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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) ― Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini knows what happens at a college drinking party.

"I went to college. I was in a fraternity. We drank," Bocchini said.

But Bocchini isn't about to prosecute two Rider University college officials for what happened after one of those parties last spring, when an 18-year-old fraternity pledge died of alcohol poisoning.

A Superior Court judge on Tuesday approved his request to dismiss the grand jury charges against two university officials charged with aggravated hazing in connection with the March 30 death of freshman Gary DeVercelly Jr., 18, of Long Beach, Calif.

DeVercelly died a day after drinking at a party at the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity on the private college's campus. Authorities said he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.426 percent, or more than five times New Jersey's legal limit for driving.

The Rider officials -- Dean of Students Anthony Campbell and Director of Greek Life Ada Badgley -- were considered the only college administrators ever charged criminally in a hazing death, but Bocchini said his office couldn't prove the charges to a jury.

Hazing charges against three students remain pending, but DeVercelly's family thinks Bocchini let the Rider officials off the hook criminally. They're mulling a civil lawsuit.

"We're upset about it, that the charges are being dismissed, because we feel that Rider has responsibility -- definitely has responsibility -- in this issue," said DeVercelly's father, Gary DeVercelly Sr.

Bocchini said the officials neither facilitated nor promoted the party at which DeVercelly drank. Still, he said the indictments could send a message.

"To suggest that kids are not going to continue to drink would be silly," said Bocchini, who attended Murray State University in Kentucky and the University of Baltimore School of Law.

"It's going to happen," he said. "Hopefully if there's any good to come out of this, college administrators across the country are going to be sensitized as to what they need to do."

What they need to do, he said, is consider tougher anti-drinking policies: "Hopefully they're not going to drink to the extent that an alcoholic beverage turns from a beverage to a poison."

Attorneys for Campbell and Badgley said their clients were already endeavoring to prevent that from happening.

"I think what we've all learned from this terrible tragedy is that as hard as you work, you just have to work harder and that's what Ms. Badgley is dedicated to do," Badgley attorney David Laigaie said.

Campbell's attorney, Rocco Cipparone Jr., said Campbell did nothing wrong.

"We'd all be naive to think this conduct hasn't gone on and won't continue to go on, but the efforts I've seen from Dean Campbell and from Rider have been appropriate to address the issue," he said. "There are always going to be infractions. There are always going to be people who don't follow the rules."

Rider University President Mordechai Rozanski said the university is implementing changes that include an alcohol ban at residence halls, fraternity and sorority houses, and a new alcohol education course for all freshman.

"The misuse of alcohol on university campuses is a national problem," Rozanski said. "Many colleges and universities throughout the nation are joining us, led by their student affairs professionals, in redoubling efforts to learn from this experience. We, and they, are doing all we can to try to ensure that nothing like this happens again."

(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)