Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / TEEN BOY FORCE FED ALCOHOL, BRAIN DEAD, WITH BLUE LIPS AT FRAT PARTY

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TEEN BOY FORCE FED ALCOHOL, BRAIN DEAD, WITH BLUE LIPS AT FRAT PARTY · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The so called worst case
0:17
Speaker 1: of hazing in US history. You can judge that for yourself.
0:23
Speaker 1: But a teen boy is left blind and unable to walk.
0:30
Speaker 1: Why is this happening in our country? I was just
0:36
Speaker 1: telling Jackie that we're actually talking about putting a space
0:40
Speaker 1: station on Mars, but we can't stop teens from ending
0:47
Speaker 1: up blinded and unable to walk because of hazing on
0:55
Speaker 1: college campuses. I'm Nancy Grace, this Iscribe Stories. Thank you
1:01
Speaker 1: for being with us here at Fox Nation and series
1:04
Speaker 1: Exam one eleven. Listen to this. Hundreds of students who
1:07
Speaker 1: participated in that protest gathered right here last night. They
1:11
Speaker 1: came together to protest the actions of Phi Gamma Delta.
1:14
Speaker 1: Now the fraternity has also been suspended by its national
1:17
Speaker 1: organization MU. Police in the Office of Student Accountability are
1:21
Speaker 1: currently investigating to determine if any criminal statutes or university
1:26
Speaker 1: regulations were violated. One MU student we spoke with was
1:29
Speaker 1: also protesting the way the university has been trying to
1:33
Speaker 1: prevent misconduct on campus. It's just ridiculous, like something needs
1:36
Speaker 1: to change, and the things that they're doing to try
1:39
Speaker 1: and change it is not working. Based on an initial investigation,
1:43
Speaker 1: several fraternity members who are believed to have consumed quote
1:47
Speaker 1: significant amounts of alcohol during a party at the fraternity.
1:50
Speaker 1: Now MU says it plans to conduct an internal review
1:54
Speaker 1: of its entire Greek system. The current status of the
1:57
Speaker 1: hospitalized student is unknown. This isn't just drinking at a party.
2:02
Speaker 1: This is being force said alcohol, an entire bottle of
2:08
Speaker 1: vodka as well as beer, force fed to the point
2:13
Speaker 1: that this teen boy was six times over the legal limit.
2:19
Speaker 1: You were just hearing our friends at Fox nine. Now
2:23
Speaker 1: take a listen to Hannah Falcon k M I Z.
2:28
Speaker 1: I'm here at the now abandoned five Gamut Delta fraternity
2:32
Speaker 1: house and this is where it all happened that night
2:36
Speaker 1: back in October. What happened that night left Danny Santouli
2:40
Speaker 1: unable to walk, see or talk, and now his family
2:44
Speaker 1: and lawyer are asking why prosecutors aren't charging active members
2:49
Speaker 1: with hazing crimes. Danny Santouli is still unable to speak,
2:54
Speaker 1: he has massive brain damage, he's lost his eyesight, he's blind,
2:59
Speaker 1: and he and I walk. A probable cause statement from
3:02
Speaker 1: University of Missouri Police outlines the events of the night
3:05
Speaker 1: Danny Santouli got alcohol poisoning from a five gamma delta
3:09
Speaker 1: pledge event. This statement says active members taped a bottle
3:12
Speaker 1: of vodka to his hands and poured beard down his throat.
3:16
Speaker 1: It also says security footage shows many of the events
3:19
Speaker 1: as they happened inside the frat house. Now, if you're
3:21
Speaker 1: not going to enforce the hazing laws in Missouri under
3:24
Speaker 1: these circumstances, then you're never going to enforce them. You
3:28
Speaker 1: might as well just get rid of a law. You
3:30
Speaker 1: know what I learned, and I'm not proud to say this.
