Court Orders $6.525 Million Against the Former Fraternity President in Stone Foltz's Hazing Death

On March 4, 2021, Stone Foltz, a 20-year-old sophomore at Bowling Green State University, went to a Pi Kappa Alpha 'big little' event tied to his pledgeship. Pledges were blindfolded, taken to a basement, and each handed a full bottle of liquor by an assigned 'big brother' with the expectation that they would empty it. Foltz drank a one-liter bottle of 86-proof bourbon in roughly 18 minutes.

No one called for help as he lost consciousness. Fraternity members drove him back to his apartment and left him there. He was found unresponsive hours later. His blood alcohol content measured 0.394, close to five times the limit for driving. He died on March 7, 2021, three days after the event.

His parents, Shari and Cory Foltz, filed a wrongful death suit in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. Cooper Elliott represented the family, with Rex Elliott among the attorneys handling the case. The university and several fraternity members settled earlier. The last defendant was Daylen Dunson, the chapter president who had pleaded guilty in 2022 to reckless homicide and hazing. Dunson never responded to the civil complaint and did not appear to defend himself.

With Dunson absent, the family moved for a default judgment and a hearing on damages. Magistrate Jennifer Hunt weighed the evidence and recommended the award in a decision dated December 12, 2024. Franklin County Judge Julie Lynch adopted that recommendation.

Dunson was ordered to pay $6.525 million. The award breaks down to $175,000 for survivorship, $6 million for wrongful death (divided among Foltz's parents and siblings), and $350,000 in punitive damages, the most Ohio law permits. That total is a small fraction of the $225 million the family had requested, with the punitive figure held down by the state's statutory cap.

Months after Foltz died, Ohio enacted Collin's Law, which strengthened the state's criminal penalties for hazing and made the most serious cases a felony. The civil judgment came more than three years later, after the criminal cases against the chapter's members had already run their course.

'This has never been about money to the Foltz family,' Rex Elliott said. 'This has been about stopping hazing in this country.' The judgment was entered against Dunson individually, leaving him personally liable for the full $6.525 million.