Death of Tim Piazza


Timothy John Piazza died as the result of hazing at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Pennsylvania State University at University Park, Pennsylvania. The incident led to closure of the fraternity's chapter at the university and, as of 2017, at least 26 members of the fraternity face charges, including involuntary manslaughter.

Hazing incident

Piazza was a 19-year-old sophomore engineering student at Pennsylvania State University. He was a of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at the university. On the night of February 2, 2017, while undergoing hazing activities 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. It later was revealed that Piazza took prescription anti-depressants, which contributed to his inebriation. The fraternity was supposed to be alcohol-free after a suspension in 2009.
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 a conspicuous bruise that bloomed on his left abdomen, however, this was shown to have originated from another one of the alcohol-fueled rush events for fraternities that Piazza had attended a week earlier.
Some time later, Piazza regained consciousness and rolled off the couch. Three brothers picked him up and placed him back on the couch. Security footage shows them poking Piazza in the face, to determine if he was okay, but he remained unconscious and unresponsive. A newly initiated fraternity chapter member attempted to render aid to Piazza, encouraging fraternity members to call 911 and get an ambulance to the house. He was shoved up against a wall and his attempts were ignored.
At around 3:30 A.M on February 3, 2017, Piazza tried to get up, but once he reached a standing position, fell backward. 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 headfirst 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 headfirst into it, knocking himself unconscious again. He later tried once more to ascend the basement stairs and was missing 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 several 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 in effort to warm him. Soon emergency services arrived and 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 of nearly 0.40 on the night of the hazing incident.

Criminal prosecutions

The Piazza case resulted in one of the largest hazing prosecutions in US history. 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., the fraternity and its eighteen members faced a combined total of more than 850 criminal charges.

Alleged perpetrators

Prosecutors have filed the following charges in relation to this crime and its cover-up:
Tampering with evidence and endangerment charges have also been dismissed against three other students, Joseph Ems, 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. The additional defendants are:
Ems now has additional charges against him—hazing, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and unlawful acts relative to liquor. Braxton Becker, who had the charge of tampering with evidence dropped against him, was charged with it again after new footage suggested he deleted the footage that lead to these new charges. Becker was also charged with obstructing administration of law and charged with hindering apprehension., at least 26 members face charges.

''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.
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.

Guilty plea

One of the fraternity brothers charged in the death of Piazza pleaded guilty on June 13, 2018, to nine charges, making him the first in the case to enter a guilty plea. Ryan Burke, age 21, pleaded guilty to four counts of hazing and five counts relating to unlawful acts involving liquor in the deadly injuries Piazza sustained following a night of heavy drinking and hazing. Burke was accused of giving Piazza a bottle of vodka at the Beta Theta Pi party. Burke admitted his role in the hazing of Piazza, which included being present for and actively encouraging a gauntlet of drinking games and an obstacle course involving Piazza and other pledges.
On July 31, 2018, Burke was sentenced to three months of house arrest for his role in the hazing death of Piazza. He pleaded guilty to nine misdemeanor charges, including four counts of hazing and five counts involving unlawful acts related to alcoholic beverages. In addition to the house arrest, Burke was sentenced to 27 months of probation and was ordered to pay fines, costs, and restitution.

The Timothy J. Piazza Anti-Hazing Law

On March 27, 2018, "The Timothy J. Piazza Anti-Hazing Law" was unanimously approved by the Pennsylvania State Senate Judiciary Committee. Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman and Piazza's parents, Jim and Evelyn Piazza, introduced the bill on March 23, 2018, at the courthouse in Bellefonte.
The bill would create tiers for hazing. Hazing resulting in serious bodily injury or death would be a third-degree felony, which could include fines of up to $15,000 and imprisonment up to seven years. Hazing resulting in bodily injury would be a third-degree misdemeanor, which could include fines of up to $2,500 and imprisonment up to one year. Other hazing would be a summary offense. The bill would also establish "organizational" and "institutional" hazing categories.
"The bill has been carefully crafted because we want this to be a model for changing anti-hazing laws nationwide," Corman said. "My intent with this legislation is clear to prevent death or serious injury due to hazing so that families, such as Tim's, never experience tragedies like this ever again."
The anti-hazing legislation was subsequently submitted for consideration in the full state Senate.
On April 18, 2018, the Pennsylvania State Senate unanimously passed the bill, which would make hazing in fraternities a third-degree felony in cases of serious injury or death, and could allow universities to seize offending Greek organizations' houses.
The law is sponsored by Republican Senate Majority Leader and 34th Senatorial District Rep. Jake Corman, who worked with Tim Piazza's family to create the bill. It defines hazing as coercing an individual to participate in any illegal activity in order to join a social group, including the use of drugs and alcohol to inflict physical or emotional harm or the use of other forces such as "whipping, beating... or extreme embarrassment".
Lawmakers named the anti-hazing legislation after Timothy Piazza.