Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Fraternity hazing: ‘Brothers’ ignore dying Penn State pledge?

Episode Date: May 8, 2017

Eighteen students face charges, including involuntary manslaughter, in the death of Timothy Piazza, a 19-year-old who died after alcohol-fueled fraternity hazing at Penn State University. One frat pledge says he warned others that Piazza needed medical help, but they waited a dozen hours before calling 911. In this episode, Nancy Grace and Alan Duke look at what a grand jury found in its investigation of the deadly Beta Theta Pi party. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. inside the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house. Left unconscious 12 hours after falling down a flight of stairs. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Court documents say Piazza fell headfirst down a flight of stairs after he was forced to binge drink. A former member now speaking out, claiming he wanted to call 911 and no one would let him. I was screaming at the top of my lungs. I was like, Tim needs help right now.

Like, we should call 911 right now. Prosecutors say a frat brother called 911 the next morning, 12 hours after the fall. 18 students charged, 8 with involuntary manslaughter. It seemed like they just wanted to make sure that they themselves were safe rather than Tim truly being safe. Everybody was surrounding him laughing and pointing. A Penn State fraternity brother says he begged and begged to call 911 for a young teen pledge who dies after a hazing ritual. And he was called crazy as all the party goers,

the frat boys at Penn State mocked made fun of the unconscious boy Timothy Piazza as he died he is dead after an alcohol-fueled pledge night at Beta Theta Pi party at a private chapter house and one of the fraternity brothers, Cordell Davis, says he begged and begged and kept saying, we got to call 9-1-1, we got to call 9-1-1, and everybody blew him off, laughing and pointing, making fun of the unconscious boy. I mean, I don't know about you, but I've been saving since the twins were born to afford to send them to what college they want to go to. And, I mean, now it's $50,000, $70,000 a year for some colleges. And you send your child away for higher learning and bam, he's dead.

Oh, oh, no. Hell would have no fury like mine. Uh-uh. N-O. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories, and this is a crime. Now, you will hear the law is that to omit, to act, to fail to act is not a crime. Sadly, that is true. However, if you had a hand at all

in this boy's death, oh yeah, you're going to be charged. With me, Alan Duke. Alan, I am disgusted. I am disgusted. Not by a prank that went bad, but by the others mocking and laughing and pointing and making fun of the little boy as he lied there. I say he's a little boy. He's a teen. A pledge, a beta theta pi. So I guess, you know, in some circles, you would not say he was a boy, but to me,

I mean, that's just a little baby. He didn't even know what he was doing much less that everyone was standing around mocking him as he lied dying at a frat party what do you know alan duke this is a supposedly dry fraternity ah now it's beta theta is it pi or phi? You're the expert on that. P-I is pi. P-H-I. Alan, sadly. And I know I'm risking the wrath of people commenting how mean I am to you, but it's not Greek. That is American English phonetics.

P-I would be pi, and P-H-I would be phi. Okay? As in philharmonic. Go with it. This fraternity in their manual. Manual, schmanual. Go ahead. Yeah, really.

They didn't go by the book on this one because they broke every rule in their book. They're supposedly dry. Anybody with alcohol at the house is supposed to be immediately ejected from the fraternity. And of course, we know now from the grand jury testimony that we've got a copy of, at least the 81-page charging document, is that from the president on down, they collected

money to buy $1,200 worth of booze, including 15 cases of beer. $1,200 worth of alcohol. It took them eight days to buy it all. And they used what they called a slush fund. So they didn't show up on the fraternity ledger. Every person at the beginning of the semester contributed $250 to their alcohol slush fund for these parties. This was a pledge event. They had 13 young men, 18, 19 years old, who were students at Penn State University, who were considering joining.

And in fact, they were celebrating that night that these 13 had accepted the invitation to join this fraternity. And that's why they lined them up in the basement, gave them a bottle of vodka and said, drink it. And told the pledges to keep passing it around until they finished it. And that is where it started. You know, I'm just imagining my son or my daughter in that situation. You know, they're nine now. This is just a few years from now. They'll be going off.

I don't even want to talk about it. Going away to college. And I can't even imagine them in that situation. I got to tell you something, you know, half of my college, I was Greek, half of my college, I was independent. And then law school, I don't even know what happened. All I remember is studying nonstop. People will say, Hey, don't you remember that law school party? I'm like no don't you remember that time we no no i i just you know all i did was study then and you know once i decided to go to law school it was all all off and the sorority i was in for two years 80 pi no one even, told me I had to drink.

