BELLEFONTE, Pa. _ For the first time, prosecutors on Monday aired portions of the gruesome surveillance video from the Pennsylvania State University fraternity party where they say members helped pledge Tim Piazza become dangerously drunk then left him to die after he fell down a flight of stairs.
Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller offered the video in a bid to persuade Judge Allen Sinclair to hold members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity for trial on charges related to Piazza's Feb. 3 death. Lawyers for the fraternity members charged with manslaughter and other crimes sought to block the video's introduction at the hearing here, but Sinclair denied their requests.
The nearly three hours of video, captured by 12 surveillance cameras around the house, recorded the so called "bid night" where fraternity pledges were inducted, hazed and forced to endure a gauntlet of drinking. The early video aired in court showed pledges, including 19-year-old Piazza, guzzling vodka at one station then rushing consume a can of beer in a single swig.
Prosecutors also introduced a text message Piazza had received from another fraternity member that night. It read: "Get ready to get f---ed up and get ready for a long semester."
Within 90 minutes of his first drink on the night, Piazza's blood-alcohol level had soared to near four times the legal driving limit, State College Detective Dave Scicchitano told the judge.
Evidence suggested that Piazza was entered into the drinking gauntlet at the Beta Theta Pi house at 9:52 p.m. By 11:22 p.m., he said, the young man's blood-alcohol content was between .28 percent and .36 percent, and the fraternity brothers struggled to hold him up.
By the next morning, when he had spent hours untouched after falling down a flight of stairs, Piazza "looked dead," Scicchitano said. "He looked like a corpse."
The hearing, expected to last much of the day Monday, drew a packed courtroom. Piazza's parents, Jim and Evelyn, took front row seats, along with lawyer, Tom Kline. But the couple left before the video began airing on a small screen in the front of the room.
The defendants and their lawyers filled four rows. Eight fraternity members are charged with felony aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter, as is the fraternity itself. Ten others are charged with lesser offenses, including hazing, recklessly endangering another person, furnishing alcohol to minors and tampering with evidence. Just two of the 18 defendants waived their right to a preliminary hearing.
Piazza, an engineering major from Lebanon, N.J., was allegedly too drunk to stand at the party. But, prosecutors say, fraternity brothers decided not to call for help. He died the next day, after suffering a non-recoverable brain injury, a ruptured spleen and collapsed lung.
Prosecutors allege that Piazza was forced to drink large amounts of alcohol during a hazing ritual before falling down the stairs. Members put him on a couch and tried to take care of him, but they also allegedly poured liquid on him, slapped him and rejected calls to call for help. Nearly 12 hours passed before anyone called for an ambulance, the grand jury presentment said.
His death has brought another unflattering spotlight to Penn State and renewed national discussion on campus drinking and fraternity hazing. In its wake, Penn State permanently banned Beta Theta Pi and instituted new rules for the rest of the Greek system, 83 fraternities and sororities.
Charged with involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault are: Brendan Young, 21, Malvern, fraternity president; Daniel Casey, 19, Ronkonkoma, N.Y., pledge master; Nick Kubera, 19, Downingtown; Gary DiBileo, 21, Scranton; Luke Visser, 19, Encinitas, Calif.; Joe Sala, 19, Erie; Michael Bonatucci, 19, Woodstock, Ga.; Jonah Neuman, 19, Nashville.
Michael Angelo Schiavone, 21, Yardley; Craig Heimer, 21, Port Matilda; Lars Kenyon, 19, Barrington, R.I.; and Parker Jax Yochim, 19, Waterford are charged with reckless endangerment, hazing and two other offenses.
