Story perspectives

Secret Service Agent Charged in Miami Hazing Injuries

7/27/2026

Summary

Pinder Arrested

Secret Service agent Marquez Pinder and two other men, Jared James and Elijah Dyous, were arrested in Miami on July 26 on felony hazing charges.
The hazing caused a University of Miami student to suffer kidney failure, undergo surgery and skin grafts, and resulted in hospitalization of a second victim.
Secret Service chief Michael Townsend placed Marquez Pinder on leave, set a $75,000 bond and ordered GPS house arrest.

Summary

Florida Tightens Hazing

Florida law defines hazing as any action that endangers a student’s mental or physical health during initiation and makes permanent injury a third-degree felony, with lesser acts first-degree misdemeanors.
The 2005 Chad Meredith Act removed consent as a defense after a pledge drowned in Lake Osceola.
Andrew’s Law, passed in April 2019 after a fatal binge-drinking hazing, grants immunity to the first 911 caller.

History

Historical Context

Although hazing dates back to medieval bans—Leipzig University prohibited freshman abuse in 1495 and West Point’s 1900 Oscar Booz death spurred congressional hearings—U.S. states lacked criminal statutes until Maine Governor John R. McKernan signed the nation’s first anti-hazing law in 1990, imposing up to $5,000 fines and three-year prison terms. The 1967 DKE scandal at Yale, involving future President George W. Bush, later renewed public scrutiny.

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Pinder Arrested

Secret Service agent Marquez Pinder and two other men, Jared James and Elijah Dyous, were arrested in Miami on July 26 on felony hazing charges.
The hazing caused a University of Miami student to suffer kidney failure, undergo surgery and skin grafts, and resulted in hospitalization of a second victim.
Secret Service chief Michael Townsend placed Marquez Pinder on leave, set a $75,000 bond and ordered GPS house arrest.

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