A judge has thrown out involuntary manslaughter charges against eight Beta Theta Pi brothers at Penn State who, in February, waited 40 minutes to call 911 in order to help a brother who laid unconscious in a rigor mortis-like state. District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller had argued that they had rushed 19-year-old sophomore Timothy Piazza and other pledges “through a speed-drinking ‘gauntlet,’” instructing them to finish a large bottle of vodka, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Surveillance footage shows Piazza, a hazing victim, falling down, puking, and writhing throughout the night while brothers stepped over his half-conscious body. A grand jury investigation detailed by ABC News found that after falling headfirst down the basement stairs at around 11 PM, they carried his body to a couch. A new member saw Piazza writhing in agony and screamed for help; a senior initiate shoved him against the wall and told him they “had it under control,” which more or less meant splashing water on his face. This went on til around 10 AM, when frat members once again found Piazza lying in the basement. They carried him back to the couch where he laid in what State College Police Detective Dave Scicchitano described as a “corpse-like” state, and scrolled through their phones, CNN reports, til finally calling 911 at 10:48 AM.