Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Penn State frat boys in court for hazing death

Episode Date: June 12, 2017

A judge is watching hours of video prosecutors say shows how Penn State fraternity members got a 19-year-old recruit heavily intoxicated during a hazing ritual and then ignored him after he suffered a serious fall during a party. Most of the 18 Beta Theta Pi brothers charged in connection to Timothy Piazza’s death are in court Monday. Nancy Grace and Alan Duke discuss the case in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. partied 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, we need to talk 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. Today is the day. Showing up at a preliminary hearing in a Pennsylvania courtroom,

a group of fraternity brothers, they are charged with dozens and dozens of counts because a teen boy, a bright star, Timothy Piazza, was found dead and cold. Already cold, excuse me, dying and cold. Already stiffening up in the floor of their fraternity house at Penn State. In the courtroom, will be seeing for the first time, video surveillance from inside the fraternity house. And can you imagine this boy's parents sitting there,

watching as they see the last moments of their son's life unfold on video surveillance in a court of law. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories, and this should not be happening. It went down at Penn State University at yet another drunk party at the Beta Theta Pi House. This teen boy, Timothy Piazza, fell. It was the night of final pledging and when you commit to a fraternity or sorority and part of that was they would quote run the gauntlet which means these teen boys now remember the legal limit to drink in pennsylvania is 21 these teen boys would be coerced to drink at one station to the next, to the next, to the next. Receipts show they charged over $1,000 of malt liquor, hard liquor, beer, wine, just for one night.

Yeah, vodka. And this boy goes. He's an athlete, he's an engineering student, he's everything. He's the apple of his parents' eye. And he's going to go to a fraternity. And they probably think, oh good, he'll have friends at school. We don't have to worry about him being alone and sad. What they had to worry about is traumatic brain injury and lacerations to his abdomen so bad, his stomach filled up with blood. And then he lay there on the floor. People, partiers, actually stepped over his body as he lied there in the fetal position, dying. Twelve hours passed before 911 was finally called. Twelve hours, he could totally have been saved. And during this time, he was punched, punched slapped punched in the abdomen body slammed had

liquid poured over him it just goes on and on and then Alan there's the cover up where when one kid says guys we got to call 9-1-1 he was shoved against the wall. He was told to shut up, that he didn't know anything, and to just leave. And he did. And now we find out about the cover-up. Oh yes, where all the fraternity, not all of them, the ones that were charged, were on an app called GroupMe, G-R-O-U-P-M-E, where you can speak to a group. And they're talking about they're being ordered to get in there, clean up the house, get rid of all the alcohol. Say we just found him and call 911 immediately because his health is, their words, not mine, paramount to us. And, oh, yeah, delete all the text messages and emails we had. And, oh, yeah, let's get in there and delete the surveillance video.

Because we could get in trouble for this. Those are their words. We, I, the president of the fraternity is talking, could be charged for not calling 911. Yeah, they knew they were in trouble. They knew it was wrong. They even talked about possible charges coming up with lies to tell the cops. Alan, what's going to unfold in that courtroom? And I'm sure with Tim's parents sitting there listening.

Yes, this is a preliminary hearing for, I think, about 14 of the 18 defendants. Yes, some of them waived a hearing, yeah. Right. And, you know, it's just the opportunity for the evidence to be shown to the judge to see if there's cause for going forward. The big cause, they're going to have this video three hours of video there are cameras all over the fraternity house unfortunately there were not cameras in that one room i think it was the basement where they were running the gauntlet and having allegedly being forced to um to to take these shots over a very short period of time

yeah but they've got testimony for that but it does show around 5 a.m. the camera captures Piazza falling headfirst, headfirst into an iron railing. You see that. And you can even see on the videotape the bruising. After around 7 a.m., he apparently falls down the basement stairs. Well, you see all that.

