Video recovered, 10 more charged in Penn State frat death
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Investigators are filing new charges after recovering deleted security video recorded in a Penn State fraternity house the night a pledge consumed a dangerous amount of alcohol and suffered fatal injuries.
Centre County Dist. Atty. Stacy Parks Miller announced Monday that the new evidence enabled police to determine that 19-year-old Beta Theta Pi pledge Tim Piazza was given at least 18 drinks over less than 90 minutes.
Piazza, an engineering student from Lebanon, N.J., was found to have suffered a fractured skull, shattered spleen and other injuries.
Piazza fell down a long set of steps that night, and fell several other times, injuring his head, Miller said in May. The next morning he fell down the same steps a second time, and was unconscious when help was finally summoned. Miller said doctors estimate Piazza had a blood-alcohol content of nearly 0.40 the night of the pledge ceremony.
Piazza died Feb. 4 at Hershey Medical Center.
Miller says the new video is the basis for charges against 10 additional defendants, as well as seven who’d been charged previously.
Miller is also accusing a fraternity member of deleting the video as police were seeking the footage in February.
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