Former Dartmouth student accepts plea deal in hazing case

LEBANON — A member of a Dartmouth College fraternity who was charged in connection with the hazing of a student last year has pleaded guilty.

Alexisius “Q.” Jones, who at the time was a Dartmouth senior and member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, pleaded guilty to a violation-level offense of failing to report student hazing in a plea agreement approved by a Lebanon District Court judge on June 30, according to court records.

Jones who had been an All-Ivy League running back on the school’s football team, was fined $1,000 plus $240 for a statutory penalty assessment, according to court records.

Jones, 22, one of three individuals charged in the case, had initially been charged by prosecutors in January with a misdemeanor count of student hazing in connection with the treatment of Ulysses Hill, a 20-year-old sophomore at the time. Hill was allegedly paddled on the buttocks as part of an initiation rite for pledges.

Under the plea bargain, Jones pleaded guilty only to being aware of and failing to report an unspecified incident of hazing. Specific reference to Hill’s alleged hazing on Sept. 15, 2024 — as contained in the original complaint against Jones — has been “amended” and removed in the “complaint narrative,” according to a “complaint/indictment amendment form” filed in the case docket.

Both Mariana Pastore and Jones’ defense attorney, Cabot Teachout, declined to comment when contacted by the Valley News.

Jones, from Fountain, Colo., is currently not enrolled at Dartmouth and has not yet received a degree, said Dartmouth spokesperson Jana Barnello, who declined further comment about Jones’ status with the college, citing student privacy policy.

Hill opposed the terms of the plea agreement and wanted Jones held to a fuller account in connection with the hazing incident that resulted in him making a visit to the ER at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center for what police at the time described as “visible injuries that reportedly occurred after being struck multiple times with a wooden paddle.”

Hill, a biomedical engineering major from Pasadena, Calif., told the Valley News this week that, although he told the prosecutor he was “OK with (Jones’ misdemeanor) being dropped to a violation in the plea deal,” he was nonetheless “disappointed” that the court record appears to absolve Jones from any role in his mistreatment.

During the approximately 10-minute long hearing at Lebanon District Court on June 30, Hill said he objected on the record to the plea agreement that was presented for the judge’s approval but his preference went unheeded.

“I had specifically asked it to be of actual hazing and the (the prosecutor) told me, ‘It’s a decision of the state’,” said Hill.

The prosecutor’s office “came to me and asked what I felt like and as the victim what I would prefer to see happen … They pulled me out of a chemistry class to talk to the (prosecutor) about what I would be OK with accepting. And they just ignored me on it.”

Prosecutors often enter into plea agreements when they calculate that counter evidence to be proffered by the defense could undermine the chances of winning a guilty verdict by a judge or jury.

Jones, in the original complaint against him, was never accused of wielding a paddle. The individual accused of paddling Hill is Milan Williams, a 2009 Dartmouth graduate and also a former running back on the football team who had returned to Hanover that weekend for the initiation of new pledges at Omega Psi Phi.

Also charged is Gregory Dominique, who has no known affiliation with the college. Both Williams and Dominique have been charged with student hazing, a misdemeanor. They each have a hearing date set for Aug. 4 at Lebanon District Court.

Omega Psi Phi, founded in 1911 at Howard University located in Washington, D.C., was reestablished at Dartmouth just in 2023 after being inactive for 31 years. The fraternity was one of at least three Greek organizations to be suspended at Dartmouth in 2024, following suspensions of a fraternity and sorority after the drowning death of a 20-year-old sophomore in the Connecticut River after a party where alcohol was served.

Omega Psi Phi was found responsible for engaging in activity occurring between the winter and fall terms of 2024 which violated Dartmouth’s policies, including the hazing policy. The organization has been suspended for three years and is not eligible to resume operations at Dartmouth until winter term 2028.

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.