And he died, according to the pathologist, from severe head trauma and a ruptured spleen. And while he was dying, they just hid him away, just put him on the floor or behind the bar, and then they brought him out. But they were just ignoring. This goes to what we've talked about so much recently you know the adrian jones case where you see something and you don't say something it was only because a less intoxicated frat brother came in into the party after it was going and perhaps wasn't as intoxicated and eventually he knew he he was

sober enough to know something was really really wrong but it it just went on way too long way too long yeah he could have been saved he died one day later in the hospital and here's the thing his defense lawyers some of the defense lawyers that come out and saying but there's no intent there's no intent to kill anyone they must be talking straight out of their rear end or else they haven't looked it up because they're charged with involuntary manslaughter which specifically says no intent to kill is required this charge involuntary manslaughter are is for cases where there is no intent to kill. It's when you're so D-A-M-N, negligent or reckless that a death occurs. Or when you choose, you omit to act. It specifically addresses that.

It specifically addresses gross negligence, recklessness. It even says, quote, this is the law, ignoring a known danger that leads to a death. That's what involuntary manslaughter is. Hello. And you don't have to be a frat member, ever go to one of these parties to know how dangerous these are. I mean, it's not all like the John Belushi Animal House movie where it just is all fun and games with the drinking. We know there have been many, many deaths over a hundred and more or more years caused by this gauntlet that they run pledges through. I gotta tell you something, Alan. You know, when I like something, I just kind of get addicted. That's how I am about the twins.

Some people say, oh, she's a helicopter mom. You know I refer to myself as a straight jacket mom. Like, I'll pick the twins up and I'll go, mom, was that you driving by in the minivan today at recess? I'm like, no. They go, mom, we saw you. I'm like, oh, maybe it was me. I have a blanket that time. I saw that in action this past weekend.

Oh, wait, what? Tell me. What did you see? Well, when we were at CrimeCon, you were taking pictures with fans. You were talking. You were giving your speeches. But about every two minutes, there was this turning of your neck. Where are the twins?

Where are the twins where are the twins and then it was like nobody could get between you point a where you were in point b where where you thought they were you were just a beeline and then you just grabbed your arms around them and you were and you kept them there i thought that was great yes and what i'm saying is that is why i don't drink now i want to pause and thank our sponsor today zip recruiter it's awesome and if you're hiring are you hiring do you know where to post your job to find the very best candidates well with zip recruiter you can post your job to 100 plus job sites with one click. Then their technology matches the right people to your job better than anybody else does it. I'm all for people getting hired.

I'm all for people finding jobs and working. This is why ZipRecruiter is different. Unlike other job sites, ZipRecruiter does not depend on candidates finding you. It finds them. In fact, over 80% of jobs posted on ZipRecruiter get a qualified candidate in just 24 hours. That's pretty incredible. No juggling emails or calls to your office. You screen it, you rate, and you manage the candidates all in one place with ZipRecruiter's easy to use dashboard. Find out today why ZipRecruiter has been used by businesses of all sizes to find the most qualified job candidates with immediate results. And now,

anyone listening to our podcast today that posts on ZipRecruiter, you do it for free. Repeat, free. Go to ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. One more time. Try it free. Free. Find the person you're looking for. Hire somebody today. Get them working. ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace.

ZipRecruiter, thank you for what you are doing in the job market and thank you for being our partner. Now, I want to go back to our story. Alan, I've just seen so many cases. It really affected me because, you know, I started prosecuting felonies when I was fairly young in the grand scheme of things. And I will never forget this gorgeous stockbroker came in and she was in prison blues. She was shackled hand and foot, which I thought was a little too much. Uh, but I was watching and she took a plea, a guilty plea. And it was light. You know, she got, she'd already been in jail for like six months waiting for a case to be resolved, so she got time served. She was addicted to alcohol, and she had had a crash. Nobody got killed, but I forgot that all the facts of it. She lost her stockbroker's license she could never practice

again she her husband had finally divorced her she was on limited visitation with her children she they managed to lose their home during all this couldn't make the payments because she couldn't work and here she was in shackles I I'm like, dear Lord in heaven. And that was just alcohol. You know what? I don't even know what, what about drugs? That's a whole nother can of worms. But I mean, when I see what it's done to other people and they can't, they can't stop.

