Penn State frat members gave pledge 18 drinks in less than 90 minutes, video shows

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A slew of new charges were announced Monday — including aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter — against former members of the Penn State fraternity accused of being involved in the hazing death of 19-year-old sophomore Timothy Piazza.
USA TODAY

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Beta Theta Pi brothers gave their pledge 18 drinks in an hour and 22 minutes, surveillance video from the basement of the fraternity house shows.

The new tape led Centre County’s district attorney, Stacy Parks Miller, to announce additional criminal charges Monday against frat members as a result of the investigation into deleted surveillance video from Feb. 2 when Timothy J. Piazza participated in a hazing ritual.

Twelve more Beta Theta Pi members have been charged, including five facing manslaughter charges. At least two dozen people now face charges in the case.

The uncovered footage sheds fresh light on the events that resulted in the 19-year-old’s death, Jim Piazza, Tim Piazza’s father, said Monday afternoon.

► Florida State: Pi Kappa Phi shuts down chapter after pledge’s death
► University of Michigan: Frat events canceled over sex assault claims, hazing
► Ball State: University’s fraternities say they’ll go dry for 3 months

“Now we know,” he said, his voice often breaking as he read a prepared statement. “Justice needs to be done.”

Not only does Penn State need to take a tougher stand against hazing and drinking, but the fraternity members, who said that they did not know what happened that evening, should “man up,” Jim Piazza said.

LSU student dies following hazing ritual, 10 charged
► Penn State: Fraternity reforms ‘a good start,’ dad of dead pledge says

The house’s security system captured many of the events the night the younger Piazza was injured, footage that already had been played at a preliminary hearing for those previously charged. But until recently, that did not include the footage from the basement, where Tim Piazza was found.

After examining one of the digital video recorder surveillance boxes, State College police uncovered evidence that the basement camera video had been manually deleted just as police were poised to take possession of the recording equipment.

State College police sent the box to the FBI, whose agents were able to restore the deleted video.

The basement video clearly depicts a continuation of the hazing previously captured upstairs during a gauntlet. Brothers furnished beer to pledges at a beer pong gauntlet station and immediately handed them beers to perform another shotgun together as a pledge class.

On the video, fraternity brothers approach the pledges with alcohol, requiring them to drink wine, beer and vodka. Tim Piazza does not obtain his own alcohol at any point.

“In fact, on video, Tim Piazza does not obtain his own alcohol at any point — rather, every drink consumed was provided to him by a fraternity brother,” Miller said.

As the pledges returned to the first floor, they appeared to show signs of intoxication, and Tim Piazza had to be helped to a couch, according to the grand jury and witness testimony during the lengthy preliminary hearing.

Tim Piazza subsequently stumbled toward the basement steps then fell down them.

Over the rest of that evening, fraternity members were recorded pouring liquid on him, strapping a loaded backpack to him and taking other ineffective or counterproductive steps to deal with his condition.

► Evidence: Video deleted from Penn State fraternity camera, police say
► Charges: 16 students face judge in Penn State hazing death of Timothy Piazza

The video showed Tim Piazza stumbling around in the dark at several points, then disappearing from view.

After someone noticed his shoes were on the first floor the next morning, fraternity members found Tim Piazza, unconscious, in the basement.

They carried him upstairs, but it was another 40 minutes before an ambulance was called. The 19-year-old died Feb. 4 of his injuries.

The 19-year-old died Feb. 4 of his injuries.

Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow Mike Deak on Twitter: @MikeDeakMyCJ

The charges

The new defendants in the case:

• Braxton Becker. Tampering with evidence, obstructing administration of law and hindering apprehension.

• Ryan Burke. Involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangering another person, four counts of hazing, four counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and four counts of unlawful acts relative to liquor.

• Joseph Ems. Hazing, furnishing alcohol to minors, unlawful acts relative to liquor and consumption of alcohol by a minor.

• Mike Fernandez. Two counts of hazing, two counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and two counts of unlawful acts relative to liquor.

• Brian Gelb. Six counts of hazing, five counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and five counts of unlawful acts relative to liquor.

• Reggie Goeke. Hazing, furnishing alcohol to minors and unlawful acts relative to liquor.

• Patrick Jackson. Two counts of hazing, two counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and two counts of unlawful acts relative to liquor.

