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Death of Tim Piazza

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Timothy John Piazza (born 1997) died on February 4, 2017, as the result of a hazing two days earlier at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania. The incident led to closure of the fraternity's chapter at the university and, as of November 14, 2017, at least 26 members of the fraternity face charges, including involuntary manslaughter.^[1]

Hazing incident

Piazza was a 19-year-old sophomore engineering student at Pennsylvania State University. He was a pledge of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at the university. On the night of February 2, 2017, while undergoing hazing rituals for the fraternity, Piazza, on an essentially empty stomach, drank large amounts of alcohol in a short time as part of an obstacle course called "The Gauntlet", which required each pledge to drink from a bottle of vodka, drink a beer, and finally drink from a bag of wine. The fraternity was supposed to be alcohol-free after a suspension in 2009.^[1]
In this state of intoxication he fell on the basement stairs of the house and was knocked unconscious. He was carried to a couch, where surveillance cameras captured the formation of a large and obvious bruise on his left abdomen. One brother tried to convince the others that Piazza needed immediate medical help, but was ignored.
Some time later, Piazza regained consciousness and rolled off the couch. Three brothers picked him up and "slammed" him back onto the couch. Security footage shows brothers slapping Piazza in the face, punching him in the stomach, and pouring beer on him, but he remained unconscious and unresponsive. He rolled off the couch again and curled his body, clutching his abdomen.
In the early morning of February 3, 2017, Piazza tried to get up, but once he reached a standing position, fell backwards. He continued to stand up only to repeatedly fall back down. Once he was finally able to maintain balance, he staggered toward the lobby area of the house, but fell again head first into an iron railing and landed on a stone floor, likely incurring serious head trauma. He got up and tried to reach the front door but fell head first into it, knocking himself unconscious again. He later tried once more to descend the basement stairs, but fell down again, and remained at the base of the stairs until several of the fraternity brothers discovered him several hours later behind the bar in the basement, cold and breathing rapidly.
It was at this point that he was carried upstairs. After 40 minutes of debating on what the next step should be, the conclusion was made that Piazza's injuries were indeed serious, and that he would require medical attention. Before emergency assistance arrived, the brothers wiped blood from his face and attempted to dress him, but his body was too rigid to successfully put clothes on. Roughly twelve hours after his initial fall, emergency services were summoned but not informed that the fall had occurred the night before. Piazza was brought to Mount Nittany Medical Center, but was quickly transported to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center because of the severity of his injuries.
Upon arrival, Piazza was rushed into surgery, where he was discovered to have a ruptured spleen and class IV hemorrhagic shock. His brain had swollen to the point that roughly half of his skull had to be removed to relieve the pressure. The surgeons attempting to save his life deemed the injuries to likely be nonrecoverable, and Piazza was pronounced dead in the early morning of February 4, 2017. He is estimated to have had a blood alcohol content (BAC) of nearly .40 on the night of the hazing incident.^[2]

Criminal prosecutions

The Piazza case resulted in one of the largest hazing prosecutions in US history.^[3] On May 5, 2017, following a grand jury investigation, eighteen members of the fraternity were charged in connection with Piazza's death: eight were charged with involuntary manslaughter and the rest with other offenses, including hazing.
In addition to the fraternity brothers, the Beta Theta Pi fraternity itself was also charged. Its Penn State fraternity branch was closed after its president ordered it banned from campus indefinitely. As of September 2017, the fraternity and its eighteen members faced a combined total of more than 850 criminal charges.^[4]

Alleged perpetrators

Prosecutors have filed the following charges in relation to this crime and its cover-up:^[5]^,^[6]

Daniel Casey (age 19): 201 counts, including involuntary manslaughter; charges reduced to reckless endangerment, hazing, and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Brendan Young (age 21): 200 counts, including involuntary manslaughter; charges reduced to reckless endangerment, hazing, and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Jonah Neuman (age 19): 79 counts, including involuntary manslaughter; charges reduced to reckless endangerment, hazing, and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Joe Sala (age 19): 57 counts, including involuntary manslaughter, charges reduced to hazing and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Michael Bonatucci (age 19): 56 counts, including involuntary manslaughter; charges reduced to hazing and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Gary Dibileo (age 21): more than 50 counts, including involuntary manslaughter; charges reduced to hazing and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Nick Kubera (age 19): more than 50 counts, including involuntary manslaughter; charges reduced to hazing and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Luke Visser (age 19): more than 50 counts, including involuntary manslaughter; charges reduced to hazing and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Craig Heimer (age 21): 52 counts, including reckless endangerment; charges reduced to furnishing alcohol to a minor
Lars Kenyon (age 19): 52 counts, including reckless endangerment; charges reduced to furnishing alcohol to a minor
Michael Schiavone (age 21): 52 counts, including reckless endangerment; charges reduced to hazing and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Parker Yochim (age 19): 52 counts, including reckless endangerment; charges reduced to hazing and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Ryan Foster (age 21): one count of tampering with evidence
Edward Gilmartin (age 20): one count of tampering with evidence

Tampering with evidence and endangerment charges have also been dismissed against three other students, Joseph Ems,^[7] Ryan McCann, and Lucas Rockwell.
On November 14, 2017, ten more members were charged in connection with Piazza's death. The new charges were filed after the Centre County District Attorney announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had recovered video showing that Piazza had been given at least 18 drinks in an 82-minute span, and that the video had been intentionally deleted.^[1] The additional defendants are:^[8]

Joshua Kurczewski (age 19): eight counts; including involuntary manslaughter, hazing, and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Ryan Burke (age 21): eight counts; including involuntary manslaughter, hazing, and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Jonathan Kanzler (age 19): eight counts; including involuntary manslaughter, hazing, and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Bohan Song: eight counts; including involuntary manslaughter, hazing, and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Aiden O'Brien: eight counts; including involuntary manslaughter, hazing, and furnishing alcohol to a minor
Brian Gelb: three counts; including hazing, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and unlawful acts relative to liquor
Patrick Jackson: three counts; including hazing, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and unlawful acts relative to liquor
Reggie Goeke: three counts; including hazing, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and unlawful acts relative to liquor
Mike Fernandez: three counts; including hazing, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and unlawful acts relative to liquor
Donald Prior: three counts; including hazing, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and unlawful acts relative to liquor

Ems (age 19) now has additional charges against him—hazing, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and unlawful acts relative to liquor. Braxton Becker (age 20), who had the charge of tampering with evidence dropped against him, was charged with it again after new footage discovered he deleted the footage that lead to these new charges. Becker was also charged with obstructing administration of law and hindering apprehension.^[9] As of November 14, 2017, at least 26 members face charges.^[1]

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Beta Theta Pi - Alpha Upsilon et al.

On August 11, 2017, on the fifth day of the preliminary hearing, it was announced by lead investigators that basement footage from the bid acceptance on February 2, 2017, had in fact been deleted by a defendant already charged in the case. Lead prosecutor Stacy Parks Miller noted that additional charges would be filed as a result of this finding.^[10]
That same day, defense attorneys for a number of the defendants started to put blame on Tim Bream, the Penn State Nittany Lions football head athletic trainer and Beta Theta Pi live-in advisor. He was present during the night of Tim Piazza's bid acceptance, although he has never been charged in the case. After unsuccessful attempts by attorneys to have Bream subpoenaed, the judge in the case ordered that Bream have his own hearing on possible contempt of court and avoiding his subpoena.^[11]

"Not One More Suicide"

Thursday, November 16, 2017