They're addicted. It's an illness. It's not like they want to be an alcoholic for Pete's sake. They can't stop. And this isn't even alcoholism we're talking about. This is alcohol intoxication. And some of these kids, these are freshmen generally or sophomores, and they might not have had a drinking history, probably did,

but may not have had much of it. And this is maybe something they're not even used to. And then they are encouraged or forced through peer pressure to become intoxicated in a very deadly way. So this preliminary hearing is very simple, as Alan correctly stated. All a preliminary hearing is, is you put evidence in front of the judge, and the judge decides whether the case has enough facts that there is an issue, a question of fact, for a jury to decide. That's all it is. And then he, she, the judge, will bind the case over, which means send it to the direct court, to the correct court, i.e., is it a felony? Then it goes to felony court.

It goes to a grand jury. Is it a misdemeanor? Then it's going to go to misdemeanor court. That's all the judge is doing, not deciding guilt or innocence, but just simply is there an issue of fact that needs to go to a jury? But this one's going to be probably particularly complicated. You'll need a big spreadsheet because there are 1,000 charges against 18 young men.

And they range from involuntary manslaughter to hazing, which is against the law, to forcing somebody to drink, to providing a minor with alcohol, to aggravated assault. This odyssey went on for over 12 hours. And the medical examiner said there is absolutely clear evidence that his death could have been prevented. Easily prevented. Easily prevented. Easily.

I mean, this is what I keep thinking about. I keep thinking about my children. And you know, Alan, I try, God help me, to do it all. To help them make good grades. To get them to church when I don't feel like it, to make them go to Sunday school, to make them go to piano classes, to try to get out in the yard and try to teach them how to play basketball, if you can only imagine that.

Okay. I get out in the yard and try to teach them how to play soccer. It's embarrassing, but they're too young to know how dumb I look. So, I mean, I'm just trying everything. You know but they're too young to know how dumb I look so I mean I'm just trying everything you know their little projects I help them with their projects blah blah blah anything to help them along their way to succeed to do better you know to get along in a world where you have to fit in with your peers blah blah and and to think that one day i would be sitting i'm just crossing myself god please don't let this happen to me sitting in court watching video surveillance of the last moments that is what this family, the dad said, they treated him like roadkill, just stepping over him.

That's exactly right. That's exactly what it looked like. Like he wasn't a human, that he was just an animal laying on the floor that had been hit by a car. That they didn't do. They just keep on going. Just when you said that, it really hit me. I mean, he had blood on his face. He was lying in the floor, moaning, writhing in pain.

And they did nothing but literally step over him and then think up ways to conceal the facts from police. What's in our brain that causes us to ignore somebody suffering, somebody who's being abused? What is in our brain that causes us to think, it's not relevant to me, I don't have to pick up the phone? He didn't die from blood alcohol poisoning. He died from severe head trauma and severe abdominal bleeding.

That was the official cause of death. Although he was four times the legal limit on his. Up to.36. Incredible. Really over it. And that could kill you. That's still 32. Okay.

The legal limit is.08. And he was between.288 and 3.6, 0.36 at the time of his death. I mean, the screaming match over whether to call 911. And they tell the younger kid to just leave. He didn't know anything. Just get out. And he does. You know, he leaves. And then the boy dies. Timothy Piazza. And everybody's talking about, oh, we're going to have stricter rules and about hazing and blah, blah.

You know what? To hay with it. Because nothing can bring this boy back. They've been talking about stricter rules and no hazing as long as I can remember. For a hundred years, this has been going on more than a century. And I got to tell you something. For two of my four years in college, I was Greek. I was 80 pi. And I never saw anything like this. I mean, I went away to college and my

friend from Macon, I knew absolutely, I knew one person, a boy from my high school. And he was in a boy's dorm across campus and I was in a girl's dorm on the other side of campus. I knew nobody. I hooked up with a friend girl of mine from Macon and she was in a sorority. And she said, please come to join us and meet my friend. I did. And for two years, I was part of that until i transferred and then i was as many people say an imf and i will not reveal what that stands for but i was

