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Court considers role of the conveniently absent chapter adviser: prima facie case possible–PennLive

When the going gets tough, the adult goes into his room and can’t hear a thing.  — Moderator

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Excerpt below:

BELLEFONTE — Two defense attorneys for Penn State students charged in connection with the death of Tim Piazza ripped the role of an athletic trainer who was inside the fraternity during the drunken party.

Evan Kelly, the attorney for Craig Heimer, said his client expected that Tim Bream would be supervising the pledge night activities.

Kelly said Bream had weekly meetings with the executive board of the Beta Theta Pi chapter, was informed about parties in advance and in a bombshell: Kelly alleged that Bream “personally approved the gauntlet,” which was an alcohol-chugging obstacle course.

Specifically, Kelly asked State College Detective David Scicchitano: “Are you aware that Mr. Bream personally approved the gauntlet?”

But the detective did not answer. Instead, Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller objected to the relevance since Bream had not been charged in the case.

Kelly maintained that Bream’s role negated the prima facia case against his client on charges of reckless endangerment, hazing, and furnishing alcohol to minors. Heimer allegedly purchased the alcohol for the pledge night party.

Parks Miller said the information didn’t invalidate the prima facia case against Heimer, rather, it could represent a prima facia case against Bream. More

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank 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. 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 new book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer, former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird, finished a stint as managing editor of the Celina Daily Standard to accept a new position as 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.

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