Ex-Penn State Fraternity Member Sentenced to House Arrest in Hazing Death

A former fraternity brother at Penn State University was sentenced Tuesday to three months of house arrest for his role in the hazing death of a pledge.

The former member of the university’s now-banned Beta Theta Pi chapter, Ryan Burke, 21, in June pleaded guilty to nine misdemeanor charges, including four counts of hazing and five counts involving unlawful acts related to alcoholic beverages.

In addition to the house arrest, Burke was sentenced to 27 months’ probation and ordered to pay fines, costs and restitution.

The pledge, Timothy Piazza, an engineering student from Lebanon, New Jersey, died last year while trying to join Beta Theta Pi. During a hazing ritual involving 13 other pledges, Piazza was ordered to drink large amounts of alcohol and fell multiple times, injuring his brain and rupturing his spleen. He was 19.

Tom Kline, a lawyer for Piazza’s parents, Evelyn and James Piazza, said Tuesday that the sentence was “an important step on the long road to justice for the Piazza family.”

Burke apologized briefly to Piazza’s family before the sentencing, according to The Associated Press. Burke’s lawyer, Philip Masorti, said the punishment was fair, AP reported. Masorti did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A prosecution sentencing memo filed last week said Burke, who is from Scranton, Pennsylvania, held the position of “rush chair” and was in charge of recruitment.

On the night of Piazza’s death, the pledges were pressured to participate in various drinking stations that required them to chug vodka and beer, drink from a wine bag and play beer pong — a kind of obstacle course referred to as “the gauntlet,” according to court documents.

After that part of the hazing ended, the pledges were told to party with a sorority and were encouraged to drink even more alcohol, the memo said. At the party, fraternity members would approach a pledge, hold up a bottle or bag, wait for the pledge to drink, then move on.

At one point, Burke was seen on surveillance video giving vodka to four pledges, including Piazza, 10 minutes after the obstacle course had concluded. About an hour after finishing the last drink, Piazza’s blood alcohol level was between .27 percent and .35 percent, which is more than triple the legal driving limit, the memo said.

That night, Piazza fell down steps, lost consciousness, fell several more times, hit his head, and at one point crashed into an iron railing.

Initially, some of the fraternity members carried Piazza back up a flight of stairs and placed him on a sofa. During that time, Burke “appeared unconcerned,” and was seen “playfully hoisting a girl over his shoulders,” jumping on the sofa next to Piazza and then leaving the room, the memo said.

The fraternity members did not call an ambulance until nearly 12 hours after the hazing began, according to court documents. Piazza died the next day of what an autopsy concluded were “multiple traumatic injuries.”

Kline said that 25 other defendants had entered not-guilty pleas and would face trial in February.

In September, a Pennsylvania judge dismissed the most serious charges against eight members of the fraternity chapter indicted in Piazza’s death, including involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and simple assault.