Timothy Piazza’s hazing death occurred on February 4, 2017, two days after the 19-year-old Penn State sophomore fell down a basement staircase at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house following a pledge ritual in which he consumed roughly 18 drinks in about 90 minutes. Fraternity brothers waited nearly 12 hours before calling 911. His death led to criminal charges against 28 members, multimillion-dollar civil settlements, the permanent closure of the chapter, a Pennsylvania anti-hazing law bearing his name, and a federal statute requiring colleges nationwide to track and report hazing.
The Night at Beta Theta Pi
On February 2, 2017, Piazza attended a pledge acceptance ceremony called “The Gauntlet” at the Beta Theta Pi house on Penn State’s campus. Pledges were handed vodka, beer, and wine in the basement. Surveillance video later showed Piazza drinking at least 18 alcoholic beverages in roughly 90 minutes, with fraternity brothers supplying the alcohol.
At approximately 11:22 p.m., visibly intoxicated, he staggered toward the basement stairs and fell headfirst to the bottom. Brothers carried him back upstairs and laid him on a couch. Over the hours that followed they slapped his face, poured liquid on him, and strapped a backpack to his body to keep him from rolling onto his back. He tried to stand and fell again, repeatedly. At least one brother suggested calling for help and was shoved away.
No one called 911 until roughly 10:48 a.m. on February 3, nearly 12 hours after the initial fall. By then Piazza was breathing heavily, had blood on his face, and his skin had turned gray. He was rushed to the hospital and died the next day.
What Killed Him
Dr. Harry Kamerow, who reviewed the Dauphin County coroner’s autopsy findings, testified that Piazza died from severe head trauma, non-recoverable brain injuries, and a ruptured spleen sustained during the basement fall. The autopsy documented a severe fracture across the base of his skull, subdural hemorrhaging, and bleeding in the brain. About four liters of blood were found in his abdominal cavity from the spleen injury. His estimated blood alcohol level at the time of the fall was between .27 and .35, more than three times the legal limit for driving.
Kamerow also testified that the way brothers moved, jostled, and strapped the backpack to Piazza’s unconscious body throughout the night could have worsened the spleen injury. By the time anyone called for help, it was too late.
The Criminal Cases Against the Fraternity Members
Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller convened a grand jury that returned charges against 26 fraternity members and the Beta Theta Pi chapter itself. Eight individuals faced involuntary manslaughter charges; others were charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, hazing, furnishing alcohol to minors, and evidence tampering. Investigators found that surveillance footage from the basement camera had been deleted, and the grand jury described “an active attempt to conceal evidence of the hazing and underage drinking,” including erased text messages.
The most serious charges did not survive. Magisterial District Judge Allen Sinclair dismissed the involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault charges at a preliminary hearing in September 2017. Prosecutors refiled, and Sinclair dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charges a second time in March 2018, along with reckless endangerment charges against several defendants. Hazing counts and conspiracy charges were allowed to proceed. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office took over the case in January 2018 and appealed, but no defendant was ever convicted of involuntary manslaughter or aggravated assault. All of those charges were eventually dismissed or withdrawn.
Most defendants resolved their cases through guilty pleas to misdemeanors or through pretrial diversion programs. The sentences included:
- Ryan Burke pleaded guilty to four counts of hazing and five alcohol-related charges. He was sentenced in mid-2018 to three months of house arrest, more than two years of probation, community service, and over $3,000 in fines.
- Luke Visser pleaded guilty to hazing and was sentenced in April 2019 to two to six months in jail and three years of probation.
- Joshua Kurczewski pleaded guilty to hazing and received three to nine months in jail and one year of probation.
- Joseph Sala pleaded guilty to hazing and received three to ten months of house arrest and two years of probation.
- Michael Bonatucci pleaded guilty to hazing and received one to six months in jail and one year of probation.
The last two defendants were the chapter’s leaders. Brendan Young, the president, and Daniel Casey, the vice president and pledge master, pleaded guilty on July 30, 2024, to 14 counts of hazing and one count of reckless endangerment, all misdemeanors. On October 1, 2024, Centre County Judge Brian Marshall sentenced each to two to four months in prison with work-release eligibility, three years of probation, and community service. Half of the required ten days of community service could be satisfied by delivering anti-hazing presentations at schools and colleges.
Attorney General Michelle Henry, who succeeded Shapiro, said that if the anti-hazing law later passed in Piazza’s name had been in effect in 2017, the defendants would have faced felony charges. “Nothing can undo the harm Tim suffered seven years ago,” she said. “Nothing can bring Tim back to his family and friends.”