3:34
Speaker 1: When I first went to the District Attorney's office to
3:36
Speaker 1: prosecute crimes, My boss, who I loved, who's like a
3:40
Speaker 1: grandfather to me, mister Slayton, the longest serving elected DA
3:44
Speaker 1: in the country at that time, I think it was
3:46
Speaker 1: thirty seven years for two sessions, sent me with the
3:52
Speaker 1: office lobbyist to push anti crime issues. I'm proud because
3:58
Speaker 1: I got to help write the rape shell law. So
4:03
Speaker 1: I'm very proud of for the state of Georgia. I
4:05
Speaker 1: couldn't wait to get out of there. Can I tell
4:07
Speaker 1: you why? Because the Assembly was made up largely of
4:11
Speaker 1: Defense Attorney's no offense to defense attorneys, but you expect
4:15
Speaker 1: them to pass laws that would hurt their clients. That's
4:21
Speaker 1: not going to happen. Same thing here. Why have the
4:25
Speaker 1: hazing statutes if they don't have any teeth to them
4:29
Speaker 1: and you're not going to use them now. Earlier you
4:32
Speaker 1: were hearing from our friends Sarah Moyers at KOMU eight.
4:36
Speaker 1: But before we go to our guests, take a Lissa
4:39
Speaker 1: now to Hannah Flood Fox nine. The injury sustained by
4:43
Speaker 1: Danny Samtoli is the worst hazing injury that I've ever
4:48
Speaker 1: seen in my career. Nearly four months later and now
4:51
Speaker 1: breathing on his own, Danny is still unresponsive, unable to communicate,
4:55
Speaker 1: in living with permanent brain injuries. This is devastating at
4:59
Speaker 1: so many le It's not just devastating for Danny the victim,
5:03
Speaker 1: but also his family. Soon after the incident, the university
5:07
Speaker 1: and the fraternity's national authorities shut down the chapter one
5:10
Speaker 1: that had been cited for violations six other times in
5:13
Speaker 1: the last four years. Now, this lawsuit alleges the fraternity
5:17
Speaker 1: and some of its members are responsible for Danny's injuries,
5:20
Speaker 1: even if there were policies in place against hazing and
5:23
Speaker 1: alcohol use. That tells me that the existing rules and
5:27
Speaker 1: regulations and the way we're going about this are not working. Guys,
5:31
Speaker 1: you're hearing the voice of David Biancy. He is Danny's
5:36
Speaker 1: family lawyer. Now he has said he's joining us out
5:42
Speaker 1: of Miami. He has said this is the worst hazing
5:46
Speaker 1: case injury he's ever seen. Now I agree, it may
5:51
Speaker 1: be the worst injury ever seen, but I don't know,
5:57
Speaker 1: as horrific as it is, how I can distinguish between
6:03
Speaker 1: Danny's case, a teen boy who goes off to college,
6:07
Speaker 1: every parent's dream, and so many others. Before I go
6:13
Speaker 1: to David Bianci joining us build as America's leading hazing lawyer,
6:21
Speaker 1: or Mark Slavitt joining us from KRCGTV thirteen, they're in Missouri,
6:26
Speaker 1: I want to go to a long time colleague and
6:30
Speaker 1: someone I now consider to be a friend. This is
6:33
Speaker 1: Jim Piazza, father of Timothy Piazza. You know, even when
6:37
Speaker 1: I say that, I feel a pain in my chest
6:41
Speaker 1: because Jim is the father of Timothy, who lost his
6:47
Speaker 1: life due to hazing. Jim is now the founding member
6:53
Speaker 1: of the Anti Hazing Coalition and Parents United to Stop
6:58
Speaker 1: Hazing it's called push push Jim, thank you for being
7:04
Speaker 1: with us. You're welcome answer, Thank you for having I
7:06
Speaker 1: just got to ask you how you can continue to
7:11
Speaker 1: talk about Timothy and not just totally break down, because
7:16
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this. My twins are
7:18
Speaker 1: about to turn fifteen, Yes, they're fourteen, and I think
7:22
Speaker 1: about Danny Santulli and his family. I think about you,
7:28
Speaker 1: your family, Timothy. I'm actually afraid to send them to college. Yeah,
7:33
Speaker 1: you know, I think you know, when you send your
7:35
Speaker 1: kids to college, they should feel protected, You should feel
7:39
Speaker 1: good that they're going to be protected. You know, we're
7:42
Speaker 1: all about trying to educate parents and students and administrators
7:47
Speaker 1: and whatnot right now, but this stuff keeps happening. You know,
7:51
Speaker 1: we've been following Danny's story for quite a while now.
