Penn State former frat VP, Daniel Casey of Ronkonkoma, sentenced for role in hazing death of Timothy Piazza

A Ronkonkoma man who served as vice president of a Penn State fraternity in 2017 will serve up to 4 months in prison for his role in a hazing ritual that resulted in the death of a 19-year-old pledge after consuming well over a dozen alcoholic drinks in less than two hours.

Daniel Casey, now 27, who also served as pledgemaster for the Beta Theta Pi fraternity while a student, and Brendan Young, 28, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, the since-disbanded chapter's president at the time, each pleaded guilty in July to 14 counts of hazing and a single count of reckless endangerment related to the death of pledge Timothy Piazza, a 19-year-old engineering student from Lebanon, New Jersey.

At their Tuesday sentencings in a Pennsylvania courtroom, both men received the same prison term and were also ordered to serve 3 years probation followed by community service. They are scheduled to report to the Centre County Correctional Facility, a short drive from Penn State, on Monday.

The attorney representing Casey, Steven P. Trialonas, of the Mazza Law Group in State College, Pennsylvania, did not immediately return email and phone requests seeking comment. Young’s defense attorney, Julian Allatt, also was not available for comment Thursday.

More than a dozen fraternity members at the time previously pleaded guilty to hazing and alcohol violations in the case. A number of others entered a program for first-time offenders, authorities said.

Piazza, an engineering student, and 13 other pledges were seeking to join the fraternity the night the sophomore consumed at least 18 drinks in less than two hours. Security camera footage documented Piazza’s excruciating final hours, including a fall down the basement steps that required others to carry him back upstairs. He exhibited signs of severe pain as he spent the night on a first-floor couch.

It took hours for help to be called. Piazza suffered severe head and abdominal injuries and died at a hospital.

Prosecutors initially hoped to press more serious charges against Casey and Young, including involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault, but were unable to get those charges approved by the court. Since Piazza's death, Penn State has banned Beta Theta Pi and Pennsylvania lawmakers have passed legislation to make severe forms of hazing a felony — even allowing for the confiscation of fraternity houses where hazing has occurred, authorities said.

That legislation is known as the Timothy Piazza Anti-Hazing Law.

The organization that monitors fraternity and sorority conduct nationwide moved to Penn State in 2019 and is now the Piazza Center there. Previously based at Indiana University from 1976-2019, the center produces a survey called the National Fraternity and Sorority Scorecard.

In August, Newsday reported that for the 2020-21 academic year, the most recent scorecard available, of the 99 participating college and university campuses reflecting 1,593 fraternity, 1,285 sorority and 58 coed organization chapters, 15.3% of those at private nonprofit schools reported conduct violations, while 16.9% — or 242 — reported violations at public institutions.

Though no breakdown was available, the executive summary said violations included alcohol, hazing and "organizational activity that led to sexual misconduct, and other organizational misconduct such as physical altercations."

With AP

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”