Ex-fraternity leaders receive prison time for Penn State pledge's death
Source: Washington Posr
Ex-fraternity leaders receive prison time for Penn State pledge’s death
The sentences in Timothy Piazza’s hazing death follow a trend of fraternity members facing prison time for such incidents. His parents seek federal oversight next.
Jim and Evelyn Piazza address students in May 2019 at the College of New Jersey, in Ewing, N.J. Their son, Timothy, died after a 2017 hazing incident at Penn State. (Mark Makela for The Washington Post)
By Kyle Melnick
October 7, 2024 at 9:00 a.m. EDT
Awaiting a judge’s sentencing in a Pennsylvania courtroom last week, Jim and Evelyn Piazza’s minds replayed the day their son landed in a hospital from a brain bleed after a college party. … They listened to attorneys defend the fraternity leaders who contributed to their son’s death during an initiation event at Pennsylvania State University in 2017. Evelyn watched video played in the courtroom, showing her son, Timothy, heavily intoxicated as he fell and bumped into furniture on the day before he died.
“It almost felt like your head was in a vise being squeezed,” Jim told The Washington Post. … Timothy Piazza, 19, died of traumatic injuries, including a fractured skull, lacerated spleen and a severe brain bleed, after he fell down a flight of stairs following excessive drinking in February 2017. No one called for help for almost 12 hours, police said.
On Tuesday, the last two defendants charged in his hazing case were sentenced in Centre County. … Brendan Young, the president of Penn State’s Beta Theta Pi chapter at the time of Timothy’s death, and Daniel Casey, the vice president, were each sentenced to between two and four months in prison, followed by three years of probation. They each pleaded guilty to 14 counts of hazing and a count of reckless endangerment in July.
Their sentences followed a recent trend of fraternity members facing prison time on charges related to hazing deaths. Hank Nuwer, who has written multiple books about hazing, said that before 2010, hazing deaths were usually punished with a fine and “a slap on the wrist.” But the activism of parents whose children have died as a result of hazing, including the Piazzas, has helped create harsher punishments, Nuwer said.
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By Kyle Melnick
Kyle Melnick is a reporter on The Washington Post's General Assignment desk, where he covers national and international news.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/10/07/frat-hazing-penn-state-sentence/
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