July 30, 2024
Abby Drey/Centre Daily Times/Sipa USA
Timothy Piazza died as a result of multiple injuries he suffered during a hazing event at Penn State University's former Theta Beta Pi fraternity in February 2017. His father, Jim, is shown above outside the Centre County Courthouse after the passage of an anti-hazing law in Piazza's name the next year.
Two leaders of the former Penn State University fraternity where sophomore Timothy Piazza suffered deadly injuries from hazing have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from their actions during the 2017 pledging event at the chapter house in State College, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General said.
Former Beta Theta Pi President Brendan Young, 28, and Vice President Daniel Casey, 27, each pleaded guilty to 14 misdemeanor counts of hazing and reckless endangerment. They are the latest to be convicted in a high-profile case that drew national attention to the culture of heavy drinking and peer pressure in fraternities at American universities.
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Piazza, 19, died on the night of Feb. 2, 2017, after participating in a drinking ritual called "The Gauntlet." He and 13 other pledges each had to drink an entire bottle of vodka, a beer and a bag of wine. Piazza, who grew up in Lebanon, New Jersey, was among the first to complete the challenge and was visibly intoxicated in the frat house, investigators said.
Later that night, Piazza fell down a flight of stairs and was placed on a couch by members of the fraternity. Instead of seeking medical attention, the frat brothers left Piazza on the couch and periodically slapped, punched and poured beer on him throughout the night, a grand jury found.
At one point, Piazza attempted to get up and fell again head first into an iron railing.
Nobody at the fraternity called an ambulance for Piazza until 11 a.m. the next day after much of the evidence from the night before had been cleaned up. Piazza died on Feb. 4. The coroner's report stated he likely suffered "severe and unremitting pain" throughout the night due to his injuries, which included a ruptured spleen and a fracture at the base of his skull. An autopsy determined Piazza's blood alcohol content was at least four times the legal limit and his death was caused by multiple traumatic injuries.
Some of Piazza's disoriented movements were caught on security cameras installed at the frat house, exposing the seriousness of his injuries as fraternity brothers neglected to seek help for him.
Piazza's death resulted in one of the largest hazing indictments in U.S. history. The fraternity and 18 of its members were indicted on involuntary manslaughter charges, and Beta Theta Pi was permanently banned from Penn State.
A collection of court rulings eventually dismissed many of the major charges against the students, despite efforts from the Attorney General's Office to appeal the decision. Four fraternity members served prison terms for their roles in what happened to Piazza.
"This wasn't just boys being boys," Jim Piazza, Tim's dad, told NBC's "Today" show in an interview after his son's death. "This was men who intended to force-feed lethal amounts of alcohol into other young men. And what happened throughout the night was just careless disregard for human life. They basically treated our son as roadkill and a rag doll."
Jim and Evelyn Piazza went on to form the national Anti-Hazing Coalition with other families affected by similar losses.
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed the "Timothy Piazza Anti-Hazing Law" into effect in 2018, requiring stricter penalties for hazing and permitting courts to confiscate frat houses where hazing has occurred. New Jersey later passed a law named after Piazza that requires public schools and colleges to implement anti-hazing policies.
Hulu announced two years ago that a limited documentary series, "Death at Penn State," would be developed as an adaptation of journalist Caitlin Flanagan's 2017 feature in the Atlantic examining what happened to Piazza.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry said Tuesday that the cases for Young and Casey took years to resolve because of a series of pretrial court rulings. The hazing counts covered the 14 students who had to complete the frat's alcohol-fueled "obstacle course" as part of their initiation. The reckless endangerment charges are for the events that led up to Piazza's death.
Young and Casey are scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 1.
“There should be no discussion of this case without recognizing the tragic loss of life and resulting devastation for Mr. Piazza’s family and friends,” Henry said. “Mr. Piazza was simply seeking to join a social organization for the benefits of community and shared experiences, as so many university students do. Most of those students go on to successful lives and careers — basic expectations following college which Mr. Piazza never had the opportunity to experience."
