Bellefonte, Pa.

Hazing torture: Penn State University fraternity member Ryan Burke was sentenced to three months of house arrest this week for his role in the grizzly hazing death of Tim Piazza. Burke, 21, was the first of more than two dozen defendants charged in connection with the death of Piazza, a 19-year-old who was pledging to the Beta Theta Pi house last year when he was forced to drink in astonishing excess; an hour after his last drink, his blood alcohol level was triple the legal driving limit. Fraternity members left Piazza unconscious for hours after he hit his head in a fall. He died the next day of “multiple traumatic injuries.” Burke, who was in charge of recruiting for the now-shut fraternity, gave Piazza more vodka just 10 minutes after he’d finished a drinking obstacle course. Prosecutors had asked that Burke be sentenced to 90 days in jail, with Piazza’s mother calling the ritual “abuse, cruelty, and torture.”