2 former Penn State University students sentenced in 2017 hazing death
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Two former Penn State University students are set to face time behind bars for their roles in a 2017 incident that led to a student's death, officials announced on Tuesday.
Video in the player above is from a previous Action News report.
Brendan Young and Daniel Casey were the former president and vice president of a Penn State fraternity where 19-year-old Timothy Piazza fell and later died after consuming a large amount of alcohol during a hazing event.
Young, 28, and Casey, 27, each pleaded guilty in July to 14 counts of hazing and a single count of reckless endangerment.
They were the last two criminal defendants to be sentenced in a case that prompted Pennsylvania lawmakers to crack down on hazing.
Young and Casey were each sentenced to two to four months in prison with work release eligibility followed by three years of probation and community service.
The incident happened on February 2, 2017. Police say 14 pledges, including sophomore engineering student Piazza, arrived at Beta Theta Pi for a pledge acceptance ceremony.
Pledges were then led to a basement and directed to drink from a vodka bottle.
The pledges reportedly consumed a life-threatening amount of alcohol throughout the evening.
Piazza then reportedly fell down a flight of stairs after having consumed significant amounts of alcohol. In previous reports, experts estimated that the victim's blood-alcohol content was between 0.28 and 0.36 at the time.
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Security camera footage documented Piazza's excruciating final hours, including a fall down the basement steps that required others to carry him back upstairs.
He exhibited signs of severe pain as he spent the night on a first-floor couch.
His fraternity brothers did not call the police until the next morning.
The teen from New Jersey died days later in the hospital.
"Our thoughts are with the Piazza family and everyone affected by this tragedy," said Attorney Michelle General Henry in a statement. "Nothing can undo the harm Tim suffered seven years ago - nothing can bring Tim back to his family and friends. With the sentences ordered today, the criminal process reached a conclusion."
Messages seeking comment were left with Young's defense lawyer, Julian Allatt, and Casey's lawyer, Steven Trialonis.
Penn State has since banned the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
Pennsylvania state lawmakers passed legislation -- the Timothy Piazza Anti-Hazing Law -- making the most severe forms of hazing a felony, requiring schools to maintain policies to combat hazing, and allowing the confiscation of fraternity houses where hazing has occurred.
Had that statute been in place at the time of Piazza's death, the defendants would have faced stiffer penalties, according to the attorney general's office.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
