Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - TEEN BOY FORCE FED ALCOHOL, BRAIN DEAD, WITH BLUE LIPS AT FRAT PARTY

Episode Date: June 9, 2022

19-year -old Daniel "Danny" Santulli suffers "massive brain damage" after an alcohol-fueled hazing incident.  The University of Missouri freshman was allegedly forced to drink an entire bottle of vodka and force-fed beer while pledging to become a member of the Phi Gamma Delta.  Santulli reportedly had over six times the legal driving limit of alcohol in his blood.  Surveillance video shows Santulli lying on a couch for hours, with people walking by, even moving Santulli back onto the couch when he fell off.  Ultimately the teen is taken to University Hospital suffering cardiac arrest. Danny Santulli is now wheelchair-bound, blind, unable to speak, and will need round-the-clock care for the rest of his life.  Joining Nancy Grace Today: David W. Bianchi - Santulli Family Attorney, "America’s leading hazing lawyer", STFBlaw.com (Miami, FL)  Jim Piazza - Father of Timothy Piazza, Anti-Hazing activist, Founding Member of the Anti-Hazing Coalition, Parents United to Stop Hazing (PUSH) Dr. Susan Lipkins - Psychologist and Hazing Expert, Author: "Preventing Hazing", insidehazing.com Dr. Michelle DuPre - Former Forensic Pathologist, Medical Examiner and Detective: Lexington County Sheriff's Department, Author: "Homicide Investigation Field Guide" & "Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide", Forensic Consultant, DMichelleDupreMD.com  Mona Kay - Private Investigator, "Mona K Investigations" (Omaha, NE), Twitter: @monakay  Mark Slavit - Television News Reporter, KRCG TV 13 (Columbia, Missouri), krcgtv.com, Twitter: @MSlavitKRCG13  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The so-called worst case of hazing in U.S. history. You can judge that for yourself. But a teen boy is left blind and unable to walk. Why is this happening in our country? I was just telling Jackie that we're actually talking about putting a space station on Mars. But we can't stop teens from ending up blinded and unable to walk because of hazing on college campuses.

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Listen to this. Hundreds of students who participated in that protest gathered right here last night. They came together to protest the actions of Phi Gamma Delta. Now the fraternity has also been suspended by its national organization. MU Police and the Office of Student Accountability are currently investigating to determine if any criminal statutes or university regulations were violated. One MU student we spoke with was also protesting the way the university

has been trying to prevent misconduct on campus. It's just ridiculous. Like something needs to change and the things that they're doing to try and change it is not working. Based on an initial investigation, several fraternity members were believed to have consumed, quote, significant amounts of alcohol during a party at the fraternity. Now, MU says it plans to conduct an internal review of its entire Greek system. The current status of the hospitalized student is unknown. This isn't just drinking at a party. This is being force-fed alcohol, an entire bottle of vodka, as well as beer.

Force-fed to the point that this teen boy was six times over the legal limit. You were just hearing our friends at Fox 9. Now take a listen to Hannah Falcon, KMIZ. I'm here at the now abandoned Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity House. And this is where it all happened that night back in October. What happened that night left Danny Santulli unable to walk, see, or talk. And now his family and lawyer are asking why prosecutors aren't charging active members with hazing crimes. Danny Santulli is still unable to speak.

He has massive brain damage. He's lost his eyesight. He's blind. And he cannot walk a probable cause statement from university of missouri police outlines the events of the night danny santuli got alcohol poisoning from a phi gamma delta pledge event the statement says active members taped a bottle of vodka to his hands and poured beer down his throat it also says security footage shows many of the events as they happened inside the frat house.