7:55
Speaker 1: It's heartbreaking. I just can't imagine what that family is
7:58
Speaker 1: going through. I mean, obviously we think about tim every day.
8:01
Speaker 1: We're still dealing with criminal trials and in litigation. And
8:05
Speaker 1: it's five years later. Could you explain what happened to
8:10
Speaker 1: Timothy before I even get to Danny Sintouli, what happened
8:15
Speaker 1: to your son Timothy? Sure? I mean, I have to
8:18
Speaker 1: be a little bit guarded on what I say. But
8:20
Speaker 1: Tim showed up for what they called a bit acceptance night,
8:23
Speaker 1: and they ran a drinking obstacle course where they forced
8:28
Speaker 1: the pledges to drink massive amounts of alcohol. Tim had
8:32
Speaker 1: eighteen drinks in less than an hour and a half
8:35
Speaker 1: that they saw on video. I don't know if there
8:38
Speaker 1: was more than that. And during the course of the night,
8:41
Speaker 1: he also fell down a flight of fifteen steps and
8:44
Speaker 1: they threw him on a couch. I mean, he had
8:46
Speaker 1: enough alcohol to die from alcohol poisoning, but they threw
8:48
Speaker 1: him down an account. He had subdural hematoba in his head,
8:53
Speaker 1: He had a spleen injury. And you know, they waited
8:57
Speaker 1: fourteen hours or so before they he was he was
9:01
Speaker 1: pretty much dead when when they found them he was.
9:05
Speaker 1: He did stay alive long enough for us to get
9:07
Speaker 1: to him in the hospital that he passed shortly thereafter.
9:10
Speaker 1: I know what you're doing. I know what you are doing, Jim,
9:15
Speaker 1: because I do it when I talk about the murder
9:17
Speaker 1: of my fiancee. You recite the facts and don't think
9:23
Speaker 1: about them, because sometimes that's the only way you can
9:28
Speaker 1: get through it. The way you just recited what happened
9:32
Speaker 1: to your boy? Yeah, and it keeps happening to other
9:36
Speaker 1: young men and women, and it's it's it's got to stop.
9:39
Speaker 1: But it's not stopping. We keep saying it's got to stop.
9:42
Speaker 1: It's got to stop. It's like a broken record, it's
9:45
Speaker 1: not stopping. Time Stories with Nancy Grace, Mark Slavitt joining
10:01
Speaker 1: me TV nshpor KRCGTV thirteen. What happened this time? Mark?
10:07
Speaker 1: What happened is something that should have never happened in
10:10
Speaker 1: the first place. Here in Columbia, we have the University
10:13
Speaker 1: of Missouri. It's one of the biggest schools in the state.
10:16
Speaker 1: There's thirty one thousand students here. The school offers three
10:21
Speaker 1: hundred degree programs, so we get students from all over
10:25
Speaker 1: the world here. And we have this Greek town where
10:30
Speaker 1: they have all the fraternities and sororities, which is pretty
10:33
Speaker 1: common for our university campus. And at five Gamma Delta,
10:36
Speaker 1: they had a party that they should have never had
10:39
Speaker 1: and there was surveillance video there. The Universe University has
10:45
Speaker 1: its own police department. They patrol around and somehow this
10:49
Speaker 1: party just got out of control and Danny was the
10:53
Speaker 1: one who was the one that was the victim here. Okay,
10:57
Speaker 1: I hear what you're saying, Mark Slavitt, and no offense
11:02
Speaker 1: because you're a heck of an investigative reporter. I know
11:07
Speaker 1: your reputation, but I don't like anything you just said.
11:10
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you why. Okay, parties don't get out
11:14
Speaker 1: of control. Someone allows that, or facilitates or enables that
11:21
Speaker 1: if a party gets out of control. You said this
11:24
Speaker 1: was a party that should not have happened. Why should
11:27
Speaker 1: it not have happened? You say that there is a
11:31
Speaker 1: campus police force that were patrolling. They didn't notice the
11:35
Speaker 1: party getting out of control. Is Greektown on the campus,
11:40
Speaker 1: because if it is, they should have been there. What happened?
