Two former leaders of a now-banished Penn State fraternity chapter have been sentenced to jail time in connection with the alcohol-fueled hazing event that led to the death of 19-year-old pledge Timothy Piazza in 2017.
Former Beta Theta Pi Alpha Upsilon Chapter president Brendan Young and former pledge master Daniel Casey were sentenced on Tuesday to two to four months in the Centre County Correctional Facility followed by three years of probation and 10 days of community service. Centre County Judge Brian Marshall ordered both men to report to the jail on Monday, Oct. 7.
Both men spoke publicly for the first time since being charged, expressing remorse and saying the sophomore engineering major’s death has continued to weigh on them. Their attorneys had sought sentences of probation.
Young and Casey both entered open guilty pleas in July to one misdemeanor count of count of recklessly endangering another person and 14 misdemeanor counts of hazing. The jail sentence handed down by Marshall is for the reckless endangerment charge, while the probation and community service are for hazing charges.
“Nothing brings Tim back, but I think it was important that jail be assessed so that future hazers look at that and realize there are serious repercussions for hazing and that you can’t just blame the system,” Tim Piazza’s mother, Evelyn, said outside the Centre County Courthouse Annex in Bellefonte after the more than five-hour sentencing hearing. “Individuals are the ones that have actions.”
The sentencing brings an apparent end to what was the largest hazing prosecution in U.S. history. More than 20 other defendants charged following Piazza’s death long ago resolved their cases, with most pleading guilty to misdemeanor hazing or alcohol-related charges and serving sentences of home confinement or probation. Six were accepted into Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition programs for first-time offenders.
The cases against Young and Casey, however, had been held up in appeals over evidence.
They will be the first to serve jail sentences in the case. They initially each faced more than 100 charges, but most, including the most serious counts of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault, were withdrawn or dismissed following preliminary hearings.
“Our thoughts are with the Piazza family and everyone affected by this tragedy,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement. “Nothing can undo the harm Tim suffered seven years ago — nothing can bring Tim back to his family and friends. With the sentences ordered today, the criminal process reached a conclusion.”
Piazza was among 14 pledges called to the Beta Theta Pi house on North Burrowes Road on Feb. 2, 2017 for a bid acceptance night. As part of the initiation, pledges were first given a bottle of vodka to collectively finish before being brought in to the house for what was known as “The Gauntlet.” The alcohol obstacle course involved pledges going from station to station and consuming vodka, beer and wine.
After the initiation, pledges were handed alcoholic drinks throughout the night at a party. Piazza was given 18 alcoholic drinks in 82 minutes and had a blood alcohol content of .36 when he suffered several traumatic falls throughout the night. No one called for help until 12 hours after his first fall down the basement stairs
Piazza was taken to Mount Nittany Medical Center, then flown to Penn State Hershey Medical Center, where he died on Feb. 4 as a result of a non-recoverable brain injury, fractured skull and shattered spleen. Doctors who treated him told his parents he would have survived had he received medical attention sooner.
‘Russian roulette’
At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Deputy Attorney General Brian Zarallo played more than an hour of footage from the house’s video security system. The video, which has been shown at length during previous court proceedings, chronicled Piazza’s harrowing night.
Piazza’s father, Jim, left the courtroom at the start of the video, as he has done in the past, along with Tim’s brother, Mike, and several of Tim’s childhood friends. Evelyn Piazza remained, accompanied by State College Police Chief John Gardner at her side.
Tim Piazza is seen on the video visibly intoxicated, and shortly before 11 p.m. he fell head-first down the basement stairs. Multiple fraternity members carried his unconscious body upstairs to a couch where he remained for several hours. A full backpack was strapped to his back to keep him from rolling over and choking on his own vomit, and fraternity members, including Young and Casey, observed his condition, but no one called for medical attention.
In the predawn hours Piazza is seen struggling to walk, stumbling and falling multiple times. He tried to reach the front door twice but fell both times. Another time he fell into a metal railing. He was seen on the floor contorting his body for extended periods trying to get to his feet.
Finally he was seen walking toward the basement stairs again at around 8 a.m. Two hours later he was discovered, and his cold, stiff body was carried upstairs, where fraternity members spent the next 40 minutes debating what to do before finally calling 911, then cleaning up evidence of drinking from the night before.
Piazza’s death, Zarallo said, was “not an accident.” Young and Casey had “meticulously orchestrated and planned” the hazing, he said, showing text messages related to an identical bid acceptance event the previous fall, when one pledge passed out in a shower and another texted a friend “I’m so drunk I’m scared I’m going to die.”
“If you don’t black out and puke you’re a fucking pussy,” a message to pledges before the fall 2016 event stated.
Jim Piazza, Tim’s father, said Young and Casey knew that what they were doing was “reckless and dangerous.”
“They played Russian roulette with the pledges, and Tim got the bullet,” Jim Piazza said.