Now, if you're not going to enforce the hazing laws in Missouri under these circumstances, then you're never going to enforce them. You might as well just get rid of the law. You know what I learned? And I'm not proud to say this. When I first went to the district attorney's office to prosecute crimes, my boss, who I loved, who's like a grandfather to me, Mr. Slayton, the longest serving elected DA in the country at that time, I think it was 37 years, for two sessions sent me with the office lobbyist to push anti-crime issues. I'm proud because I got to help write the rape shield law, which I'm very proud of for the state of Georgia. I couldn't wait to get out of there. Can I tell you why? Because the assembly was made up largely of defense attorneys, no offense to defense attorneys,

but you expect them to pass laws that would hurt their clients, that's not going to happen. Same thing here. Why have the hazing statutes if they don't have any teeth to them and you're not going to use them? Now, earlier you were hearing from our friend Sarah Moyers at KOMU8. But before we go to our guest, take a listen now to Hannah Flood, Fox 9. The injury sustained by Danny Santulli is the worst hazing injury that I've ever seen in my career. Nearly four months later and now breathing on his own, Danny is still unresponsive, unable to communicate, and living with permanent brain injuries.

This is devastating at so many levels. It's not just devastating for Danny, the victim, but also his family. Soon after the incident, the university and the fraternity's national authority shut down the chapter, one that had been cited for violations six other times in the last four years. Now, this lawsuit alleges the fraternity and some of its members are responsible for Danny's injuries, even if there were policies in place against hazing and alcohol use.

That tells me that the existing rules and regulations and the way we're going about this are not working. Guys, you're hearing the voice of David Bianchi. He is Danny's family lawyer. Now, he has said, he's joining us out of Miami, he has said this is the worst hazing case, injury he's ever seen. Now, I agree, it may be the worst injury ever seen, but I don't know, as horrific as it is, how I can distinguish between Danny's case, a teen boy who goes off to college, every parent's dream, and so many others.

Before I go to David Bianchi joining us, billed as America's leading hazing lawyer, or Mark Slavitt joining us from KRCG TV 13 there in Missouri, I want to go to a longtime colleague and someone I now consider to be a friend. This is Jim Piazza, father of Timothy Piazza. You know, even when I say that, I feel a pain in my chest because Jim is the father of Timothy who lost his life due to hazing. Jim is now the founding member of the Anti-Hazing Coalition and Parents United to Stop Hazing. It's called PUSH, P-U-S-H. Jim, thank you for being with us.

You're welcome, Nancy. Thank you for having me. I just got to ask you how you can continue to talk about Timothy and not just totally break down. Because I don't know if you know this, my twins are about to turn 15. Yes, they're 14. And I think about Danny Santilli and his family. I think about you, your family, Timothy.

I'm actually afraid to send them to college. Yeah, you know, I think, you know, when you send your kids to college, they should feel protected. You should feel good that they're going to be protected. You know, we're all about trying to educate parents and students and administrators and whatnot right now. But this stuff keeps happening. You know, we've been following Danny's story for quite a while now. It's heartbreaking.

I just can't imagine what that family's going through. I mean, obviously, we think about Tim every day. We're still dealing with criminal trials and in litigation, and it's five years later. Could you explain what happened to Timothy? Before I even get to Danny Centulli, what happened to your son, Timothy? Sure. I mean, I have to be a little bit guarded on what I say, but Tim showed up for what they called a bid acceptance night. And they ran a drinking obstacle course where they

forced the pledges to drink massive amounts of alcohol. Tim had 18 drinks in less than an hour and a half that they saw on video. I don't know if there was more than that. And during the course of the night, he also fell down a flight of 15 steps, and they threw him on a couch. I mean, he had enough alcohol to die from alcohol poisoning, but they threw him down on a couch. He had subdural hematoma in his head. He had a spleen injury. And, you know, they waited 14 hours or so before they called 911, and he was pretty much dead when they found him.

He did stay alive long enough for us to get to him in the hospital, but he passed shortly thereafter. I know what you're doing. I know what you are doing, Jim. Because I do it when I talk about the murder of my fiancé. You recite the facts. And don't think about them. Because sometimes that's the only way you can get through it. The way you just recited what happened to your boy. Yeah.

And it keeps happening to other young men and women and it's got to stop. But it's not stopping. We keep saying it's got to stop. But it's not stopping. We keep saying it's got to stop. It's got to stop. It's like a broken record. It's not stopping. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Mark Slavitt joining me, TV news reporter, KRCG TV 13.

