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Timeline: Stunning details in Penn State fraternity pledge death (Update: charges dropped)

Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:31 pm
Posted by East Coast Band
Member since Nov 2010
62732 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:31 pm
Eta (9/1/17): LINK
quote:

In a stunning decision, a Centre County district judge Friday threw out the most serious charges — involuntary manslaughter and felony aggravated assault — against eight members of a Pennsylvania State University fraternity in the death of sophomore pledge Tim Piazza.


More on page 13...

Original OP:

This has been covered in a previous thread, and some of the timeline also mentioned, but here is the latest details of the timeline that the grand jury used to indict the Penn State fraternity members of the pledge who died due to alcohol related injuries, etc.:

FEB. 2

About 9 p.m.: Fourteen pledges arrive at Beta Theta Pi for pledge acceptance ceremony. Pledges are led to basement and directed to drink from a vodka bottle. They run a gauntlet of drinking stations, downing vodka, chugging beer and drinking from a wine bottle. They also play beer pong. By one estimate, they each consume four to five drinks in about 2 minutes.

9:43 p.m.: Timothy Piazza appears in security camera footage lined up with other pledges. His hand is on the right shoulder of the person in front of him.

9:58 p.m.: Piazza is seen drinking from a vodka bottle, then is handed a beer.

11:08 p.m.: Pledges show visible signs of intoxication as they return from the basement.

11:17 p.m.: Someone has to help Piazza walk to a couch. He gets up briefly and walks around before a fraternity brother puts him on the couch.

11:22 p.m.: Piazza gets up, staggers toward the front door and tries without success to open it. He staggers toward the basement steps. A fraternity brother hears a fall and finds Piazza face-down at the bottom of the stairs. A forensic pathologist later estimates his blood-alcohol content is between 0.28 and 0.36 percent at this point. (In Pennsylvania, a driver is considered intoxicated with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08.)

11:24 p.m.: Piazza is carried upstairs by four fraternity members. His body appears limp and his eyes are closed. A bruise appears on his left abdomen. He's placed on the couch with others around him. A member appears to administer a sternum rub, but Piazza does not respond.

11:26 p.m.: Someone dumps liquid on Piazza's face, but he does not respond. Another fraternity brother lifts Piazza's arm, which appears limp. More liquid is poured on his face. A brother removes his shoes and tries to turn him on his side, causing Piazza to nearly fall off the couch.

11:32 p.m.: A brother attaches a backpack to Piazza so he won't roll onto his back and choke on his own vomit.

11:37 p.m.: A brother sits at Piazza's legs to prevent him from rolling over.

11:51 p.m.: A brother is shown on tape examining Piazza and making animated gestures. He later tells the grand jury he saw a bruise on Piazza's chest and that he was thrashing and making weird movements. He stressed Piazza needed medical care, but another member shoved him into a wall and told him to leave. The brother confronts the chapter's vice president, who also dismisses his concerns.

11:53 p.m.: A fraternity member sends a group message: "Piazza might actually be a problem. He fell 14 feet down a flight of stairs, hair-first, going to need help."

___

FEB. 3

12:02 a.m.: The fraternity's pledge master slaps Piazza three times in the face.

12:12 a.m.: One brother tackles another onto the couch, landing on top of Piazza, who remains unconscious.

1:37 a.m.: Piazza vomits. Three brothers again attach a backpack to Piazza's back in an effort to keep him from rolling onto his back.

2:25 a.m.: Piazza rolls off the couch, onto the floor. Three brothers "slammed him onto the couch," grand jury says. Minutes later a brother, seemingly frustrated, strikes Piazza in the abdomen with his open right hand.

3:53 a.m.: Piazza rolls to floor with the backpack still attached. His legs move.

3:59 a.m.: Piazza tries to get to his feet. The backpack comes off, but he falls backward and hits his head on the floor. Another member shakes him but then leaves.

4:23 a.m.: Piazza is on the floor in the fetal position. He's on his knees and continues to grab his abdomen. Several minutes later he again tries to stand but falls facedown onto the wood floor.

5:36 a.m.: Piazza stands and staggers to lobby area, falls head-first into an iron railing and lands on a stone floor. He again tries to get up but falls head-first into the door. He spends about six minutes on his knees, with his head in his hands. He rolls to his side and clutches his abdomen. A forensic pathologist later estimates his blood-alcohol content at this point is between 0.19 and 0.24.

5:52 a.m.: A fraternity brother comes downstairs for a drink of water, steps over Piazza and leaves.

6:03 a.m.: Another brother comes downstairs for water, walks Piazza into the house's "great hall." Piazza falls down three steps and the brother leaves him on the floor.

7:34 a.m.: A fellow pledge videotapes Piazza before leaving the house.

7:55 a.m.: Piazza stands and staggers toward basement steps. Cameras do not capture what is assumed to be another fall. A forensic pathologist later estimates his blood-alcohol content is between 0.15 and 0.19 percent at this point.

