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Two convicted in connection with hazing death

ATHENS, Ohio — Two of nine people indicted in the hazing death of an Ohio University student were convicted Thursday in Athens County Common Pleas Court.

Dominic A. Figliola, 21, of Athens and Cullen Willi McLaughlin, 21, of Northfield, Ohio, were charged out of an investigation into the Nov. 12, 2018, death of 18-year-old Collin Lewis Wiant. The incident occurred at 45 Mill St. in Athens, a house where multiple members of the Sigma Pi Fraternity lived and conducted fraternity activities.

Figliola and McLaughlin “were part of a cycle of hazing that has existed within the Ohio University Sigma Pi fraternity for years,” Athens County Prosecutor Keller J. Blackburn said in a news release. “Each class, after being hazed, waited until their turn to inflict the same or worse on the next class. Hopefully, these cases and legislative changes can end this practice that exists in too many organizations across this country.”

Figliola pleaded guilty to hazing, a fourth-degree misdemeanor. Judge Patrick J. Lang ordered a fifth-degree felony charge of permitting drug abuse and an unclassified misdemeanor count of failure to comply with underage alcohol laws to be held in abeyance, pending Figliola’s completion of Athens County Empowerment, a rehabilitation program offered by the prosecutor’s office to people charged with low-level offenses with no prior felony convictions. He also was ordered to complete one year of non-reporting probation on the hazing conviction.

McLaughlin pleaded guilty to two fifth-degree felony counts of possession of LSD and ordered by Judge George P. McCarthy to complete the A.C.E. program.

As part of their convictions, Figliola and McLaughlin agreed to testify against the other suspects in the case, the release says.

The case was investigated by the Athens Police Department, Major Crimes Unit and the Athens County Prosecutor’s Office.

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