independent and spent all my time working in the library and getting ready for law school after keith's murder but i never saw anything like this I mean when I pledged they sent me cards with violets okay I mean that was that was it and they were we were would have like surprise pancake breakfasts and be like woo okay nothing like this I mean I don't know where and then I saw fraternity parties and this was not going on. Of course, I wasn't there during the pledging. Well, when we were in college, 18 was the legal drinking age. I still didn't drink. People would bring me a beer and I poured in a plant, poor plant. I'm sure it's dead now. Now, okay, so what happens now? Let's talk about if people are going

to plead guilty and roll over on each other because that's what i predict that i expect some of that could happen i'm thinking well i'm already seeing that some of these defendants their lawyers are pointing the fingers saying it wasn't me it was him that's already happening they're trying to drag other people in for example the advisor to the fraternity they're saying hey you should have charged him, not me. You know, he knew. And let me get you ready, Alan, before you blurt this out. Voluntary intoxication is not a defense to this charge. The law specifically states that for the most part, voluntary use of drugs or alcohol is never a defense

unless you're comatose to the point you can't move and then you're not acting anyway. So generally speaking, voluntary use of drugs or alcohol, never a defense. So they're not going to be able to claim, I was drunk. I didn't know what was happening. That ain't working. Or I never handed him a drink. He got his own drink. We're already hearing that one.

Yeah, probably, probably. After he is taken to the hospital, the fraternity members delete text messages. They get in there and try to erase the surveillance, the video. Do people not know that doesn't work anymore? And plus they can tell you did it. Hello? Yeah, exactly. It's digital, people.

It's on this hard drive. Did you see Harry Potter? Have you seen all of them and read all the books? Because, exactly. It's digital, people. It's on this hard drive. Did you see Harry Potter? Have you seen all of them and read all the books? Because I have. No, I've not seen a single moment. What is wrong with you? I don't have a... You are not qualified to be on this podcast if you have not seen all the Harry Potters.

I'm sure I'll do it. My grandkids are two, and little Lena had her fourth birthday this weekend. They may be too young. They're too young for that. My daughter missed that. But let me tell you why i'm saying this there's an episode jackie here is in the studio she's shaking her head she knows the deal do you remember when uh professor slughorn had his memory he altered his memory and then when they went back to try to look at what happened it didn't make sense don't people know if you tamper with surveillance video when it's finally viewed they can tell you've tampered with

it okay it doesn't work so they're either trying to tamper with the surveillance video erase it and quote if need be tell cops we found him behind a bar the next morning around 10 a.m., freezing cold. We call 911 immediately because this kid's health was paramount. I mean, and he texted that, that that's what they were supposed to say to the police. That's going to hurt. Didn't anybody see what happened to Richard Nixon? The cover-up was what minutes the whole thing up you know Rosemary Woods 18 and a half minute gap in the tape is even no no matter what was said on that 18 and a half minutes it couldn't have been as damning as

the fact that we know there was an 18 and a half minute gap that he claimed his secretary accidentally erased I mean you know what he could have said he could have said and of course this is a lie and i'm not advocating this you know what some of my supporters were overzealous and they gained access translation broke into burglarized uh democratic national convention headquarters to snoop, i.e. steal, campaign secrets. And I didn't want that. See, if he had just come out with something instead of trying to cover the whole thing up, that just makes it so much worse.

How many times have we heard it's the cover-up that gets you? And here is the cover-up. Okay, we're waiting to find out what happens in the Penn State Fraternity Manslaughter Trial. And, yes, I feel sorry for the guys that are charged because many of them look so young. But when I look at Timothy Piazza, I know why Lady Justice wears a blindfold. Because she makes these decisions. Justice must be blind to your appearance, your age, your background, your race, your sex, your religion or lack thereof. It doesn't matter. What matters is the truth.

And that is what I want. And you know what else I want, Alan? A drink? No. truth and that is what i want and you know what else i want alan a drink no i have my hot tea with skim milk right here i want peace and comfort for timothy's parents yes because i know the pain pain of living with a life cut short for a over a criminal reason is just but i can't imagine losing a child i don't even want to put those words out in the universe because it's so scary But God, be with Timothy's parents and everyone involved in this case. Amen. And I'm leaving crime stories right there. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.