A former fraternity brother at Penn State University was sentenced on Tuesday to three months of house arrest for his role in the hazing death of a pledge. The former member of the university’s now-banned Beta Theta Pi chapter, Ryan Burke, 21, in June pleaded guilty to nine misdemeanor charges, including four counts of hazing and five counts involving unlawful acts related to alcoholic beverages. In addition to the house arrest, Mr. Burke was sentenced to 27 months’ probation and ordered to pay fines, costs and restitution. The pledge, Timothy Piazza, an engineering student from Lebanon, N.J., died last year while trying to join Beta Theta Pi. During a hazing ritual involving 13 other pledges, Mr. Piazza was ordered to drink large amounts of alcohol and fell multiple times, injuring his brain and rupturing his spleen.

Source: New York Times July 31, 2018 19:30 UTC