8 Penn State Frat Bros Have Officially Been Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter

This tragic accident is no longer being called an accident – it’s now a crime.

A grand jury has decided that the death of Timothy Piazza, a Penn State student who died during a frat pledge event, was, “the direct result of encouraged reckless conduct." As such, eighteen of the house members have been charged with serious crimes.

Piazza died in February after he got heavily intoxicated at Beta Theta Pi fraternity and fell down the stairs. He cracked his skull and ruptured his spleen in the fall, but the frat brothers simply placed him on a couch. Surveillance footage shows Piazza then stumbled around for another couple hours before eventually passing out in the basement. No ambulance was called for over 12 hours after his initial injury, and estimates put his blood alcohol level at .36 that evening (.08 is the legal driving limit). He’d later die from the injuries.

The fraternity was permanently banned from Penn State, since the house was blatantly in violation of several rules (Beta Theta Pi was supposed to be a non-drinking frat). But over the past several months, authorities have been looking into whether or not to bring criminal charges against fraternity members involved in organizing that evening’s event.

The grand jury just decided yes -- and in a big way. 18 members of the frat have been arraigned on various charges: 8 currently stand accused of involuntary manslaughter, while the other 10 face hazing, reckless endangerment, and furnishing alcohol to minors.

Some of this group are also being charged with evidence tampering, as it appears, in an attempt to cover up exactly what had happened, several of the boys were cleaning up blood and dressing Piazza so as to make his ‘accident’ look more innocent.

And those are just the charges directly related to Piazza’s death. The former President and Vice President of the fraternity are also facing 50 charges each for hazing and providing alcohol to minors, going back over a year. The total number of charges against all the members of the fraternity is over 850.

"This didn't have to happen," according to Piazza’s father. "This is the result of a feeling of entitlement, flagrant disobedience of the law and disregard for moral values, that was then exacerbated by egregious acts of self-preservation. Again, this did not have to happen. No parent should have to deal with this."