What happened this time, Mark? What happened is something that should have never happened in the first place. Here in Columbia, we have the University of Missouri. It's one of the biggest schools in the state. There's 31,000 students here. The school offers 300 degree programs, so we get students from all over the world here. And we have this Greek town where they have all the fraternities and sororities, which is pretty common for a university campus. And at Phi Gamma Delta,

they had a party that they should have never had. And there was surveillance video there. The university has its own police department. They patrol around. And somehow this party just got out of control, and Danny was the victim here. Okay. I hear what you're saying, Mark Slavitt. And no offense, because you're a heck of an investigative reporter.

I know your reputation. But I don't like anything you just said. And I'll tell you why. Okay. Parties don't get out of control. Someone allows that or facilitates

or enables that. If a party gets out of control, you said this was a party that should not have happened. Why should it not have happened? You say that there is a campus police force that were patrolling. They didn't notice a party getting out of control? Is Greektown on the campus? Because if it is, they should have been there. What happened?

That's a good question. And we've talked to university officials. We've talked to the police department. They're not giving us too much information. Well, somebody's lying. Because if they were on patrol and doing their job, they would have seen a party out of control. Mark Slavitt, again, I don't want to kill the messenger, which is you.

Mark Slavitt joining us from KRCG TV 13. I mean, David Bianchi, billed as America's leading hazing lawyer, the Santulli family attorney. When Mark Slavitt correctly reports the party was out of control, what does that mean? This chapter was sanctioned by the University of Missouri 13 days before this happened to Danny Santulli, and they were sanctioned for alcohol and hazing violations by the university. After they received the letter from the university with the sanctions that were to extend into the year 2022 give me five seconds more, this was the second set of sanctions imposed on this chapter because seven months earlier, they were sanctioned for

alcohol violations as well. And those sanctions were to extend into the year 2022. So they were on double sanctions when they did this, and they could have cared less about any of it. And this was not a party that somehow got out of control. It was planned to be out of control. And I have to stick up for the university police here, because you cannot expect the university police to be babysitting. This event took place in the basement of the frat house. There's no way anybody driving by would have known it was going on. And after it was in the basement,

it moved up inside of the house. It was never outside. Well, if it's out of control, see, to me, I think of Animal House where the party's spilling out on the lawn and everybody's going crazy and it's loud. What do you mean? How can it be out of control

and you can't tell from the outside? I mean, I think of a boombox blaring and people drunk lying on the front lawn with paper cups everywhere. So how is it out of control, but you couldn't see it from the outside? This is Dr. Lipkins, and I am an amazing expert. should understand is the kind of night that happened where the new member gets anointed and connected with his father. They use the terms father and son and all the brothers in a fraternity. This is part of the ritual that happens every semester, every year across the country. So it's not just planned 13 days in advance. It's planned every year. They know this is going to happen.

It doesn't happen everywhere, every time. I think, David Bianchi, it's much more prevalent among fraternities than sororities. Is that true? Yeah, it is true. Unquestionably, it's true. And you need to understand that this particular event, the whole focus of the event is built around alcohol. They literally had a truck deliver alcohol to the frat house for this event. And it's the identical event. State, Andrew Coffey died at a pledged out of reveal night at Florida State four years ago in an identical event to what happened to Danny Santulli.

And Andrew Coffey, just like Danny, was placed on a couch at two in the morning after he was very, very drunk. And they didn't call 911. And when they came back at eight o'clock the next morning, he was in the exact same position, but he was dead. And everything about what happened at FSU with coffee is identical to what happened with Danny Santulli. These are themed traditions that are perpetuated year after year after year. And it's all about alcohol.

