Judge dismisses serious charges in Penn State fraternity pledge death
HARRISBURG, Pa.—A judge Monday threw out the most serious counts against a second set of defendants in a Penn State fraternity pledge’s death last year, leaving in place only hazing and alcohol charges that would likely result in little or no jail time.
While sending 11 more fraternity brothers to trial, Judge Steven Lachman dismissed reckless endangerment charges and allegations that a member of now-shuttered Beta Theta Pi had erased basement security video to thwart investigators.
It was yet another blow to prosecutors, who have struggled to get the most serious charges to stick against the total of 25 fraternity members now awaiting trial in death of Tim Piazza, 19, of Lebanon, New Jersey.
Piazza died of head and abdominal injuries after a night of drinking that followed a pledge bid acceptance ceremony.
He suffered a series of falls, including a plunge down basement steps. After he was discovered unconscious in the basement the next morning, fraternity members waited 40 minutes to summon an ambulance. The amount of alcohol in his system was estimated at three or four times the state’s legal limit for driving.
The attorney general’s office is seeking to have a judge reinstate charges dismissed in March against eight fraternity brothers among the first group of 14 ordered to stand trial, including involuntary manslaughter charges against five of them. The most serious charge any of the 25 defendants currently face is reckless endangerment, but no felonies.
Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to try to get some of the tossed charges reinstated for the second set of defendants.
An attorney for Piazza’s parents, Jim and Evelyn Piazza, said the family is “hopeful that the attorney general will file an appeal so that all individuals will be held fully responsible for their misconduct and so that dangerous and potentially lethal hazing will be deterred.”
Lachman dismissed all three counts that Braxton Becker, 21, of Niskayuna, New York, had faced over the allegedly deleted security video—evidence tampering, obstruction and hindering apprehension or prosecution.