It was a tearful moment when the families of Matthew Sunshine and Alexander Krzyston hugged in court following Krzyston’s hearing regarding criminal charges in the death of Sunshine.

Matthew was a freshman at Northwestern University in Evanston who was found dead in his dormitory on Sheridan Road on June 10, 2008, with a blood alcohol level of .396. Class four felony charges were filed by the state against Krzyston for providing alcohol that caused Sunshine’s death. On March 8, 2010, the charges were reduced to a class A misdemeanor of providing alcohol to an underage person. Krzyston pleaded guilty to this charge.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the two families hugged in tears at the Cook County Circuit Court room in Skokie.

“The family is pleased with the decision,” said Timothy Tomasik, partner at Clifford Law Offices who is handling the civil matter. The terms of the plea agreement include requiring Krzyston to serve two years court supervision and to be actively involved in The Red Watch Band Program. Founded by Sunshine’s mother, Suzanne Fields, a professor of medicine at the University of Stony Brook in New York, she has made it her personal commitment to see that the program is instituted in high schools, colleges and universities across the country. As part of the agreement, Northwestern University is instituting the
Red Watch Band Program at its school. Clifford Law Offices has been actively promoting the Red Watch Program in an effort to protect students.

The program provides training to students in alcohol toxicity awareness and emergency procedures without retribution from school officials. “We trust that Mr. Krzyston views this as an opportunity to promote and enhance a program whose goal is to make high school and university campuses kinder and safer places for students,” Fields said after the court appearance.

Stony Brook University President instituted the program at that campus following Matthew’s death. It has spread to several other schools in the United States. “I apologize with all my heart to the friends and family of Matthew
Sunshine,” Krzyston said at the hearing. “I look forward to working with The Red Watch Band Program so nothing like this ever happens again.”