Defense looks for holes in PSU pledge death hearing

BELLEFONTE » Lawyers for members of a Penn State fraternity who face charges in the death of a pledge spent much of a daylong preliminary hearing Tuesday focusing on what their clients didn’t do the night Tim Piazza was injured.

A third full day of testimony by the lead detective ended with him still on the stand — and the judge planning two more days next month before he will decide if there is enough evidence to send the charges to county court for trial.

The now-shuttered Beta Theta Pi chapter and 18 of its members are accused of a range of crimes for their actions related to the Feb. 4 death of the 19-year-old Piazza, a sophomore engineering student from Lebanon, New Jersey.

One by one, lawyers for some of the 16 defendants in court — two others waived the hearing — pointed out during questioning of State College Police Detective Dave Scicchitano that their clients were not involved at key points during the night Piazza drank dangerous amounts of alcohol and was fatally injured by a series of falls.

The lawyers noted that certain defendants weren’t involved in procuring alcohol for the bid acceptance night, didn’t help operate a “gauntlet” of rapid-fire drinking stations, weren’t around when Piazza fell down a set of basement steps, didn’t participate in incriminating text exchanges, or weren’t among those who made futile, halfhearted and even counterproductive attempts to help Piazza.