Involuntary Manslaughter Charges Dismissed Again in Beta Theta Pi Case

A judge has dismissed involuntary manslaughter charges against three former Beta Theta Pi brothers in the Penn State fraternity hazing case.

District Judge Carmine Prestia on Friday issued his decision on charges against seven former fraternity members following a two-day preliminary hearing this week — the fourth preliminary hearing overall in the case that still includes 21 defendants. Prestia also dismissed counts of recklessly endangering another person and tampering with evidence, while holding for trial some hazing charges.

Former fraternity president Brendan Young, pledgemaster Daniel Casey and member Jonah Neuman had involuntary manslaughter charges, stemming from the February 2017 death of sophomore pledge Timothy Piazza, dismissed for a third time. Charges of reckless endangerment against those three, as well as Michael Bonatucci, Nicholas Kubera and Joshua Kurczewski, also were dismissed.

Prestia held for trial 30 counts of hazing against Young and Casey related to activities in the 2016 fall semester and 2017 spring semester. Neuman, Bonatucci, Kubera and Kurczewski each had one count of conspiracy to commit hazing bound over.

All six have already had other charges, including reckless endangerment, held for trial.

Attorneys for Young, Casey and Neuman argued that none of their clients provided alcohol to Piazza, had limited interaction with him and that their involvement with the pledge initiation event did not show they acted with reckless disregard for human life. For Bonatucci, Kubera and Kurczewski, defense attorneys argued that the reckless endangerment charges at this week’s hearing related to pledges to whom they did not give alcohol.

Young and Casey had reckless endangerment charges related to pledge initiation in fall 2016 dismissed. Their attorneys noted that there was no evidence they had provided alcohol to any of the 29 pledges that semester and that no pledges who were interviewed said that they felt they were put in danger.

All charges against Braxton Becker were dismissed. The former Beta house manager was accused of deleting basement surveillance video, which was later recovered by the FBI. He was charged with tampering with evidence, obstruction and hindering prosecution.

Becker’s attorney, Karen Muir, argued this week that neither State College police detectives nor an FBI analyst could identify who actually deleted the video. FBI agent Jason Palek testified that a ‘clear all data’ command appeared in the system log at the same time Becker was assisting a detective with retrieving video. A photograph at the same time showed Becker with his finger on a remote control button, though a detective said he never saw ‘clear all data’ appear on the screen.

Muir argued the remote Becker was holding was for another DVR box, not the one containing the deleted video. She noted the appearance of ‘LAN’ (local area network) in the system log, and Palek testified that if the system were connected to the internet, it was possible that someone could access it remotely.

She also said that video system had been having issues and that at the time the video was erased, Becker had the system operating in a mode that would not allow for deletion.

In his decision, Prestia wrote that there was insufficient evidence to show it was Becker who erased the video.

‘The systems were known to have problems, some cameras were not working and the LAN indication on the log indicates possible remote access to the devices,’ Prestia wrote. ‘Defendant’s presence at the systems is insufficient given that no evidence was observed by the police officer that would indicate the system was deleting files at the time of observation and according to the Commonwealth’s expert witness the system was in ‘Clip and Save’ mode that by design would prevent data deletion.’ 

A trial for the remaining defendants in the case is scheduled for February 2019.