Secret Service Agent Charged with 5 Felonies After Alleged 'Severe Beatings'
A Secret Service agent is among three men charged after a fraternity hazing ritual left its victims with serious injuries.
Marquez Pinder, 29, a special agent with the Miami Field Office, is on administrative leave and house arrest with a GPS tracking device, according to Fox News.
Pinder, along with Jared James and Elijah Dyous, faces five felony charges, including two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, two counts of attempted manslaughter with a deadly weapon and one count of hazing with a deadly weapon.
The two pledges injured were “subjected to severe beatings,” according to an arrest warrant cited by NBC News.
Pinder joined the Secret Service in September 2023, an agency representative said.
“The United States Secret Service takes seriously any criminal misconduct allegations involving one of our employees,” Michael Townsend, special agent in charge of the Secret Service Miami Field Office, said. “We are fully cooperating with the investigation.”
“The Secret Service remains committed to accountability, professionalism, and integrity, and any misconduct will be addressed swiftly and appropriately upon completion of the investigative and judicial process,” he said.
Pinder served as the “dean of pledges” during four hours-long hazing sessions for a chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, an affidavit filed with the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida said.
The victims were “paddled” and hit with “canes.” One victim reported urinating blood.
Several days later, the man was hospitalized while receiving “critical care to prevent further physical deterioration and death,” a law enforcement officer said in a sworn statement.
A U.S. Secret Service agent has been charged with five felonies — including attempted manslaughter with a deadly weapon — after allegedly being involved in fraternity hazing sessions that left two men near death.
Marquez Pinder, 29, held the title of “dean of pledges” during… pic.twitter.com/gsDFvUbDdF
— Fox News US (@FoxUSNews) July 28, 2026
The other victim required treatment for “blackened” and “necrotic” tissue on his buttocks.
His “mobility and quality of life have been significantly impacted,” a law enforcement officer wrote, adding that without emergency care, “his injuries would have resulted in renal failure leading to death.”
While Pinder was called “dean of pledges” in the warrant, the university is disavowing any connection to him, according to NBC News.
“The agent, Marquez Christopher Pinder is in no way affiliated with the University of Miami or the University’s undergraduate chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi,” a university statement said.
The suspects are not students and have no authority to represent the fraternity, national president Jimmy McMikle said.
“Kappa Alpha Psi is a non-hazing fraternity. We neither condone nor tolerate acts of hazing behavior within our organization or from our membership,” McMikle said.
“They do not have an official affiliation with any chapter nor any official role with the organization. Likewise, they do not have any authority to conduct any program or authorize any process on our behalf. We have and will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement as they conduct their investigation to help with the administration of justice as it should unfold,” he said.
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