To Jim Piazza, your wife actually spoke to Missouri. What happened? Yeah. Tim Piazza, your wife actually spoke to Missouri. What happened? Yeah, so, you know, we've been traveling the country speaking to universities, and she was actually at Missouri. And these students that partook in this event were there at the university at that time. She spoke to 6,000 students about Tim's situation and anti-hazing and what it has done to our family and, you know, the criminal aspects of it. And, you know, these folks, some of them had to be there and they did this anyway. As David said, these are planned events. These are planned events and they're criminal. Take a listen to our friends at Fox 9. He had a great life. He was motivated. And in the blink of an eye it's all gone.

Lawyer David Bianchi outlines the more than 50 page lawsuit Danny Santulli's family filed accusing the fraternity he was pledging to of dangerous hazing. According to the lawsuit on October 19th Danny was told he needed to participate in a fraternity pledging tradition, which included consuming an entire bottle of vodka. The lawsuit alleges Danny participated, but when he started getting drunk and tried to stop, he was told to keep going. Hours later, some members of the fraternity found him unresponsive inside the frat house. His skin was pale and his lips were blue. Instead of calling for help, they allegedly drove him to the hospital where staff found him not breathing and in cardiac arrest. He was rushed to the ICU and put on a

ventilator. His blood alcohol level at the time was 0.468 percent, nearly six times the legal limit. To Dr. Michelle Dupree, a forensic pathologist, former medical examiner, and author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide. What does that mean when your lips have actually turned blue? Well, Nancy, that's something that in medical terms we call cyanosis, which means that it is bluing. It means that you have... Wait, what did you say? You call it what? Cyanosis. Okay. And it means that you're not getting oxygen. And in this case, you're not getting blood or oxygen

to those areas. And that's a sign that you're seeing ash oxygen. And in this case, you're not getting blood or oxygen to those areas. And that's a sign that you're seeing ash. Your central nervous system is very depressed. So you're actually not breathing. That's why your lips turn blue. Is that what you're saying? Or oxygen's not getting to your system? You're not breathing enough to perfuse your body parts.

So they're going to turn blue from lack of oxygen. Back to Mark Slavitt joining me, KRCG. Bianchi defended the campus police, and I get it because this was in the basement and within the house, and they couldn't see what was happening. The party shouldn't have happened because Phi Gamma Delta, according to David Bianchi, had already been reprimanded and sanctioned twice, including about two weeks before this fatal party. Okay, got it. Now I understand why you're saying that. Seven months earlier, they violated some of the rules on campus.

Seven months and then about 14 days before the party. Isn't that right, David Bianchi? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, that's correct. Yes, that's correct. They were sanctioned for the second time 13 days before October 19th when this happened to Danny Santulli. So, bottom line, a lot of good that did. Go ahead, Mark Slavitt.

Yeah, and then just to add to that, the university suspended all fraternity activities for a while, too. For a while? Yeah. What do you mean for a while, too. For a while? Yeah. What do you mean for a while? It was a temporary thing. I was going to say it didn't last that long. I don't think the suspension of all fraternity activities. Why is this happening?

It's like this. Slap on the wrist. It's like go sit in the corner and then come right back in and do the same thing again. I don't understand that. But, Mark Slavitt, tell me how the evening progressed. The latest thing that's going on right now is David's added two more defendants in a civil lawsuit. And one of them is a guy named Wetzler, Alex Wetzler. And he's going to be charged with a criminal offense.

And he's the one that this is where this is where the the crucial part of the whole night happened wexler took a tube with a funnel attached to it he sticks the tube in danny's mouth and then danny is forced to drink the vodka and then after he does that he pours a bunch of beer down his throat at the same time so that that is the key of the whole night and i'm guessing that is caught key of the whole night. And I'm guessing that has caught on surveillance video. Take a listen to our friend Lucas Geisler, KMIZ. Boone County prosecutors charged Alec Wetzler today with supplying liquor to a minor. Here are the new details that we got from charging documents today. University of Missouri police say Alec Wetzler was one of several members of Fiji

that forced prospective members to drink on October 19th. That included Danny Santulli, an 18-year-old that remains hospitalized to this day because of his alcohol poisoning. Security footage police looked at allegedly shows 35 shirtless people walk through the Fiji house. Police say other members pour beer on them,pped them, and hit them with a box. Each of the prospective members had alcohol taped to their hands to drink.