I never, at any of the parties the sorority had, we didn't have alcohol. I can honestly say that now. I was at plenty of parties where there was alcohol, fraternity parties, and independent parties. But no, never. And I'm just trying to imagine, you know, Alan, don't they read the news? Don't they all have iPads where they can see how wrong this is? So $1,200 worth of booze, is that what you said? They had to purchase over eight days and they were given a big bottle of vodka and said, drink it till it's gone. All of these frat members and the detective that testified detailed the shotgunning.

In fact, after the vodka, they would be handed that and told to swig it and keep going with it. Then they were required to, quote, shotgun a beer. Shotgunning, the fraternity president explained, occurs when you put a hole in the side of the can. So if this is like a normal can, you put it in the side, you put it in the hole, and when you drink from the hole, you open up the top of it creates an airflow easier to drink real fast you've ever chugged or shotgun a beer i haven't i'm shocking i'm sure but no i have not shotgunned a beer alan duke it's very fast intake i mean how can you even ask me if i shotgunned a beer for pete's sake you're from near macon and I... Will you please

quit dragging geography into every single discussion? Beer, just so you know, is sold in every state in the union. Can we get back to these facts and not what you did when you were in college? Okay. Thanks. You know, let's get down to it. The coroner in this case determined Piazza died not from alcohol poisoning, but as a result of multiple traumatic injuries sustained from a fall. Okay, tell me about the fall, Alan. He hit his head several times. First of all, he did register his blood alcohol level was 0.36. Let's get that on the record, first of all.

Oh, yeah. Way over the legal limit. According to the scenario, he fell a number of times. There was an upstairs area, and he come down. Fell down a scenario, he fell a number of times. There was an upstairs area and he come down. Fell down a flight of stairs to put it simply. Right. And they say he tried to stagger to the door like he was trying to leave because he knew he had to go. He had to get help. And he the final time was he fell and he hit his head. And who knows if that's the final blow. But yes, it was the concussions.

You know, I find it really hard to believe he got multiple blows to the head falling down a flight of stairs. His fall was not caught on camera, but somebody in that frat house heard it and found the boy lying face down at the bottom of the stairs. You know, it's actually making me sick to my stomach imagining John David or Lucy in this situation. One of the other guys at the party messaged all the other frat brothers and said,

quote, Tim Piazza might actually be a problem. He fell 15 feet down a flight of stairs here first, going to need help. But they didn't get him help no what they did in fact of the 18 who are charged five of them are just charged with tampering with evidence that means trying to hide things but what they would do in order to the only help they gave him was they made sure he didn't roll over on his back i guess the theory was hey we don't want him throwing up and choking on his own vomit right So they actually piled textbooks on top of him to keep him from rolling over.

Now, that's some assistance right there. Surveillance video catches after the fall. It's about 13 minutes till 11 p.m. They show the other frat boys carrying him upstairs, four of them. He was limp and already had a visible bruise on his side. Now, I'm suspicious of that because you fall, you don't get the bruise immediately. Was he bruised some other way? Then they put him on a couch and poured liquid on his face, and one guy even punched him in the stomach.

Someone said his legs, sat on his legs to keep him from rolling off the couch. All this is happening as he's dying. He is dying. Now, one of the new initiates got upset and screamed they needed to get him to the hospital. And he saw Piazza thrashing and making weird movements on the couch, stressing that they had to get him to the hospital that he could have a concussion. He said, he told the grand jury, we now have the grand jury testimony, Piazza, the boy looked, quote, horrible. And when he wanted to call for help, they told him to get out and shoved

him against the wall and said, we've got it under control. If you look at the charging documents, this is the summary of what the gauntlet, in two minutes, as they call the gauntlet, the pledges consumed approximately four to five alcoholic beverages, beer, wine, liquor, all within a two-minute time span. That would knock me out. I can tell you, that would knock me out flat. 11.30 p.m., the pledge master slaps Piazza three times in the face, allegedly. Seven minutes later, another tackles another frat brother onto the couch. They land on him. 1 a.m., they put that backpack full of books on him to keep him from rolling onto his back. Now, 3.22 a.m., he's still alive. He tries to stand up, but he falls and hits his head again on the wooden floor.

3.46, it's almost 4 a.m. This is going on since 10 o'clock. He's in the fetal position on the floor, the fetal position. He falls at 4 a.m., 5 a.m., each time hitting his head on an iron railing and landing on a stone floor. He tries to get up, hits his head on the front door. I find it really hard to believe he keeps accidentally hitting his head. Fraternity brothers, enter and leave the frat house. Just step over him, leaving him there. 7 a.m. 7 a.m. He falls down the basement stairs again. He's cold to the touch, blood on his face.

