Friday, September 1, 2017

Penn State Fraternity Brothers Are Cleared Of The Most Serious Charges In Teen's Hazing Death

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A judge on Friday dismissed the most serious charges against members of a Penn State fraternity for their alleged roles in the hazing death of Timothy Piazza, a 19-year-old sophomore.

Twelve of the 16 brothers will face trial on the lesser charges, the Associated Press reported. All charges were dismissed for four members.

PSU's Beta Theta Pi fraternity chapter and 18 of its brothers faced more than 850 charges for Piazza's death after an alcohol-fueled hazing ritual in February.

Judge Allen Sinclair's decision marked the end of a tense and volatile preliminary hearing that was spread over seven days in the span of three months, owing to the large number of defendants and the volume of charges in the case.

The purpose of the hearing — held at the Centre County Court in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania — was to determine if the brothers would face trial and on what charges. Two of the 18 brothers waived the preliminary hearing.

Sinclair dismissed the most serious charges of aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter against eight of the brothers, while he let stand lesser charges of tampering with evidence, hazing, and furnishing alcohol to minors, Philly.com reported.

Prosecutors — led by Centre County district attorney Stacy Parks Miller — argued that each of the brothers had a role to play in Piazza's death following the fraternity's pledging ceremony where he suffered a series of falls after being made to consume "a life threatening amount of alcohol."

Based on the testimony of the case's lead investigator, David Scicchitano, Parks Miller argued that the brothers waited12 hours to call for medical help after Piazza first fell down a flight of steps, and then attempted to cover up their role in his death by deleting their online exchanges and clearing evidence of alcohol consumption at the fraternity house.

Lawyers for the 16 brothers and the fraternity chapter asked the judge to dismiss all or some of the charges against their clients as they attempted to minimize the brothers' participation in the "gauntlet" — a hazing event in which fraternity pledges were made to consume four to five drinks within a few minutes at a series of drinking stations — and the "social party" that followed.

They said that their respective clients had minimal interactions with Piazza during the event. Surveillance footage from the fraternity house was played in court.

The defense attorneys argued that Piazza "voluntarily" attended the pledging event and consented to drink alcohol there. They said that Piazza knew beforehand that the purpose of the event was to get pledges drunk.

The lawyers also contended that the brothers' had no intent to cause Piazza's death by serving alcohol to some minors or by running the drinking stations for the "gauntlet." They said that the fraternity members were unaware of the potentially fatal risks of drinking alcohol and were also unlikely to understand the extent of Piazza's injuries through the night.

The defense then sought to shift blame to Tim Bream — a university employee who served as the chapter's live-in adviser. Bream — who was not charged in the incident — testified that was asleep in his room and unaware of the hazing ritual at the fraternity house where he lived.

DA Parks Miller accused the lawyers of "victim-blaming" and dismissed their arguments as irrelevant to the "accomplice theory" she was presenting to Sinclair at the hearing.

Under Pennsylvania law, she said, if an individual aids, abets, or assists someone else in a crime, then that individual is guilty for the "whole crime."

She argued that the brothers who ran the different drinking stations for the gauntlet were part of a "whole chain" and were responsible for the consequences.

Parks Miller said the event was not voluntary as the pledges were instructed what to wear, when to arrive, and were supplied alcohol by the fraternity brothers.

Ricco Cipparone, an attorney for Michael Bonatucci, told BuzzFeed News in July that the prosecution's argument were "too much of a stretch" and that the charges against his client, including aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter, were a "huge overreach."

"For my client to be guilty of aggravated assault he's got to know his conduct is almost certain to bring about death," Cipparone said. "Now all he did, to the best of their evidence, was bring a case of beer from one room to another and hand out five beers to five people who were not Timothy Piazza. I don't know how anybody could conclude that that's conduct that's almost certain to bring about death."