Pennsylvania court sees fraternity drinking video from night Penn State student died

BELLEFONTE, Pa. - A Pennsylvania prosecutor displayed in court on Monday three hours of security camera footage that she said showed members of a Penn State fraternity forcing pledges to engage in a ritual of heavy drinking that resulted in a teenager's death.

Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller presented the graphic video at a hearing to help establish the state's case against 16 members of a Pennsylvania State University fraternity accused in the Feb. 4 hazing death of Timothy Piazza, 19. Two others charged in the case waived their rights to a preliminary hearing.

The 18 defendants range in age from 19 to 22. Eight of them face felony aggravated-assault charges that could put them in prison for many years. The rest are charged with various misdemeanor offenses, including involuntary manslaughter.

Piazza's parents, Evelyn and James Piazza of Lebanon, New Jersey, left the courtroom as prosecutors began playing the excerpted footage, which contained no sound.

Piazza and others seeking to join Penn State's chapter of Beta Theta Pi had to participate in a game known of The Gauntlet, requiring them to drink excessive vodka, beer and wine, prosecutors say.

The court watched in silence as video from the frat house showed Piazza in an apparent state of inebriation. He can be seen crawling, trying to stand and repeatedly falling to the floor, hitting his head.

The young men charged in the case ignored the serious injuries Piazza suffered in a fall down a 15-foot staircase, State College Police Detective David Scicchitano testified. They carried him back up to the top and laid him on a couch but did not seek medical help until the next morning.

By then, Piazza had fallen down the stairs again and lay there for two hours, until fraternity members found him nearly dead, Scicchitano said. Doctors told the detective that Piazza was likely in extreme pain.

At one point in the video, defendant Jonah Neuman, 19, is seen angrily shoving a fellow frat member who protested that Piazza might have a concussion. Scicchitano testified Neuman told his frat brother to 'mind his own business.”

Piazza died later at a hospital. An autopsy listed head and spleen injuries as the cause of death.

Scicchitano was on the witness stand for much of the day. Magisterial District Judge Allen Sinclair granted a defense motion to continue the hearing to a later date to allow for additional cross-examination and testimony before ruling whether the case will proceed to trial.

(Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)