Police say Wetzler gave Santulli and others beer bongs throughout the event. So let me understand this. To you, family lawyer David Bianchi, the alcohol was literally taped to his body? That's correct. They got all these pledges to come to the fraternity house. They all had to take off their shirts. They then were all blindfolded. This is all on video.

You don't have to trust what I'm telling you. It's all on surveillance video. They then paraded them down into the basement. And down there there they met their dad and they removed their blindfolds. They were given their bottle, their family bottle of alcohol. Many of them then had the bottle taped to their hand. They then paraded upstairs with the bottle taped to their hand and then started to drink with the alcohol that was spread out around the house. So they had to drink the family bottle plus whatever else was provided

in the common areas of the frat house. To Dr. Susan Lipkins, joining us, psychologist and hazing expert, author of Preventing Hazing. And you can find her at InsideHazing.com. You know, Dr. Lipkins, I'm frustrated and angry that it's called hazing

because that sounds so, it's a euphemism it's airbrushing the truth of what this is i'm about to have dr dupree explain what happens to your body when you die of alcohol poisoning or in this case when you go brain dead or brain damaged because of alcohol poisoning but to just call it ha, I think it should be called what it is. It's aggravated assault. I agree with you. You know, I think it's not right that we send our kids to college and they come home maimed and dead. But this is part of a culture and a ritual that Americans and actually people throughout the world have accepted. And I can tell you that nobody really wants to change their behavior. They want to maintain the status quo.

And part of it is because they always think that they're going to be okay and their kid's going to be okay. And they look the other way. And the code of silence exists, which allows the members of any of the fraternities to feel as if they will be protected because nobody will tell the truth. And even you can see in this case, even when you have surveillance video, when you have all of this testimony, it's still the beat goes on and the behavior doesn't change. To Mona Kay joining us, private investigator at Mona Kay Investigations. You can find her on Twitter at Mona Kay. Mona, it's great to have you with us. You just heard,

and I believe Dr. Lipkins is correct, about a code of silence amongst fraternity brothers. They won't tell what happened. How do you crack that as an investigator? Well, first of all, I'd like to tell Jim, you have my condolences to you and your family. I can't even imagine what you've all gone through. I'm getting ready to send my daughter off to college this fall. And this is just, you know, this tradition is just awful. And it needs to end. And it just seems to me until, you know, criminal charges are

actually brought against these people, it's not going to stop because there aren't consequences. I agree. And what consequences there are, they're so mild. I know, really? They got suspended, the fraternity got suspended from campus. That's it? Yeah. That's insane because very often they can crop up again out off campus and the same thing will happen over and over. But again, back to my question, how, as an investigator, do you crack people like these fraternity brothers that won't cough up the truth. I would, the only way I can think of doing it is to charge those appropriately, appropriate to be charged with a crime.

Then call the others in as witnesses. And if they won't talk, hold them in contempt. I would not have any problem doing that. No, exactly. They need to, you know, first of all, they need to separate everybody. Get statements, get accountability, get, you, get statements from every single person there that was invited that's been there in the past, and use their words against these people and to criminally charge those involved. You're right. Here's just an example in the JonBenet Ramsey case. And now all these years later, we're still talking about why witnesses were not separated at the time and questioned individually.

That's tried and true police technique. It wasn't done then. I don't know if it was done now. David Bianchi, before I go to Dr. Dupree about alcohol poisoning and death. Explain to me the sequence of events that night. Now, we've made it from the basement up to the upper floor where the alcohol, pure alcohol, is actually taped to their body. We know surveillance shows that they were being hit with objects. But what happened?