• Jonathan Kanzler. Involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangering another person. two counts of hazing, two counts of furnishing alcohol to minors, two counts of unlawful acts relative to liquor and one count of consumption of alcohol by a minor.

• Joshua Kurczewski. Involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangering another person, 10 counts of hazing, eight counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and eight counts of unlawful acts relative to liquor.

• Aiden O’Brien. Involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangering another person, hazing, furnishing alcohol to minors, unlawful acts relative to liquor and consumption of alcohol by a minor.

• Donald Prior. Four counts of hazing, three counts furnishing alcohol to minors and three counts of unlawful acts relative to liquor.

• Bohan Song. Involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangering another person, three counts of hazing, three counts of furnishing alcohol to minors, three counts of unlawful acts relative to liquor and one count of consumption of alcohol by a minor.

The following Beta Theta Pi members, who already have been charged, are facing new charges:

• Michael Bonatucci. Two counts counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and two counts of unlawful acts relative to liquor.

• Gary Dibilio. Five counts counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and five counts of unlawful acts relative to liquor.

• Nick Kubera. Two counts counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and two counts of unlawful acts relative to liquor.

• Luke Visser. 11 counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and 11 counts of unlawful acts relative to liquor.

• Parker Yochim. One count of furnishing alcohol to minors and one count of unlawful acts relative to liquor and one count of consumption of alcohol by a minor.

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Trump Jr. corresponded with WikiLeaks privately on Twitter

President Trump’s eldest son occasionally exchanged private messages with WikiLeaks on Twitter before the 2016 election, Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpDems win from coast to coast Falwell after Gillespie loss: ‘DC should annex’ Northern Virginia Dems see gains in Virginia’s House of Delegates MORE Jr. confirmed on Monday.

The WikiLeaks Twitter account sent a direct message to Trump Jr. in late September 2016 alerting him that an anti-Trump site run by a political action committee (PAC) was “about to launch.” The message offered the password to the site. 

“The PAC is a recycled pro-Iraq war PAC. We have guessed the password. It is ‘putintrump.’ See ‘About’ for who is behind it. Any comments?” WikiLeaks wrote, as first reported by The Atlantic. 

“Off the record I don’t know who that is, but I’ll ask around,” Trump Jr. responded to the account the following day. It is unclear if he followed through with the offer. 

Trump Jr. later confirmed the interactions on Twitter:

Here is the entire chain of messages with @wikileaks (with my whopping 3 responses) which one of the congressional committees has chosen to selectively leak. How ironic! 1/3 pic.twitter.com/SiwTqWtykA

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 14, 2017

The correspondence has reportedly been given to lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

WikiLeaks published troves of stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta ahead of the election. The U.S. intelligence community has linked the releases to a multi-pronged effort by the Russian government to interfere in the election. WikiLeaks has denied any connections to the Kremlin. 

A representative for WikiLeaks did not immediately return a request for comment. 

The correspondence continued until July 2017 and largely consisted of WikiLeaks sending messages to Trump Jr. that went unreturned. The organization, for instance, asked for Trump’s tax returns, which the president has refused to release to the public. 

In an October message, WikiLeaks asked Trump Jr. to “push” a story in right-wing media that alleged Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonGOP rushes to cut ties to Moore Papadopoulos was in regular contact with Stephen Miller, helped edit Trump speech: report Bannon jokes Clinton got her ‘ass kicked’ in 2016 election MORE joked about wanting to “drone” Julian Assange, the website’s founder. Trump Jr. reportedly responded that he “already did that earlier today.” 

In another message in late October, WikiLeaks suggested that Trump Jr. “leak” the organization one of his father’s tax returns. “If we publish them it will dramatically improve the perception of our impartiality,” the account said, according to The Atlantic.

“That means that the vast amount of stuff that we are publishing on Clinton will have much higher impact, because it won’t be perceived as coming from a ‘pro-Trump’ ‘pro-Russia’ source,” the message from WikiLeaks said.

In another message on the day of the election, WikiLeaks suggested that Trump contest the results of the election if he didn’t win.

Trump Jr. did not respond to either solicitation.

In a statement to the Atlantic, an attorney for Trump Jr., Alan Futerfas, said, “we can say with confidence that we have no concerns about these documents and any questions raised about them have been easily answered in the appropriate forum.” 

Trump Jr. has already come under scrutiny from congressional investigators for his meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower last June that he took after being offered damaging information on Clinton.

This post was updated at 7:31 p.m.

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