The defendants were indicted on Friday and all had been released on their own recognizance by Monday afternoon, Kelly said.
The accused are: Eric George Hallenbeck, 24, of Hagerstown; John Edgar Lewis, 22, of Williamsport; Carl Thomas Bennett, 25, of Laurel; Christopher Michael Dodson, 23, of Ellicott City; Frank Arthur Edmond, 23, of Meyersdale, Pa.; Matthew Lawrence Janulewicz, 23, of Ocean City; Jason Hans Sutherland, 23, of Lothian; and David Anthony White, 22, of Baltimore.
Dodson is not a fraternity member, Kelly said.
Seven were members of Kappa Beta Zeta, one of several unsanctioned fraternities that hold weekend parties in the Western Maryland town of 8,000. The eighth lived in the apartment building where the party was held.
They also were charged with reckless endangerment and sale of alcohol without a license. Stinner, of Glassport, Pa., and other underage drinkers had paid a $3 admission fee to the party, Kelly said.
About 5,700 people died from alcohol poisoning in 1994, the most recent report available from the National Center for Health Statistics. Of those, 375 were 15 to 24 years old.
Felony charges are rare in binge drinking deaths. Two men were charged with involuntary manslaughter in 1995 in the death of a Chickamauga, Ga., high school football player, and an Anderson, Ind., bartender was charged earlier this year with reckless homicide in the death of a man who drank until he passed out.
