11 students face hazing charge at University of Georgia

(Reuters) - University of Georgia police have charged 11 male students with hazing, police and jail records show, in reported beatings of pledges to a campus fraternity. Police issued arrest warrants for the 11 students on Thursday and they were all booked into the Clarke County Jail and released on bond by Friday night, according to the records. The students each face one count of hazing, a misdemeanor of "high and aggravated nature," according to the daily log records of the university police department. The alleged hazing occurred over four hours on the night of January 27, according to the police logs. A police official reached at the university on Saturday said he was unfamiliar with details of the hazing incident. He referred questions to Police Chief Jimmy Williamson, who was not available. Williamson was quoted in the Athens Banner-Journal newspaper as saying the men pledging to become members of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity were punched at the home of a fraternity member in a hazing event. "There were some physical injuries, but nothing that required medical treatment," Williamson told the newspaper. The university prohibits hazing at its fraternities and sororities and its student life office has a hotline set up to report hazing incidents, according a posting on a university website. (Reporting by Kevin Murphy; Editing by Ian Simpson and Chris Reese)