Hazing death hearing focuses on text messages

BELLEFONTE, Pa.—As 19-year-old Tim Piazza lay dying in a hospital after a night of hazing at Pennsylvania State University fraternity, the pledge master at Beta Theta Pi sent a text message to his girlfriend.

“I think we’re f—-ed,” Danny Casey wrote, later adding: “It’s over. I don’t want to go to jail for this.”

The text was among a series of messages introduced here Monday as prosecutors resumed the preliminary hearing for 16 frat members charged in connection with Piazza’s hazing and death during an alcohol-soaked bid night in February.

The hearing began last month but it was continued after the prosecution’s evidence—which included the first public viewing of gruesome surveillance footage from inside the fraternity house—lasted 11 hours.

Monday’s hearing could give defense attorneys the first chance to whittle away at the district attorney’s accusations that the boys essentially left Piazza, a sophomore from Lebanon, N.J., to die in their house after a night of drinking and hazing.

Prosecutors say Beta Theta Pi members got Piazza dangerously drunk on Feb. 2—at one point he was estimated to have had a blood-alcohol level between .28 and .36 percent. After he twice fell down a flight of stairs, they did not call for help despite knowing the severity of his condition. Only the next morning did they seek medical attention; Piazza died the following day.

His death and the unusual charges against the fraternity members have ignited a new level of scrutiny on reckless college drinking.

Returning to the witness stand Monday morning, State College Police Detective Dave Scicchitano testified that one frat member, Gary DiBileo told police he and another, Greg Rizzo, said aloud after Piazza’s first fall they should call 911. Instead, others said it should be a group decision—one that didn’t happen until the next morning.