11:43
Speaker 1: That's a good question. And the we've talked to university officials,
11:48
Speaker 1: we talked to the police department. They're not giving us
11:51
Speaker 1: too much information or somebody's lying because if they were
11:54
Speaker 1: on patrol and doing their job, they would have seen
11:57
Speaker 1: a party out of control. Mark Slavitt, again, I don't
12:01
Speaker 1: want to kill the messenger, which is you, Mark Slavitt,
12:04
Speaker 1: joining us from KRCGTV thirteen. I mean David Bianci build
12:09
Speaker 1: as the as America's leading hazing lawyer, the Santully family attorney.
12:16
Speaker 1: When Mark Slavitt correctly reports the party was out of control,
12:20
Speaker 1: what does that mean? This chapter was sanctioned by the
12:25
Speaker 1: University of Missouri thirteen days before this happened to Danny Santoulli,
12:31
Speaker 1: and they were sanctioned for alcohol and hazing violations by
12:35
Speaker 1: the university. After they received the letter from the university
12:39
Speaker 1: with the sanctions that were to extend into the year
12:43
Speaker 1: two and twenty two, they went immediately to work planning,
12:48
Speaker 1: pledged out reveal night that so horribly injured Danny Santulli.
12:53
Speaker 1: They just completely ignored the sanctions that were in place.
12:57
Speaker 1: And to give me five seconds more, this was the
13:01
Speaker 1: second set of sanctions imposed on this chapter, because seven
13:04
Speaker 1: months earlier they were sanctioned for alcohol violations as well,
13:08
Speaker 1: and those sanctions were to extend into the year two
13:12
Speaker 1: and twenty two. So they were on bubble sanctions when
13:15
Speaker 1: they did this, and they could have cared less about
13:18
Speaker 1: any of it. And this was not a party that
13:21
Speaker 1: somehow got out of control. It was planned to be
13:25
Speaker 1: out of control. And I have to stick up for
13:27
Speaker 1: the university police here because you cannot expect the university
13:32
Speaker 1: police to be babysitting. This event took place in the
13:36
Speaker 1: basement of the front house. There's no way anybody driving
13:40
Speaker 1: by would have known it was going on. And after
13:42
Speaker 1: it was in the basement, it moved up inside of
13:44
Speaker 1: the house. It was never outside. Well, if it's out
13:46
Speaker 1: of control, see to me, I think of animal house
13:50
Speaker 1: for the party spilling out on the lawn and everybody's
13:53
Speaker 1: going crazy and it's loud. What do you mean how
13:56
Speaker 1: can it be out of control and you can't tell
13:58
Speaker 1: from the outside. I mean, I think of a boombox
14:01
Speaker 1: blaring and people lying on the front lawn with paper
14:05
Speaker 1: cups everywhere. So how is it out of control but
14:08
Speaker 1: you couldn't see it from the outside. This is doctor Libkins,
14:11
Speaker 1: and I am an hazing expert, and I think what
14:15
Speaker 1: you should understand is the kind of night that happened
14:18
Speaker 1: where the new member gets anointed and connected with his father.
14:25
Speaker 1: They used the terms father and son and all the
14:29
Speaker 1: brothers in the fraternity. This is part of the ritual
14:33
Speaker 1: that happens every semester every year across the country. So
14:37
Speaker 1: it's not just planned thirteen days in advance, it's planned
14:41
Speaker 1: every year. They know this is going to happen. It
14:45
Speaker 1: doesn't happen everywhere. Every time I think, David Bianchi, it's
14:51
Speaker 1: much more prevalent among fraternities than sorority. Is that true? Yeah, yeah,
14:57
Speaker 1: it is true. Unquestionably it's true. And you need to
15:00
Speaker 1: understand that this particular event, the whole focus of the event,
15:06
Speaker 1: is built around alcohol. They literally had a truck deliver
15:09
Speaker 1: alcohol to the frat house for this event, and it's
15:12
Speaker 1: the identical event. If you go back a few years
15:15
Speaker 1: to Florida State, Andrew Coffee died at a pledge Dad
15:19
Speaker 1: of Revealed night at Florida State four years ago in
15:22
Speaker 1: an identical event to what happened to Danny Santoulli. And
15:27
Speaker 1: Andrew Coffee, just like Danny was placed on a couch
15:29
Speaker 1: at two in the morning after he was very very drunk,
15:32
Speaker 1: and they didn't call nine one one, and when they
15:35
Speaker 1: came back at eight o'clock the next morning, he was
15:38
Speaker 1: in the exact same position, but he was dead. And
15:41
Speaker 1: everything about what happened at FSU with Coffee is identical
15:45
Speaker 1: to what happened with Danny Santulli. These are themed traditions
15:50
Speaker 1: that are perpetuated year after year after year, and it's
15:53
Speaker 1: all about alcohol. Jim Piazza, your wife actually spoke to
15:59
Speaker 1: Missouri happened. Yeah, So you know, we've been traveling the
16:02
Speaker 1: country speaking to universities, and she was actually at Missouri
16:05
Speaker 1: and these students that partook in this event were there
16:09
Speaker 1: at the university at that time. She spoke to six
16:12
Speaker 1: thousand students about Tim's situation and anti hazing and what
16:17
Speaker 1: it has done to our family, and you know, the
16:21
Speaker 1: criminal aspects of it. And you know, these folks, some
16:24
Speaker 1: of them had to be there and they did this anyway.
