http://www.philly.com/philly/education/Students-charged-with-manslaughter-in-PSU-frat-death.html
BELLEFONTE, Pa. – Eighteen Penn State students and their fraternity were charged Friday in one of the largest hazing prosecutions in the nation’s history.
SLIDESHOW
Students charged with manslaughter in Penn State frat death
Eight of the students face involuntary manslaughter charges in connection with the death of 19-year-old Tim Piazza, who suffered fatal injuries when he fell down a set of stairs during a Beta Theta Pi fraternity pledge party earlier this year.
Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller announced the sweeping case at a press conference in Bellefonte. Flanked by Piazza’s parents and blown-up portrait of the sophomore engineering major, she accused fraternity members of putting Piazza through a dangerous booze-fueled hazing ritual and failing to call for help once he had injured himself.
“It’s heart-breaking all around,” she said. “There are no winners here.”
With his arm wrapped around his wife, Piazza’s father, Jim, choked back tears.
“This did not have to happen,” he said.
The charges unveiled Friday was the result of a months-long grand jury investigation. The panel’s blistering presentment described a ritual known as “the gauntlet” in which pledges were required to stop at various alcohol stations, where they guzzled vodka, shotgunned beers, drank from wine bags and played multiple rounds of beer pong.
One fraternity member told the grand jury that pledges drank four to five alcoholic beverages within a two-minute time span.
Those charged with misdemeanor counts of involuntary manslaughter included Brendan Young, president of the Beta Theta Pi chapter at Penn State, as well as fellow fraternity members Daniel Casey, Jonah Neuman, Nick Kubera, Michael Bonatucci, Gary Dibileo, Luke Visser and Joe Sala.
Each also faces felony charges of aggravated assault which could result in prison terms if they are convicted. They are expected to be arraigned later Friday in Centre County Court
In addition, ten other student members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity face lesser charges including hazing and furnishing alcohol to minors.
Piazza, a sophomore engineering major from Lebanon, N.J., was intoxicated at the Feb. 2 pledge party when he fell multiple times and was knocked unconscious, the district attorney said.
Members of the fraternity moved him to a couch but did not call for emergency help until the next morning, about 12 hours later. Piazza died the next day at Hershey Medical Center, having suffered a non-recoverable head injury, ruptured spleen and collapsed lung.
Defense attorneys for the students have said previously that fraternity members did not know Piazza was in danger but rather thought he was just drunk and would sleep it off.
But Parks Miller lambasted that argument Friday, saying that video taken from the fraternity house’s extensive security system disproved those claims. For in
“It’s unusual to have a crime captured from beginning to end,” she said.
The charges were announced hours before Penn State's board of trustees were scheduled to meet and as commencement festivities were getting underway at the 46,000-student University Park campus.
The university, having conducted its own investigation, permanently banned Beta Theta Pi earlier this spring, citing evidence of forced drinking, hazing and other illegal activity. The university also instituted new rules for the rest of its 83 fraternities and sororities, whose members represent about 18 percent of the student body.
In a statement Friday, the university’s Interfraternity Council pledged it was committed to reforms that would prevent similar deaths in the future.
“Our thoughts continue to lie with the Piazza family as the justice process moves forward,” the statement read. “The best way to shift culture is for students, alumni, and the university to work together.”
No charges were filed against Tim Bream, 56, a Penn State assistant athletic director and head trainer for the football team who also lived in the Beta Theta Pi house. Bream was employed by the fraternity as an adviser.
Parks Miller said Friday that Bream was in his room at the fraternity house on the night of Piazza’s death, but the investigation did not reveal any evidence that would result in charges.
Hazing and excessive drinking at fraternities and sororities has long plagued colleges and universities, at times resulting in similar prosecutions.
Five years ago, a fraternity pledge ritual involving alcohol resulted in the death of a student at Northern Illinois University. Prosecutors charged 22 fraternity members, including five Pi Kappa Alpha leaders who pleaded guilty to reckless conduct and were sentenced to various terms of probation and community service.
Two years ago, prosecutors charged 37 members of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity at Baruch College in New York in the hazing death of 19-year-old freshman Chun Hsien "Michael" Deng. The case included third-degree murder charges against five current and former members.
