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Lawyer: FAMU Hazing Incident Settlement Offer "Insulting"

TALLAHASSEE (CBS4)- Florida A&M university is being blasted by the lawyer for a student who died during a band hazing incident who said a proposed settlement in his death is unacceptable.

Attorney Chris Chestnut said Thursday that FAMU's offer to pay Robert Champion's family $300,000 shows they aren't serious about resolving the case.

He called that offer "insulting".

Champion was a drum major who died following a hazing incident. The school's settlement offer was made less than a week after efforts at mediation failed.

The Champion family's lawsuit against the university alleges that school officials failed to stop hazing.

The Florida A&M University board of trustees approved a plan on a 9-1 vote Monday to deal with the aftermath of the death of Robert Champion in a hazing incident.

Champion died in a hazing incident in Orlando following the annual FAMU-Bethune Cookman football game on Nov. 19. The death, which medical examiners ruled a homicide, sparked a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation that has since expanded into the band's finances.

(©2012 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The News Service of Florida contributed material for this report)

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