The Civil Settlements
The Piazza family, represented by attorney Tom Kline, pursued civil claims on several fronts. In September 2018, the family settled with the Beta Theta Pi national fraternity for a confidential sum. The agreement bound the fraternity to 17 safety reforms across all 139 of its chapters, including substance-free housing, pledge education programs capped at four weeks, security cameras, and active bystander intervention programs. Kline called it a “unique, cooperative agreement.”
In January 2019, the family settled separately with Penn State for an undisclosed amount. The university agreed to permanently ban Beta Theta Pi from campus and pledged $2 million toward creating the Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity and Sorority Research and Reform.
The family also filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit in January 2019 against 28 individual fraternity members and St. Moritz Security Services, the firm contracted to monitor Greek events. By October 2022, they had reached out-of-court settlements with 25 of the defendants. The claims against Young and Casey were stayed during their criminal cases, and the family described the 2024 sentencing as the case’s closure.
The End of the Chapter
Penn State permanently revoked Beta Theta Pi’s recognition on March 30, 2017, less than two months after Piazza’s death, citing “a persistent pattern of excessive and forced drinking, hazing and drug use and sales.” The national organization also revoked the chapter’s charter. Under a 1928 deed clause, Penn State held the right to repurchase the chapter house once it stopped operating as a Beta Theta Pi property. Following litigation, the Penn State Board of Trustees approved the $7.3 million purchase of the 22,845-square-foot building in July 2025.
Penn State’s Greek-Life Reforms
The university enacted more than a dozen changes after Piazza’s death. Fraternity and sorority recruitment moved from fall to spring, and students must complete at least 12 credits before participating. Social events with alcohol were capped at ten per semester, down from 45. Kegs were banned, only beer and wine were permitted, and all alcohol had to be served by trained personnel. Party attendance was limited to the legal capacity of the house.
Penn State created an Office of Fraternity and Sorority Compliance and, in 2019, launched the Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity and Sorority Research and Reform. The center runs a national scorecard tracking conduct violations, academic performance, and safety efforts at nearly 100 institutions, and in 2026 released a research report titled “Charge for Change” laying out a hazing-prevention roadmap. Problems have continued: in fall 2022 the university recorded more than 30 hazing, alcohol, or sexual misconduct violations among Interfraternity Council organizations, and as of early 2024 nine fraternities were suspended.
The Timothy J. Piazza Anti-Hazing Law
Jim and Evelyn Piazza worked with Pennsylvania state senator Jake Corman on legislation to make hazing a more serious crime. Governor Tom Wolf signed the Timothy J. Piazza Anti-Hazing Law, Act 80 of 2018, on October 19, 2018.
The law created tiered penalties. Base-level hazing is a summary offense. Hazing that causes bodily injury is a third-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a $2,500 fine. Hazing that causes serious bodily injury or death is a third-degree felony carrying up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine. The statute also holds organizations accountable, requires schools and colleges to adopt and publicly post anti-hazing policies, mandates reporting of all violations, and grants immunity from prosecution to anyone who seeks medical help for a person harmed by hazing.
The Stop Campus Hazing Act
The Piazzas’ advocacy extended nationally. In 2018 they helped form the Anti-Hazing Coalition with four other families of hazing victims, the North American Interfraternity Conference, and the National Panhellenic Conference. As of 2019, only 13 states classified hazing resulting in death or serious injury as a felony.
At the federal level, the family helped shape the Stop Campus Hazing Act, introduced by Representative Glenn “GT” Thompson of Pennsylvania. The bill passed the House in September 2024, and President Biden signed it into law on December 23, 2024. The law amends the Clery Act to require all colleges receiving federal student aid to track and report hazing incidents in their annual security reports, publish campus hazing transparency reports at least twice a year, and implement research-based prevention programs. Implementation deadlines ran through 2025 and into 2026.
Who Timothy Piazza Was
Piazza grew up in Readington Township, in Lebanon, New Jersey, and graduated from Hunterdon Central Regional High School. He was a sophomore engineering student at Penn State who planned to develop prosthetics. In high school he played football and threw shot put, javelin, and discus. At Penn State he served on the executive board of AYUDA and worked on the operations committee for THON, the university’s student-run dance marathon for childhood cancer. He volunteered teaching sports to children with special needs and helped with community holiday gift drives.
His mother, Evelyn, described him as shy and a little awkward but “really funny, really genuine and nice,” someone who usually preferred basketball, workouts, or video games over drinking. She said he trusted the people he was pledging with. He was survived by his parents, Jim and Evelyn, and his brother, Michael.