Read more by Susan Snyder
BELLEFONTE, Pa. – Eighteen Penn State students and their fraternity were charged Friday in one of the largest hazing prosecutions in the nation’s history.
SLIDESHOWStudents charged with manslaughter in Penn State frat death
Eight of the students face involuntary manslaughter charges in connection with the death of 19-year-old Tim Piazza, who suffered fatal injuries when he fell down a set of stairs during a Beta Theta Pi fraternity pledge party earlier this year.
Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller announced the sweeping case at a press conference in Bellefonte. Flanked by Piazza’s parents and blown-up portrait of the sophomore engineering major, she accused fraternity members of putting Piazza through a dangerous booze-fueled hazing ritual and failing to call for help once he had injured himself.
“It’s heart-breaking all around,” she said. “There are no winners here.”
With his arm wrapped around his wife, Piazza’s father, Jim, choked back tears.
“This did not have to happen,” he said.
The charges unveiled Friday was the result of a months-long grand jury investigation. The panel’s blistering presentment described a ritual known as “the gauntlet” in which pledges were required to stop at various alcohol stations, where they guzzled vodka, shotgunned beers, drank from wine bags and played multiple rounds of beer pong.
One fraternity member told the grand jury that pledges drank four to five alcoholic beverages within a two-minute time span.
Those charged with misdemeanor counts of involuntary manslaughter included Brendan Young, president of the Beta Theta Pi chapter at Penn State, as well as fellow fraternity members Daniel Casey, Jonah Neuman, Nick Kubera, Michael Bonatucci, Gary Dibileo, Luke Visser and Joe Sala.
Each also faces felony charges of aggravated assault which could result in prison terms if they are convicted. They are expected to be arraigned later Friday in Centre County Court
In addition, ten other student members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity face lesser charges including hazing and furnishing alcohol to minors.
Piazza, a sophomore engineering major from Lebanon, N.J., was intoxicated at the Feb. 2 pledge party when he fell multiple times and was knocked unconscious, the district attorney said.
Members of the fraternity moved him to a couch but did not call for emergency help until the next morning, about 12 hours later. Piazza died the next day at Hershey Medical Center, having suffered a non-recoverable head injury, ruptured spleen and collapsed lung.
Defense attorneys for the students have said previously that fraternity members did not know Piazza was in danger but rather thought he was just drunk and would sleep it off.
But Parks Miller lambasted that argument Friday, saying that video taken from the fraternity house’s extensive security system disproved those claims. For in
“It’s unusual to have a crime captured from beginning to end,” she said.
The charges were announced hours before Penn State's board of trustees were scheduled to meet and as commencement festivities were getting underway at the 46,000-student University Park campus.
The university, having conducted its own investigation, permanently banned Beta Theta Pi earlier this spring, citing evidence of forced drinking, hazing and other illegal activity. The university also instituted new rules for the rest of its 83 fraternities and sororities, whose members represent about 18 percent of the student body.
In a statement Friday, the university’s Interfraternity Council pledged it was committed to reforms that would prevent similar deaths in the future.
“Our thoughts continue to lie with the Piazza family as the justice process moves forward,” the statement read. “The best way to shift culture is for students, alumni, and the university to work together.”
No charges were filed against Tim Bream, 56, a Penn State assistant athletic director and head trainer for the football team who also lived in the Beta Theta Pi house. Bream was employed by the fraternity as an adviser.
Parks Miller said Friday that Bream was in his room at the fraternity house on the night of Piazza’s death, but the investigation did not reveal any evidence that would result in charges.
Hazing and excessive drinking at fraternities and sororities has long plagued colleges and universities, at times resulting in similar prosecutions.
Five years ago, a fraternity pledge ritual involving alcohol resulted in the death of a student at Northern Illinois University. Prosecutors charged 22 fraternity members, including five Pi Kappa Alpha leaders who pleaded guilty to reckless conduct and were sentenced to various terms of probation and community service.
Two years ago, prosecutors charged 37 members of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity at Baruch College in New York in the hazing death of 19-year-old freshman Chun Hsien "Michael" Deng. The case included third-degree murder charges against five current and former members.
Read more by Susan Snyder
