bus the weekend Champion died.

Band members enduring the hazing also must run a gauntlet to the back of the bus while being hit and kicked in a ritual called "crossing over," he said.

"You start in the beginning and you go, you try to find your way to the back," Baron said.

Asked by investigator if it was how a member earns respect, Baron said: "In a certain way respect, but it's not really respect. It's just like band credentials."

Documents show that Champion was the third band member to "cross over" Bus C. One female band member went first, followed by a male band member.

Shawn Turner, one of the 11 defendants, told police he and another of the defendants, Jonathan Boyce, did not haze Champion and were actually trying to help him reach the back of the bus.

Turner told investigators Boyce had to pull Jessie Baskin off Champion to stop him from kicking. Turner added that he and Caleb Jackson got into a fight because Jackson was holding Champion back. Baskin and Jackson are among those charged.

Jackson, who was already on probation for a battery charge from 2010, was the only one of the 11 who was denied bail.

He told police that he did not hit Champion. He said he simply stood in Champion's way so he could not make it to the back of the bus.

Defendant Aaron Golson denied getting on the bus where the hazing took place. He said he got a ride back from the game with a friend.

"I don't know anything that happened with Robert," Golson said.

Golson also told detectives that Champion wasn't into the hazing rituals.

"Man, I'm shock(ed) if that happens," Golson said when told that Champion chose to get on the bus to be hazed.

The documents show that Jackson at first told detectives that he wasn't on the bus when Champion was beaten but then changed his story when he was told that hotel video surveillance showed him getting off the bus.

"I love Robert like a brother, more than ya'll, any, everybody in this band loves this man like a brother, you know what I'm saying," Jackson said.

FAMU's famed Marching 100 band was suspended shortly after the incident, and officials have said it will remain sidelined at least through the 2012-2013 school year.

The school also tried to fire band director Julian White. White's dismissal was placed on hold while the criminal investigation unfolded, but he insisted that he did nothing wrong and fought for months to get reinstated. He announced his retirement earlier this month.

The 11 defendants, which include three fellow FAMU drum majors and three band members who were not enrolled in the university's required band course, are scheduled to make their first court appearance and enter their pleas before Circuit Judge Marc L. Lubet June 14 at the Orange County Courthouse. The 10 men and one woman face a maximum six-year prison sentence if convicted of the third-degree felony charge.

Contributing: Jennifer Portman, Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat; Carolyn Pesce, McLean, Va.; Associated Press.

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