Here is the story link for an article by Molly Sullivan, Sacramento Bee
Author: Hank Nuwer
Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024 and April 2025 , the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.
He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com
Moderator: I see this trial as an important case. Clearly, in previous deaths, perpetrators have gotten away with “cleaning up” a death site, thereby destroying evidence.
Excerpt:
The jury trial for Braxton Becker, a former member and the house manager of Penn State’s now defunct Beta Theta Pi fraternity, began Tuesday. It’s the first jury trial in the case related to the hazing death of Penn State student Timothy Piazza in 2017. Becker allegedly deleted security camera footage of the fraternity house basement.
Piazza suffered fatal injuries during the fraternity’s spring 2017 bid acceptance night. His death prompted Pennsylvania to impose stricter antihazing laws and the university to begin Greek life reform. More than two dozen former fraternity brothers have been implicated in both the criminal and civil cases related to Piazza’s death.
Citing the exchange of text and GroupMe messages among Becker and other former Beta Theta Pi brothers, prosecutors from the state Attorney General’s office want to prove that Becker tampered with evidence, obstructed justice and hindered apprehension.
“I can see if I can erase last night,” Becker wrote the day after Piazza’s fall down a flight of stairs, in a message read aloud at trial by Deputy Attorney General Megan Madaffari. Madaffari said Becker showed “willingness to delete the video” and left police investigating for months without knowing about the surveillance footage that was allegedly deleted.
Karen Muir, Becker’s defense attorney, reminded the jury that the burden to prove beyond reasonable doubt is on prosecutors and said they hadn’t met their burden.
Categories
New scholarship
Applying utilization-focused evaluation to high school hazing prevention: A pilot intervention Leah Hakkola? , Elizabeth J. Allan, Dave Kerschner University of Maine, 331 Merrill Hall, Orono, ME 04469, United States ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Hazing prevention Secondary high school School climate Utilization-focused evaluation Stakeholder involvement ABSTRACT Researchers argue that hazing can contribute to an abusive school climate and interfere with a positive learning environment for students. National efforts exist for establishing policies, protocols, evaluation, and education for students, administrators, and staff to prevent hazing at the college level, but this work has yet to be applied broadly in a high school context. In response to this gap, researchers implemented a pilot project at two high schools in Maine that consisted of hazing prevention training and assessment. This paper discusses the design, methods, and lessons learned through this collaborative, utilization-focused, and mixed-method training and evaluation with school personnel and high school student participants.
Man in hazing death accused of deleting files before search
BATON ROUGE, La. — A former Louisiana State University student charged in the hazing death of a fraternity pledge is accused of deleting hundreds of files from his cellphone just before authorities could search it.
The Advocate reports prosecutors on Wednesday requested Google provide all information, content and deleted data from accounts associated with Matthew Naquin’s phone between August 2017 and that December.
He’s charged with negligent homicide in the 2017 death of 18-year-old Georgia native Max Gruver after a Phi Delta Theta hazing ritual requiring pledges to chug hard liquor.
Authorities say the 21-year-old Texas native erased the content on the same night authorities were granted the right to search it, and refused to provide the password. The FBI unlocked it in March.
Google generally complies with court-approved search warrants in criminal cases.