BERKELEY — The parents of a UC Berkeley student who died last month after a pool party filed a lawsuit this week against the fraternity that hosted the function, court records show.
The parents claim UC Berkeley’s Alpha Delta Phi fraternity cut corners and ignored numerous safety measures during the Nov. 14 party that ended with fatal injuries to their 19-year-old son, George Mauricio Salinas, according to the lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court.
Salinas, an undeclared junior undergraduate student at the university, was found unresponsive at around 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 14 after nearly drowning at the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity house, which is on the 2400 block of Prospect St. in Berkeley. He was taken to a hospital, where he died three days later.
A cause of death has yet to be released by the Alameda County coroner’s bureau.
The lawsuit by Mauricio Salinas’s parents — Gaspar Mauricio Primitivo and Minerva Salinas Ortiz, both of whom live in San Diego — claims the fraternity acted negligently throughout the party.
It specifically took issue with the fact that about 300 people attended the function, when no more than 200 people were allowed on the premises. As a result, the area around it was so crowded that it impeded the ability for people to see that Mauricio Salinas had drowned, according to the lawsuit.
Conditions in the pool made the shallow end of it particularly slippery, the lawsuit claims, and there allegedly were no markings, pool devices or other measures present to separate the shallow end from the deep end.
The lawsuit also claims there was no lifeguard or sober monitor present at the event — and adds that if any fraternity safety coordinator was at the party, then that person was not performing their job.
After the event, police issued a civil notice of violation relating to public nuisances during loud and out-of-control gatherings, and the Berkeley Fire Department issued a citation for violating an Indoor Entertainment Event permit, then revoked the permit after the party.
National Alpha Delta Phi officials later said it had suspended the activities of the UC chapter, and that Mauricio Salinas was not a member of the fraternity.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.