Here is the link to the Collegian coverage.
And here’s how Penn Staters reacted to Magistrate Sinclair’s decision to throw a feather at Beta Theta Pi.
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.
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
Here is the link and an excerpt
From NBC
BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Fourteen members of a disbanded Penn State fraternity must stand trial in the hazing death of a pledge, but a judge on Friday tossed out the most serious charges, including involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.
Eight of the former Beta Theta Pi brothers saw those serious charges dismissed. In addition, four of the total 18 defendants charged with only single counts were dropped entirely from the case.
The parents of Timothy Piazza, the 19-year-old who died following a party at the Beta house in February, said they were disappointed about the judge’s decision, but are looking to the trial for justice.
“There needs to be a deterrent because we lost our son,” mother Evelyn Piazza told NBC News.
She added that if the defendants “acted like a brother or a friend or a responsible human being, it would have been a lot different. We wouldn’t be here.”
Judge to rule on whether Tim Piazza fraternity hazing case can go forward 0:39
The charges that still remain against some of the former fraternity brothers are misdemeanors, including a reckless endangerment charge, which carries up to a two-year prison sentence, as well as hazing and alcohol-related charges.
Some originally faced aggravated assault counts, a first-degree felony, and could have seen as many as 10 to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
“This court has dismissed those charges and has done it in a resounding way,” defense attorney Theodore Simon, whose client, Luke Visser, had been facing a felony charge, told reporters.
After the judge’s ruling, District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller announced that she plans to refile charges and denied there was prosecutorial overreach because the more serious charges were dropped.
“We obviously believe in the original charges or we wouldn’t have brought them,” Miller said.
She added that the Piazzas are “devastated” and “we have to go through this terrible process again.”
It was not immediately clear if the students will be tried together, but District Judge Allen Sinclair said he wouldn’t expect the trials to begin until at least the spring.
Two other fraternity members had earlier waived their right to a preliminary hearing, but must still have their cases heard before a jury.
The defendants have denied all charges.
For discussion: Did police have reasonable cause to check PSU Beta Theta Pi adviser Tim Bream’s cell phone after Tim Piazza death? http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/08/penn_state_tim_bream_testifies.html
And a snippet:
The 56-year-old Pennsylvania State University football trainer who was living in a campus fraternity in February when a sophomore pledge died said he had no role in the house party that night and didn’t know the teen was left to die on a couch after an alleged night of booze-soaked hazing. “I would in no way, shape or form give permission” for alcohol abuse or a drinking “gauntlet,” the trainer, Tim Bream, testified Wednesday.
Will trainer/adviser testify during resumed Piazza hearing? http://www.philly.com/philly/education/penn-state-fraternity-death-tim-piazza-bream-adviser-hearing-20170830.html
Excerpt:
BELLEFONTE, Pa. — The head football trainer at Pennsylvania State University could take the witness stand Wednesday morning as the preliminary hearing resumes for Pennsylvania State University fraternity members charged when a sophomore pledge died after a night of alleged hazing.
The trainer, Tim Bream, wasn’t charged in the death of Tim Piazza but was a live-in adviser to the fraternity, Beta Theta Pi. Questions about his presence at the now-closed house before Piazza’s death in February have continued to swirl, and attorneys for some of the defendants have pushed to have him testify.
A hearing to compel the testimony of Bream, 56, a 1983 Penn State graduate and a Beta Theta Pi alumnus, is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. before Judge Allen Sinclair. The Bream testimony could be the last evidence presented at a hearing that began in June and has been extended three times. Sinclair has set aside Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for the matter and could rule if the defendants should go to trial.