10 a.m.: Two members see Piazza's shoes and realize he must be in the house, so they search for him and find him behind a bar in the basement. He is on his back with his arms tight against his sides, breathing heavily with blood on his face. He feels cold to the touch and his eyes remain half-open. Three members carry him back upstairs and put him on the couch. Over the next 42 minutes members shake him, try to prop up his limp body, cover him with a blanket, wipe his face and try to dress him.

10:35 a.m.: A brother searches on his cellphone for "falling asleep after head injury," ''cold extremities in drunk person" and related queries.

10:48 a.m.: A brother calls 911, summoning an ambulance.

5:09 p.m.: The fraternity's president directs a member to get rid of any evidence of alcohol.
___

FEB. 4

1:23 a.m.: Piazza is pronounced dead at Hershey Medical Center. A forensic pathologist said he had suffered a skull fracture, and a shattered spleen accompanied by an abdomen filled with blood. The pathologist said both his head and abdominal injuries would have been very painful. The pathologist also said his spleen injury could have been made worse by jostling, moving him around and sitting on him.

The video from cameras inside Beta Theta Pi, interviews with students and text messages allowed them to build a detailed timeline of what happened to Timothy Piazza - from his arrival for pledge acceptance night to his frat brothers' decision to call an ambulance for him the next morning.


Amazing how security cameras can capture so much truth in situations like this. No doubt without security cameras, text message tracks, the story would have been spun into something entirely different. Since I have kids in college, this timeline, yet "understandable due to "kids being kids"", is very disturbing to me in detailing who vulnerable college age kids really are.

LINK (videos included)

TLDR: frat guy gets overly drunk at frat function, falls down stairs, no other frat members do much to him until calling 911 a day later, frat guy dies.


ETA: UPDATE p. 12 courtesy of TigerFaninSouthland
This post was edited on 9/1/17 at 5:05 pm
Posted by The Baker
This is fine.
Member since Dec 2011
16160 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:37 pm to
(no message)
This post was edited on 1/10/21 at 6:55 pm
Posted by BayouBengals03
lsu14always
Member since Nov 2007
99999 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:37 pm to
Unreal. So many chances they could have saved him. I didn't realize he got up and fell so many times.

He was probably in a lot of pain too.

Kids are stupid.
Posted by gatorhater08
Baton Rouge
Member since Apr 2011
2455 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:38 pm to
They fricked
Posted by tigerbutt
Deep South
Member since Jun 2006
24567 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:38 pm to
Wow
Poor fella went through hell to die.
Posted by GeorgeTheGreek
Sparta, Greece
Member since Mar 2008
66405 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:39 pm to
Tldr, summary insufficient
Posted by ForeverLSU02
Albany
Member since Jun 2007
52147 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:40 pm to
Made me sick to my stomach when I read about this earlier
This post was edited on 5/10/17 at 8:42 pm
Posted by ManBearTiger
BRLA
Member since Jun 2007
21829 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:40 pm to
Sounds like a handful of bros need some serious prison time.
Posted by TheWalrus
Member since Dec 2012
40425 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:41 pm to
Is any of this out of character for frat douches?
Posted by DCtiger1
Panama City Beach
Member since Jul 2009
8755 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:42 pm to
Holy shite. frick those guys
Posted by PetroBabich
Donetsk Oblast
Member since Apr 2017
4609 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:42 pm to
Sad!
Posted by lynxcat
Member since Jan 2008
24131 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:42 pm to
This shite unfortunately is way too prevalent across the country. It's absurd that this kind of behavior is part of fraternity life.
Posted by East Coast Band
Member since Nov 2010
62732 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:44 pm to
quote:

Is any of this out of character for frat douches?

honestly? Probably not. The one thing I am surprised about is that 4 brothers carried him back up the steps fairly quickly after falling down them.
It's not like none of them have never seen a guy pass out from being drunk. It's just the fall, etc. that led to this
Posted by Woobie
Member since Jan 2017
2819 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:45 pm to
Very sad.

Thoughts and prayers to his family.

Posted by Breesus
House of the Rising Sun
Member since Jan 2010
66982 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:45 pm to
frick everyone who let that kid die.

Posted by LSUAlum2001
Stavro Mueller Beta
Member since Aug 2003
47121 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:46 pm to
Ban all basements.
Posted by SabiDojo
Open to any suggestions.
Member since Nov 2010
83927 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:46 pm to
It's unbelievable that people can be so reckless and stupid.
Posted by SG_Geaux
Beautiful St George
Member since Aug 2004
77932 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:46 pm to
frick those people. May they all rot in hell.
Posted by tLSU
Member since Oct 2007
8621 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:46 pm to
Remember, these people aren't in frats because they're intelligent or have any common sense.
Posted by HarryBalzack
Member since Oct 2012
15221 posts
Posted on 5/10/17 at 8:47 pm to
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