The Great Smoky Mountain Journal - Report: Penn State Fraternity House Gave Victim 18 Drinks In 90 Minutes As Prosecutors File New Manslaughter Charges


The Great Smoky Mountain Journal Staff Reports Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 07:22 PM


Report: Penn State Fraternity House Gave Victim 18 Drinks In 90 Minutes As Prosecutors File New Manslaughter Charges
A recovered surveillance video from a Penn State fraternity house where a pledge died after a hazing ritual revealed the 19-year-old had been given at least 18 drinks within 90 minutes, leading prosecutors to file new hazing and manslaughter charges, officials said Monday. Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller charged 12 additional men in the case, bringing the total number of former Beta Theta Pi brothers and pledges being charged to 17 in total. Timothy Piazza, 19, of Lebanon, N.J., fell down a set of stairs and suffered fatal injuries on Feb. 9 after prosecutors said pledges were forced to down a dangerous amount of alcohol and were then made to run a “gauntlet” of booze-drinking stations. The charges come from surveillance video that allegedly showed various members of the fraternity giving Piazza 18 alcoholic beverages in the span of 1 hour and 22 minutes, Parks Miller said. The video was deleted after fraternity members were made aware that an investigation into Piazza’s death was under way, and police planned to obtain the footage