‘Part of me died that day’
Thirty people submitted written victim impact statements and eight delivered statements in court on Tuesday.
Four lifelong friends of Tim Piazza described him as a funny, kind, caring young man, someone who always made others feel included and who had a strong rapport with kids. They described his volunteer work and his desire for a career developing prosthetics for children.
He had become part of their families, and one friend said that in deciding to join a fraternity Piazza was hoping to find another chosen family while at school.
They also described the devastation they and others felt after his death and how they have struggled with it to this day.
Jeff Rundle, CEO of the national Beta Theta Pi fraternity, said “Tim deserved so much more,” and called what happened an “institutional failure that has shaken our fraternity to the core.” He called the actions of the Penn State chapter members “disgraceful.”
The most emotional statements though came from Piazza’s immediate family.
Mike Piazza, Tim’s brother, was the first to learn of his brother’s condition. Eighteen months older than Tim, Mike was also a Penn State student. When Tim didn’t return home, his roommate called Mike, who found his brother was taken to the hospital. He saw Tim, injured and unconscious, and was tasked with being the one to inform his parents that he was being helicoptered to Hershey Medical Center.
“Part of me died that day with Tim,” Mike Piazza said.
“He was taken by the arrogance, selfishness and cowardice of the fraternity brothers that night.”
Jim Piazza said he is left to contemplate the pain and suffering his son endured throughout that night and wonder if he knew he was going to die.
Young and Casey, he said, had shown no indication of remorse.
“It’s not their first offense. It’s the first time they got caught,” he said.
Evelyn Piazza spoke lovingly about her son’s good humor, his shy personality that would become “larger than life” once he got to know someone, his love for children and his “plan to make the world a better place for people who needed his help.”
Tim’s death, though, has left a lasting impact. She suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, worries if someone she meets will ask how many kinds she has, and lives with having one son “ripped out of this world,” and another traumatized by his death.
“I now have an image burned in my head of my baby in severe pain, trying to save himself,” she said.
Three dozen people submitted character references for Casey and Young. Both men voiced sorrow for Tim Piazza’s death and said what happened has cast a shadow over the rest of their lives.
Young, who graduated from Temple University and now works in finance in Philadelphia, said he accepted responsibility for his actions.
“I should have stepped in and called for help,” Young said. “Seven years later, I still feel deep regret for my actions.”
Casey graduated from Binghamton University and works with a real estate advisory firm. He recently married his longtime girlfriend, who also spoke on his behalf Tuesday.
His voice quavering at times, Casey turned and spoke directly to the Piazzas to express his condolences and sorrow. He said that Tim Piazza’s death “profoundly impacted” him, causing him to go into depression. The night before his wedding, he said, he and his wife both mourned that Piazza would never be able to start a family of his own.
‘There is no closure’
After handing down the sentence, Marshall, in a rare move, spoke for several minutes about the case and his thinking for the sentence.
Marshall noted, as the defense attorneys had, that the charges before him did not allow him to sentence Young and Casey for Piazza’s death.
He said, though, that both had sought out leadership roles and could have shown leadership by ending a “barbaric ritual,” but instead planned and participated in it.
Marshall also acknowledged that Casey and Young have accomplished much in their lives, but that Piazza will never have that chance.
“There’s no doubt that Tim Piazza had a future equally as bright,” Marshall said. “Neither he nor those who care about him will ever be able to see it.”
Jim Piazza said he still disagrees with prior judges having dismissed that most serious charges, but appreciated Marshall’s decision.
“I think Judge Marshall did a well-reasoned, well-thought-out sentence,” Jim Piazza said. “I think his comments today were indicative of the fact that he knew this was a serious matter. I appreciate that he gave it the weight it deserved.”
Since their son’s death, the Piazzas have been vocal and highly active advocates for anti-hazing programs and legislation. They inspired a major new Pennsylvania anti-hazing law which, among other things, makes hazing resulting in bodily injury or death a felony.
The U.S. House, meanwhile, passed last week the Stop Campus Hazing Act, which was shaped in part by the efforts of the Piazzas and research from the Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity and Sorority Research and Reform at Penn State,
Evelyn Piazza estimates that she has spoken to more than 200,000 people and at more than 150 colleges and universities about the consequences of hazing. The family also created the Timothy J. Piazza Foundation to provide help for children and adults in need of prosthetics, as a way to fulfill the dream their son could not.
The Piazzas also have a civil lawsuit still pending in federal court against Young, Casey and several others. Penn State and Beta Theta Pi reached out-of-court settlements with the Piazzas.
And while Tuesday’s sentencing may mark an end to the criminal proceedings, the Piazzas say there is no end to honoring their son’s memory.
“There is no closure,” Jim Piazza said. “We have a lot of work to do in our son’s memory. We need other people to see what came of today, because now with the new law in Pennsylvania, it’s a different ballgame and we need people to understand that in Pennsylvania and the other states that have more punitive laws in place.”