16:27
Speaker 1: As David said, these are planned events. These are planned
16:30
Speaker 1: events in their criminal Take a listen to our friends
16:33
Speaker 1: at Fox nine. He had a great life, he was motivated,
16:38
Speaker 1: and in the blank of an eye, it's all gone.
16:42
Speaker 1: Lawyer David Biyankee outlined the more than fifty page lawsuit
16:46
Speaker 1: Danny Santutley's family filed, accusing the fraternity he was pledging
16:50
Speaker 1: to of dangerous hazing. According to the lawsuit, on October nineteenth,
16:54
Speaker 1: Danny was told he needed to participate in a fraternity
16:57
Speaker 1: pledging tradition, which included consooming an entire bottle of vodka.
17:03
Speaker 1: The lawsuit alleges Danny participated but when he started getting
17:06
Speaker 1: drunk and tried to stop, he was told to keep going.
17:09
Speaker 1: Hours later, some members of the fraternity found him unresponsive
17:13
Speaker 1: inside the frat house. His skin was pale and his
17:15
Speaker 1: lips were blue. Instead of calling for help, they allegedly
17:18
Speaker 1: drove him to the hospital, where staff found him not
17:21
Speaker 1: breathing and in cardiac arrest. He was rushed to the
17:24
Speaker 1: ICU and put on a ventilator. His blood alcohol level
17:27
Speaker 1: at the time was point four six eight percent, nearly
17:31
Speaker 1: six times the legal limit. To talk to Michelle Duprey,
17:35
Speaker 1: phrasic pathologist for a medical examiner and author of Homicide
17:40
Speaker 1: Investigation Field Guide. What does that mean when your lips
17:44
Speaker 1: have actually turned blue? Nancy, That's something that in medical
17:47
Speaker 1: terms would call cionosis, which means that it is bluing.
17:50
Speaker 1: It means that you have my what did you say?
17:52
Speaker 1: You call it? What? Cionosis? Okay? And it means that
17:56
Speaker 1: you're not getting oxygen and in this case, you're not
17:58
Speaker 1: getting blood or oxygen too areas, and that's a sign
18:02
Speaker 1: that you're seeing. Asked, your central nervous system is very depressed,
18:06
Speaker 1: so you're actually not breathing. That's why your lips turn blue.
18:08
Speaker 1: Is that what you're saying. Or oxygen's not getting to
18:10
Speaker 1: your system. You're not breathing enough to perfuse your body parts,
18:15
Speaker 1: so they're going to turn blue from lack of oxygen.