What happened to Danny Santulli after that? After they all came upstairs, and you can watch it on video, they all have their family bottles in their hand. They are then milling around. And they then sort of go out to the courtyard of the fraternity house. And they're standing around drinking and danny's got the bottle of vodka in his hand and he keeps drinking from it and occasionally frat members would come up to him hold the bottle up to get some light behind it because they wanted to make sure that

he was consuming it and that the amount in the bottle was going down and you can see the fraternity members doing that then they would hand it back to him and he would continue to drink and it was in the middle of that that uh wet sir comes along puts a tube in his mouth with a funnel pours beer down his throat after he had consumed about half the bottle of alcohol and approximately 20 minutes later while danny is still out in the courtyard with maybe a hundred uh pledges and frat members, you can see Danny start to wobble and then he collapses. You see him fall backwards over a piece of furniture and onto the ground. They then pick him up and they carry him into the house and they put him in a TV room where they have couches. And a couple of guys bring him in and they plop him down on the couch. And he's still alive.

He's moving around, but you can tell he's in distress. And then some more people come in. Later in the evening, there are four pledges totally collapsed on couches in that room. It's like a holding cell for people who are near dead. And then they abandoned him. And we know exactly when that happened, because the surveillance video is time stamped so now danny is totally left alone he's now flat on the couch he slides off the couch with his face planted on the floor and his feet on the couch and he's not moving at all somebody uh comes walking through the room, sees him, picks him up, throws him back on the

couch, and they don't do anything else. And then later, somebody else comes in, and they see that he's unresponsive on the couch, and they think, oh my God, maybe he's dead, and they go to pick him up. And he's having a hard time picking Danny up, so they get some big guy to pick him up, and they scoop him up off the couch, and they're not going to call 911, but they have another frat member, one of the officers who has a car, and says, I'll drive him to the hospital. So they take him down the hallway to the exit door, all on video, and they're holding him upside down, if you can picture such a thing.

And as they're getting to the exit door, they drop him on his head. And then they have to get him back up again and they carry him outside put him in the car he's now technically dead they get him over to the uh hospital uh to the er somebody comes running out from the er they do cpr and they restart his heart what do you mean he was technically Well, he had no heartbeat. Dr. Michelle Dupree explained to me what happened to Danny's system, his body. Nancy, this is just atrocious. I can't think of another word to describe this. But alcohol is a CNS depressant, so it depresses your whole central nervous system.

Your breathing is decreased. We talked about the lack of oxygen, your temperatures goes down, you certainly lose consciousness. Things that can happen when you're in that state, you can have seizures, you can vomit and you can aspirate. You need to be in a position where if you do vomit you're not going to swallow that or inhale that and that goes into your lungs. Alcohol is absorbed very quickly into the body. The removal of alcohol is much slower. And so while this is going on, your gag reflex is actually inhibited, which means that it doesn't work properly. And you begin to have respiratory distress, which I think was

evidenced by the account that we just heard. Not putting him in the proper position, not getting him medical care when he needed it, when he's in such distress. All this is just, it's unforgivable. I'm trying to make sense of what you just said. With me is a renowned pathologist, Dr. Michelle Dupree. So when we hear alcohol poisoning, is your system actually poisoned or is it that your central nervous system is so depressed that you don't breathe, you lose your gag reflex, the air doesn't get, oxygen doesn't get to your body, your lips turn blue and you die? Are you actually poisoned or do you just have such a depressed, like an overdose of pills?

Your body just quits working. Well, essentially, it is the same thing. It is toxic. It is detrimental. It is harmful to the body. It is a poison when you have too much of it. And because you are poisoned, all of those things happen to the body, that extraordinary depression of the respiratory system and all of that that follows. So, yes, it is toxic.

It is poison to the body in that large amount. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The condition of Danny Centillo is so distressing. Permanent brain damage. He can't see. Why is that, Dr. Dupree? Why can't he see? Nancy, again, he can't see because the blood is not getting to his eyes, to his optic nerve.

