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Testimony underway in Cornell student drinking death
Posted: 05.23.2012 at 11:37 AM
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ITHACA -- Testimony is under way in the trial of three men charged in connection with the alcohol-related death of a Cornell University student.

Max Haskin, Benn Mann and Edward Williams are on trial in Ithaca on charges of hazing and unlawfully dealing with a child. The three former frat pledges have pleaded not guilty.

19-year-old George Desdunes of Brooklyn was found unconscious at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house in February 2011 and later pronounced dead. Authorities said his blood-alcohol level was 0.35 percent, more than four times the legal limit for driving.

Desdunes was found unconscious on a couch and the lawsuit says he had his hands and feet bound in a mock kidnapping.

Prosecutors say Desdunes and another pledge were given cups of vodka to drink when they answered frat history questions incorrectly.

Desdunes' mother filed a multimillion-dollar wrongful-death lawsuit against the national fraternity last June.

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