40 more minutes pass before they call 911. He rolls to his side, clutching his abdomen. Several of them are caught on video trying to shake him and prop him up. And when they do call 911, they don't tell them Piazza fell down the steps the night before. Ultimately, cops conclude after Piazza was taken to the hospital, the Frat brothers tried to hide evidence of hazing and underage drinking by deleting their messages and trying to erase surveillance video. One text, Ellen says, if need be, just tell them what I told you guys. Found him behind a bar the next morning around 10 a.m. He was freezing cold, but we decided to call 911 instantly because the kid's health was paramount.

I'm so distraught. Just imagine if this was your child in this condition, in this situation. All he did was go to a party, have some alcohol when he was forced to and told to if he wanted to be part of the fraternity. And now he's dead. I mean, the heartbreak of this family. I got to tell you, I'm beside myself about this kid. Other disturbing details in the charging document says this isn't the first. This is the first time they had a death in the house, but not the first time they had a serious problem like this. One of the young men who testified, who had been a part of all of this, testified that when

he pledged about four or five months earlier, that he fell and hit his head, resulting in profuse bleeding. And they took him to urgent care, but nobody ever called 911. It never got reported to police. I'm just so distraught, Alan, because I keep, and I know as a prosecutor or a lawyer, you're not supposed to inject your own emotions into the case. It clouds the case. It clouds your ability to try the case or to analyze the facts. But I got to tell you, I can hardly, I keep looking at this boy, Timothy Piazza, and imagining John David or Lucy in this situation. It's just, what more have we learned from the charging documents? This is not a new practice. This had been going on.

One of the conversations that they captured from a year before, text messages between members of the fraternity, are talking about how they do this. And it's the same setup. So year after year, they have been doing this. And they noted in it that every time they do it, somebody has a problem. And so these guys were not ignorant of the problems. They obviously knew. But I guess until you have a death, you don't really in your fraternity know that it is deadly. I mean, but they should have. This is nothing new.

I went online to one of these organizations that monitors hazing and tries to prevent it. And this has been going on since the 1800s in this country. This has been going on forever. You know, the Penn State President, Eric J. Barron, permanently banned the fraternity. But I really don't know if that's enough. I really do not know if that's enough. Because, I mean, it just seems like it happens over and over and over. So they're facing involuntary manslaughter. That will probably end up in straight probation, if anything at all. They may even get PTI, pre-trial intervention, which means you go to some classes and then the whole thing's wiped off of your record. And then at some point, the fraternity will petition to get back on campus, and it will because they always do.

But these chilling text messages reveal to me more than involuntary manslaughter. It reveals to me they knew he needed help, that he desperately needed help. But instead of calling 911, they mocked him, made fun of him, and made up a plan to cover up his death. Found at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding and cold. He died. The COD, cause of death, Alan, is traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury. And 18 of the fraternity brothers are charged with involuntary manslaughter.

What do you think? I mean, according to Thomas Klein, a lawyer for the family, these young men deserve to be punished. I mean, they knew he needed help. I'm wondering if you could prove more than involuntary. Well, I don't know. You're the lawyer. You tell me. Involuntary manslaughter. If you knew that this could result in death, if you were aware that that has happened before, is it involuntary manslaughter? What are the legal arguments there? The fact that they slapped him, punched him, sat on him, to me, those are acts, an active form of assault, not just standing by and letting it happen. I think that there's an argument to be made for voluntary manslaughter, but even with involuntary, they can do jail time,

and I think they need to do jail time. I really do. I mean, this is beyond the pale. This is unacceptable behavior. And every parent that is sending, all you moms and dads, this kid's from a good family. He was an athlete. He made good grades. The works. His family is heartbroken. This can happen to anybody that sends your kid off to college. Really distressed about it because college for my family was the dream. My mom and dad didn't get to finish college. My mom

didn't get to go to college and their dream was for us to go and they worked their fingers to the bone for me to go and do a good job, not to be treated like this and mocked and made fun of at some drunken party. And this kid ends up dead. His parents are trying to give him the world and he ends up dead. And I want justice, Alan. When I first saw this story, I was thinking this is a bright young man. Why would he go through this? What is the motivation other than just to get into the fraternity? Be accepted. I found in the grand jury's charging document, the detective testified. He asked one of the members what would happen if a pledge did not participate in this hazing. And the fraternity brother answered back that failing to participate could affect a pledge's pledge ranking, which determines whether or not they're

able to live in the beta house. So there was an actual incentive to go through the hazing, not just to have fun. This was about getting a bed in the house for your college career. And also about acceptance. You know, a lot of teens and children are not strong enough or confident enough to say no. You know, I just hate it. I hate it so much for this family. All I can say now is Timothy Piazza, rest in peace, and God comfort his parents and his family at this time of deep, deep sorrow. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.