Again, through that central nervous system depression, that can cause blindness, as if when you have a stroke. It's the same kind of effect. Guys, take a listen to our Cut 5, Samantha Jones, KMOV. Danny Santulli's family lawyer says he had a bright future. He was a wonderful young man. It's a future that was almost cut short. For some reason, these things always seem to happen to the best kids, and I don't understand why. The freshly filed 52-page lawsuit details the night last October when Danny, a pledge of

the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at the University of Missouri was allegedly told to drink an entire bottle of vodka during an event. Hours later, fraternity members took him to the hospital where he was resuscitated and placed on a ventilator unconscious. His blood alcohol level, nearly six times the legal limit. He needs 24-hour care. He can never be left alone, and that's the kind of care he's getting right now. He's going to need rehabilitation care forever. Rehabilitation care forever. 24-hour care. He can never be left alone. David Bianchi, what do you mean by that?

Well, he's absolutely incapable of doing anything for himself. So somebody has to be there to make sure that he doesn't aspirate while he's in the bed. He's got to be cleaned multiple times a day. He has to be fed. He has to be groomed. They try to stimulate him in various ways. They try to massage him. He's got to make sure that he doesn't get bed sores. He has to be rolled over to whose skin can be checked. In various ways, they try to massage him. He's got to make sure that he doesn't get bed sores.

He has to be rolled over to whose skin can be checked. This is a full-time job, 24 hours a day. And Mrs. Santulli has decided to devote herself to this, and she quit her job as an executive with a bank so that she can personally do it. Because while they now have the funds to hire whoever they need to hire, she thinks that this should be done by her along with the help of the family, and that's what she's going to do. As you just heard from Jim Piazza, the father of Timothy Piazza, who lost his life in a hazing incident, that's what it's called, it's certainly not the first time.

And without charging these guys with a crime and banning their fraternity from campus forever, permanently, I don't see how anything is going to change, Jim. Well, I think the way it's going to change is if law enforcement really does its job. So people need to be charged. The judges need to let those charges stick. It needs to get in front of the jury. The juries need to do their jobs. And then the judges need to properly sentence when these people are found guilty.

I agree with the comment earlier. This term hazing is kind of, it's a very lame term. I believe Missouri has a pretty strong hazing law and it's a felony. If somebody is seriously injured, why isn't that being charged? Why isn't that felony being charged? What about it, David Bianchi? Why not? Oh, that's the best question of the whole program here. I agree with that 100%. We have been asking repeatedly for the prosecutor to file these hazing charges. It's such an obvious hazing case.

It should have been done many, many months ago. It is mystifying as to why they're refusing to enforce the law. If you're a prosecutor and you refuse to enforce the law, you shouldn't be a prosecutor. That law is on the books, and somebody needs to dig in to what's going on behind the scenes as to why they were refusing to enforce this law. David, there's a new twist here in Columbia with the prosecutor, too. I don't know if you've heard. Yeah, I'm familiar with that. I'm not.

Tell me. Well, Saturday morning, police found our prosecutor dead in his house with a gunshot wound. And the way they would not say it was a suicide they said it was uh there was no foul play involved and so now our prosecutor has died and we have an interim prosecutor appointed now and they performed an autopsy on the prosecutor tuesday and they still not confirmed whether it was a suicide or not. But the police chief told me he said he believes no one else was involved. So the prosecutor that was handling Danny Santulli's case is no longer with us. What does that mean for the case, David Bianchi? It should not mean anything because there's already been someone

appointed to take his place, and there are other prosecutors in the office. There are assistant district attorneys. Exactly. Guys, again, this is not the first time that this has happened. Take a listen to Hour Cut 13. Does the name Stone Foltz ring a bell? Because I will never forget the name. Someone that we know is nonresponsive.

He drank alcohol, like a lot of alcohol. Where is he at? We're at ******. How old is your friend? He's 20. 20, okay. And what's he doing right now? He's laying down on his side. His face is really purple and his pupils aren't responsive.

Okay. Is he breathing? Yeah, he's breathing, but it's really shallow. And he's been drinking, you said? Yeah. Okay. Is he taking anything else we need to know about? No.