18:18
Speaker 1: Back to Mark Sliman joining me, k RCG. Bianchi defended
18:22
Speaker 1: the campus police, and I get it because this was
18:25
Speaker 1: in the basement and within the house and they couldn't
18:28
Speaker 1: see what was happening. The party shouldn't have happened because
18:32
Speaker 1: Figama Delta, according to David Biancie, had already been reprimanded
18:37
Speaker 1: and sanctioned twice, including about two weeks before this fatal party. Okay,
18:44
Speaker 1: got it. Now, I understand why you're saying that seven
18:47
Speaker 1: months earlier they were they violated some of the rules
18:51
Speaker 1: on campus. So seven months and then about fourteen days
18:56
Speaker 1: before the party, isn't that right, David Bianki Yeah, Yeah,
19:00
Speaker 1: that's correct, Yes, that's correctly. They were. They were. They
19:05
Speaker 1: were sanctioned for the second time thirteen days before October
19:09
Speaker 1: nineteenth when this happened. To Danny Santos, the bottom line,
19:12
Speaker 1: a lot of good that did go ahead, Mark Slavitt, Yeah,
19:14
Speaker 1: and then just to add to that, the university suspended
19:18
Speaker 1: all fraternity activities for a while too. For a while, Yeah,
19:22
Speaker 1: what do you mean? For a while? That was like
19:24
Speaker 1: it was a temporary thing. I was going to say,
19:26
Speaker 1: it didn't last that long. I don't think the the
19:29
Speaker 1: suspension of all fraternity activities. Why is this happening? They
19:33
Speaker 1: it's like this slap on the wrist. It's like I
19:35
Speaker 1: sit in the corner and then come right back in
19:38
Speaker 1: and do the same thing again. I don't I don't
19:40
Speaker 1: understand that. But Mark Slavitt tell me how the evening progressed.
19:43
Speaker 1: The latest thing that's going on right now is David
19:46
Speaker 1: added two more defendants in the civil lawsuite, and one
19:49
Speaker 1: of them is a guy named Whatsler, Alex Whattsler, and
19:54
Speaker 1: he's going to be charged with a criminal offense. And
19:58
Speaker 1: he's the one that this is where, this is where
20:01
Speaker 1: the crucial part of the whole night happened. Wetslock took
20:04
Speaker 1: a tube with a funnel attached to it. He sticks
20:08
Speaker 1: the tube in Danny's mouth and then Danny is forced
20:11
Speaker 1: to drink the vodka. And then after he does that,
20:14
Speaker 1: he pours a bunch of beer down his throat at
20:16
Speaker 1: the same time. So that is the key of the
20:20
Speaker 1: whole night, and I'm guessing that has caught on surveillance video.
20:23
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friend, Lucas Geisler k m
20:27
Speaker 1: I z Boone County prosecutors charged Alec Wetzler today with
20:32
Speaker 1: supplying liquor to a minor. Here are the new details
20:35
Speaker 1: that we got from charging documents today. University of Missouri
20:39
Speaker 1: police say Alec Wetzler was one of several members of
20:42
Speaker 1: Fiji that forced prospective members to drink on October nineteenth.
20:46
Speaker 1: That included Danny Santoli, an eighteen year old that remains
20:49
Speaker 1: hospitalized to this day because of his alcohol poisoning. Security
20:52
Speaker 1: footage police looked at allegedly shows thirty five shirtless people
20:57
Speaker 1: walk through the Fiji house. Police say other members pour
21:00
Speaker 1: beer on them, trip them, and hit them with a box.
21:03
Speaker 1: Each of the perspective members had alcohol taped to their hands.
21:06
Speaker 1: To police say, Wetsler gave Santouli and others beer box
21:10
Speaker 1: throughout the event. So let me understand this to you
21:14
Speaker 1: a family lawyer or David Biancie, the alcohol was literally
21:18
Speaker 1: taped to his body. That's correct. They got all these
21:25
Speaker 1: pledges to come to the fraternity house. They all had
21:28
Speaker 1: to take off their shirts. They then were all blindfolded.
21:32
Speaker 1: This is all on video. You don't have to trust
21:34
Speaker 1: what I'm telling you. It's all un surveillance video. They
21:37
Speaker 1: then paraded them down into the basement and down there
21:40
Speaker 1: they met their play dad and they removed their blindfolds.
21:43
Speaker 1: They were given their bottle, their family bottle alcohol. Many
21:46
Speaker 1: of them then had the bottle taped to their hand.
21:50
Speaker 1: They then paraded upstairs with the bottle taped to their
21:52
Speaker 1: hand and then started to drink with the alcohol that
21:55
Speaker 1: was spread out around the house. So they had to
21:58
Speaker 1: drink the family bottle plus what our else was provided
22:01
Speaker 1: in the common areas of the fredhouse. To doctor Susan Lukens,
22:04
Speaker 1: joining US psychologist at hazing expert, author of Preventing hazing,
22:09
Speaker 1: and you can find her at inside hazing dot com.
