An Encinitas teen who is one of 18 fraternity brothers charged in the February hazing death of Penn State student Timothy Piazza was running a beer-pong table on the night the 19-year-old consumed a nearly lethal amount of alcohol and fell down a flight of stairs, authorities have said.
Luke Visser, also 19 and a 2016 La Costa Canyon High School graduate, faces a number of criminal charges including aggravated assault, involuntary manslaughter, and hazing. He has pleaded not guilty.
Piazza consumed what prosecutors said was a life-threatening amount of alcohol during a hazing ritual on Feb. 2 in State College, Pa,, and fell down stairs at least twice during the course of the night. Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers did not call an ambulance until the next morning.
Prosecutors said the fraternity’s actions may have worsened Piazza’s injuries and suffering. The Lebanon, N.J., teen had severe head trauma and a shattered spleen and later died of traumatic brain injury.
No defense attorney is listed for Visser in court records, but an attorney for one of the other defendants in the case disputed the charges.
Steve Trialonas, who represents Beta Theta Pi member Daniel Casey, told Newsday: “The government assumes that these young men, many of whom were intoxicated themselves, should have been able to differentiate symptoms of extreme intoxication from symptoms of a life-threatening head injury. That is an impossible burden to place on them.”
A woman who answered a Visser family cell phone Friday said the family is not making any comments about the case.
At La Costa Canyon, Visser played football in his junior year and was named to the Union Tribune’s All-Academic team that fall, for carrying a 3.46 grade-point average. During his senior year, Visser was also president of the school’s chapter of Athletes Saving Athletes, a national group that, according to its website, works to reduce the risk of injury and death to student athletes by teaching participants how to recognize the signs and symptoms of sports-related injuries and chronic medical conditions.
In the Penn State case, video from cameras inside Beta Theta Pi, as well as interviews with students and text messages, helped prosecutors build a detailed timeline of what happened to Piazza. The following is that timeline, which was laid out in a grand jury report. Times have been adjusted to account for the fraternity’s camera system being 37 minutes behind the actual time.
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FEB. 2
About 9 p.m.: Fourteen pledges arrive at Beta Theta Pi for pledge acceptance ceremony. Pledges are led to basem*nt and directed to drink from a vodka bottle. They run a gauntlet of drinking stations, downing vodka, chugging beer and drinking from a wine bottle. They also play beer pong. By one estimate, they each consume four to five drinks in about 2 minutes.
9:43 p.m.: Timothy Piazza appears in security camera footage lined up with other pledges. His hand is on the right shoulder of the person in front of him.
9:58 p.m.: Piazza is seen drinking from a vodka bottle, then is handed a beer.
11:08 p.m.: Pledges show visible signs of intoxication as they return from the basem*nt.
11:17 p.m.: Someone has to help Piazza walk to a couch. He gets up briefly and walks around before a fraternity brother puts him on the couch.
11:22 p.m.: Piazza gets up, staggers toward the front door and tries without success to open it. He staggers toward the basem*nt steps. A fraternity brother hears a fall and finds Piazza face-down at the bottom of the stairs. A forensic pathologist later estimates his blood-alcohol content is between 0.28 and 0.36 percent at this point. (In Pennsylvania, a driver is considered intoxicated with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08.)
11:24 p.m.: Piazza is carried upstairs by four fraternity members. His body appears limp and his eyes are closed. A bruise appears on his left abdomen. He’s placed on the couch with others around him. A member appears to administer a sternum rub, but Piazza does not respond.
11:26 p.m.: Someone dumps liquid on Piazza’s face, but he does not respond. Another fraternity brother lifts Piazza’s arm, which appears limp. More liquid is poured on his face. A brother removes his shoes and tries to turn him on his side, causing Piazza to nearly fall off the couch.
11:32 p.m.: A brother attaches a backpack to Piazza so he won’t roll onto his back and choke on his own vomit.
11:37 p.m.: A brother sits at Piazza’s legs to prevent him from rolling over.
11:51 p.m.: A brother is shown on tape examining Piazza and making animated gestures. He later tells the grand jury he saw a bruise on Piazza’s chest and that he was thrashing and making weird movements. He stressed Piazza needed medical care, but another member shoved him into a wall and told him to leave. The brother confronts the chapter’s vice president, who also dismisses his concerns.
11:53 p.m.: A fraternity member sends a group message: “Piazza might actually be a problem. He fell 14 feet down a flight of stairs, hair-first, going to need help.”
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FEB. 3
12:02 a.m.: The fraternity’s pledge master slaps Piazza three times in the face.
12:12 a.m.: One brother tackles another onto the couch, landing on top of Piazza, who remains unconscious.
1:37 a.m.: Piazza vomits. Three brothers again attach a backpack to Piazza’s back in an effort to keep him from rolling onto his back.
2:25 a.m.: Piazza rolls off the couch, onto the floor. Three brothers “slammed him onto the couch,” grand jury says. Minutes later a brother, seemingly frustrated, strikes Piazza in the abdomen with his open right hand.
3:53 a.m.: Piazza rolls to floor with the backpack still attached. His legs move.
3:59 a.m.: Piazza tries to get to his feet. The backpack comes off, but he falls backward and hits his head on the floor. Another member shakes him but then leaves.
4:23 a.m.: Piazza is on the floor in the fetal position. He’s on his knees and continues to grab his abdomen. Several minutes later he again tries to stand but falls facedown onto the wood floor.
5:36 a.m.: Piazza stands and staggers to lobby area, falls head-first into an iron railing and lands on a stone floor. He again tries to get up but falls head-first into the door. He spends about six minutes on his knees, with his head in his hands. He rolls to his side and clutches his abdomen. A forensic pathologist later estimates his blood-alcohol content at this point is between 0.19 and 0.24.
5:52 a.m.: A fraternity brother comes downstairs for a drink of water, steps over Piazza and leaves.
6:03 a.m.: Another brother comes downstairs for water, walks Piazza into the house’s “great hall.” Piazza falls down three steps and the brother leaves him on the floor.
7:34 a.m.: A fellow pledge videotapes Piazza before leaving the house.
7:55 a.m.: Piazza stands and staggers toward basem*nt steps. Cameras do not capture what is assumed to be another fall. A forensic pathologist later estimates his blood-alcohol content is between 0.15 and 0.19 percent at this point.
10 a.m.: Two members see Piazza’s shoes and realize he must be in the house, so they search for him and find him behind a bar in the basem*nt. He is on his back with his arms tight against his sides, breathing heavily with blood on his face. He feels cold to the touch and his eyes remain half-open. Three members carry him back upstairs and put him on the couch. Over the next 42 minutes members shake him, try to prop up his limp body, cover him with a blanket, wipe his face and try to dress him.
10:35 a.m.: A brother searches on his cellphone for “falling asleep after head injury,” ”cold extremities in drunk person” and related queries.
10:48 a.m.: A brother calls 911, summoning an ambulance.
5:09 p.m.: The fraternity’s president directs a member to get rid of any evidence of alcohol.___
FEB. 4
1:23 a.m.: Piazza is pronounced dead at Hershey Medical Center. A forensic pathologist said he had suffered a skull fracture, and a shattered spleen accompanied by an abdomen filled with blood. The pathologist said both his head and abdominal injuries would have been very painful. The pathologist also said his spleen injury could have been made worse by jostling, moving him around and sitting on him.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