What's your name? Okay. Okay. Can we page it? Okay okay are you positive he's breathing um yeah yeah i'm positive his chest rising up and down no not right now what happened to stone volts take a listen our cut 14 our friends at nbc4 according to the family's attorney, Rex Elliott, at nine o'clock that night, Stone was blindfolded, put in a basement, and told to drink a bottle of alcohol before he could leave. By 1030, members of the fraternity dropped him off at his apartment,

leaving him unresponsive and alone. Those brothers that said they were going to be there with Stone who were not. So he was left alone after he began turning blue, much the same as the case with Danny Centulli that we're covering right now. And take a listen to our Cut 17. Dan Harris, ABC News. The horror that played out inside a frat house at Penn State University as a 19-year-old lay dying after a night of alcohol-fueled hazing, the fraternity brothers allegedly did little to help. Instead, their concern was reportedly

how to cover it all up. Tonight, we hear from the one student who says he tried to help. I kind of like lost it. I was like, I was screaming and yelling. I was saying we need to take him to a hospital. We should call an ambulance dial 911. Those pleas fell on deaf ears.

Another young man died. And with us today is his father, Jim Piazza. Jim, how are we going to make a difference? Again, I think we need law enforcement to step up. Law enforcement needs to understand what this is. And the hazing laws, we're trying to strengthen them across the country. But if they don't get enforced and the sentences aren't proper, the message is just not for parents and students. What about it, Susan Lipkins?

Dr. Lipkins joining us, author of Preventing Hazing. You know, the beat goes on and this just continues over and students. What about it, Susan Lipkins? Dr. Lipkins joining us, author of Preventing Hazing. You know, the beat goes on and this just continues over and over. I don't think that it's going to be responded to by just changing laws because even if the laws are enforced, the kids don't learn. They always think it's not going to be me. I believe that hazing is going to change when the kids themselves say, we're not going to do this anymore. We're just not going to participate. And how do we get to that? To Mona Kay, you've investigated similar cases. How do we get to the point where I wouldn't call them kids, you know, they're 18 through 22 years old, other than prosecuting them criminally well i agree i mean maybe first of all get rid of the word hazing call it what it is charge these people any of these this outside

of the fraternity but chances are most of these crimes they would charge them criminally but because they're in a fraternity it it's categorized differently, I guess. Mark Slavitt, what about it? Is there any move to go forward with criminal charges in this case? Sure. It's up to, like we were saying earlier, it's up to the prosecutor. I know it's up to the prosecutor. We know it's up to the prosecutor. Right.

Have they done anything? Have they called a grand jury? Have they leveled a charge? Have they done anything? Have they called a grand jury? Have they leveled a charge? Have they done anything? Are they investigating it as a crime? They've done it with one person so far, and it looks like that's all they're going to do. Well, there's also another person named Samuel Gandhi

who chose not to help Santulli that's added to David Bianchi's list of defendants. He had 23 originally. He settled with those. The two other ones are Wetzler and Gandhi. And Gandhi has not been charged by the prosecutor's office either. What about it, David Bianchi? Because a money settlement is not going to work.

That's going to be paid out by some insurance company or the mom and dad will fit the bill. I'm talking about how do we stop this from happening. Final thought. We have to aggressively pursue criminal charges to put these guys in jail. In the Andrew Coffey case, we had a wonderful prosecutor in Tallahassee, and within 60 days of Andrew's death, criminal charges were filed. Thirty days later, the first guy went to jail. Ultimately, nine went to jail.

You've got to try that because nothing else works. Can I add something? Jump in. Couldn't this be categorized as premeditated? I mean, they taped vodka bottles to their hands. Absolutely. We just need a prosecutor with the backbone to do it, to have a serious felony charge, and then don't settle it for a cheap plea, go forward and take it to a jury. Timothy Piazza is dead. So many others are dead. Beautiful young college students with their life in front of them.

Their parents devastated. But yet, we are not seeing the action necessary to stop this crime. Now, as we all go about our days, Danny Centulli, a teen boy, is brain damaged and needs 24-7 care. What is a district attorney going to do about it? Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.