22:13
Speaker 1: You know, doctor Lukens, I'm frustrated and angry that it's
22:18
Speaker 1: called hazing because that sounds so it's a euphemism. It's
22:24
Speaker 1: airbrushing the truth of what this is. I'm about to
22:27
Speaker 1: have doctor Dufree explain what happens to your body when
22:29
Speaker 1: you die of alcohol poisoning or in this case, when
22:33
Speaker 1: you go brain dead or brain damage because of alcohol poisoning.
22:37
Speaker 1: But to just call it hazing, I think it should
22:40
Speaker 1: be called what it is, it's aggravated assault. I agree
22:43
Speaker 1: with you, you know, I think it's not right that
22:46
Speaker 1: we send our kids to college and they come home
22:49
Speaker 1: named and did. But this is part of a culture
22:53
Speaker 1: and a ritual that Americans and actually people throughout the
22:57
Speaker 1: world have accepted. And I can tell you that nobody
23:02
Speaker 1: really wants to change their behavior. They want to maintain
23:05
Speaker 1: the sas quo. And part of it is because they
23:07
Speaker 1: always think that they're going to be okay and their
23:09
Speaker 1: kid's going to be okay, and they look the other way.
23:12
Speaker 1: And the code of silence exists, which allows the members
23:18
Speaker 1: of any of the fraternities to feel as if they
23:21
Speaker 1: will be protected because nobody will tell the truth. And
23:24
Speaker 1: even you can see in this case, even when you
23:27
Speaker 1: have surveillance video, when you have all of this testimony,
23:31
Speaker 1: it's still the beat goes on and the behavior doesn't change.
23:36
Speaker 1: To Mona Ka joining us private investigator at Mona K Investigations.
23:41
Speaker 1: You can find her on Twitter at Monaka Mona. It's
23:44
Speaker 1: great to have you with us. You just heard and
23:47
Speaker 1: I believe doctor Lepkins is correct. About a code of
23:50
Speaker 1: silence amongst fraternity brothers. They won't tell what happened. How
23:55
Speaker 1: do you crack that as an investigator? Well, first of all,
23:59
Speaker 1: I'd like to tell Jim you have my condolences to
24:03
Speaker 1: you and your family. I can't even imagine what you've
24:06
Speaker 1: all have gone through. I'm getting ready to send my
24:08
Speaker 1: daughter off to college this fall, and this is just this.
24:13
Speaker 1: You know, this tradition is just awful and it needs
24:17
Speaker 1: to end. And it just seems to me, until you know,
24:21
Speaker 1: criminal charges are actually brought against these these people, it's
24:25
Speaker 1: not going to stop because there aren't consequences. I agree,
24:28
Speaker 1: And what consequences there are, they're so mild. I know. Really,
24:33
Speaker 1: they got suspended, the fraternity got suspended from campus. That's it. Yeah,
24:38
Speaker 1: that's it. That's insane because very often they can crop
24:42
Speaker 1: up again out off campus and the same thing will
24:45
Speaker 1: happen over and over. But again, back to my question, Moniquet,
24:49
Speaker 1: how as an investigator do you crack people like these
24:54
Speaker 1: fraternity brothers that won't cough up the truth? I would
25:00
Speaker 1: the only way I can think of doing it is
25:02
Speaker 1: to charge those appropriately appropriate to be charged with a crime.
25:08
Speaker 1: Then call the others in as witnesses and if they
25:10
Speaker 1: won't talk, hold them in contempt. I would not have
25:13
Speaker 1: any problem doing that. No, exactly, they need to you know,
25:16
Speaker 1: first of all, they need to separate everybody, get statements,
25:20
Speaker 1: get accountability, gets you know, statements from every single person
25:25
Speaker 1: there that was invited, that's been there in the past,
25:28
Speaker 1: and you know, use their words against these people and
25:32
Speaker 1: to criminally charge charge those involved. You're right, we saw
25:37
Speaker 1: you was just an example in the job and a
25:39
Speaker 1: Ramsey case. And now all these years later, we're still
25:41
Speaker 1: talking about why witnesses were not separated at the time
25:45
Speaker 1: and question individually has tried and true police technique. It
25:51
Speaker 1: wasn't done then. I don't know if it was done now.
25:53
Speaker 1: David Bianchi, before I go to doctor Dupree about alcohol
25:58
Speaker 1: poisoning and death, explained in me the sequence of events
26:02
Speaker 1: that night. Now we've made it from the basement up
26:05
Speaker 1: to the upper floor where the alcohol pure alcohol is
26:09
Speaker 1: actually taped to their body. We know surveillance shows it
26:13
Speaker 1: they were being hit with objects. But what happened, what
26:18
Speaker 1: happened to Danny sent Ulli after that, after they all
26:23
Speaker 1: came upstairs and you can watch it on video, and
26:26
Speaker 1: they all have their family bottles in their hand. They
26:30
Speaker 1: are then milling around and they then sort of go
26:35
Speaker 1: out to the courtyard of the fraternity house and they're
26:39
Speaker 1: standing around drinking and Danny's got the bottle of the
26:43
Speaker 1: vodka in his hand and he keeps drinking from it,
26:46
Speaker 1: and occasionally PRAP members would come up to him hold
26:49
Speaker 1: the bottle up to get some light behind it, because
26:52
Speaker 1: they wanted to make sure that he was consuming it
26:54
Speaker 1: and that the amount and the bottle was going down.
26:56
Speaker 1: And you can see the fraternity members doing that. Then
26:59
Speaker 1: they handed back to him and he would continue to drink.
27:02
Speaker 1: And it was in the middle of that that Wetser
27:06
Speaker 1: comes along, puts a tube in his mouth with a
27:07
Speaker 1: funnel pour his beer down his throat. After he had
27:09
Speaker 1: consumed about half the bottle of alcohol. And approximately twenty
27:13
Speaker 1: minutes later, while Danny is still out in the courtyard
27:16
Speaker 1: with maybe a hundred pledges and trapped members, you can
27:21
Speaker 1: see Danny start to wobble and then he collapses. You
27:24
Speaker 1: see him fall backwards over a piece of furniture and
27:27
Speaker 1: onto the ground. They then pick him up, they carry
27:31
Speaker 1: him into the house and they put him in a
27:33
Speaker 1: TV room where they have couches, and a couple of
27:36
Speaker 1: guys bring him in and they PLoP them down on
27:38
Speaker 1: the couch and he's still alive. He's moving around, but
27:43
Speaker 1: you can tell he's in distress. And then some more
27:46
Speaker 1: people come in later in the evening. There are four
27:50
Speaker 1: pledges totally collapsed on couches in that room. It's like
27:54
Speaker 1: a holding cell for people who are near dead. And
27:57
Speaker 1: then they abandoned him, and we know exactly when that
28:02
Speaker 1: happened because the surveillance video is timestamped. So now Danny
28:06
Speaker 1: has totally left alone. He's now flat on the couch.
28:09
Speaker 1: He slides off the couch with his face planted on
28:12
Speaker 1: the floor and his feet on the couch, and he's
28:15
Speaker 1: not moving at all. Somebody comes walking through the room,
28:19
Speaker 1: sees him, picks him up, froze him back on the couch,
28:22
Speaker 1: and they don't do anything else. And then later somebody
28:26
Speaker 1: else comes in and they see that he's unresponsive on
28:30
Speaker 1: the couch and they think, oh my god, maybe he's dead,
28:33
Speaker 1: and they go to pick him up, and he's having
28:35
Speaker 1: a hard time picking Danny up, so they get some
28:37
Speaker 1: big guy to pick him up and they scoop him
28:41
Speaker 1: up off the couch and they're not going to call
28:42
Speaker 1: nine one, but they have another fat member, one of
28:45
Speaker 1: the officers, who has a car and says, I'll drive
28:47
Speaker 1: him to the hospital. So they take him down the
28:50
Speaker 1: hallway to the exit door, all on video, and they're
28:53
Speaker 1: holding him upside down, if you can picture such a thing.
28:56
Speaker 1: And as they're getting to the exit door, they drop
28:58
Speaker 1: him on his head and then they have to get
29:01
Speaker 1: him back up again and they carry him outside, put
29:03
Speaker 1: him in the car. He's now technically dead. They get
29:07
Speaker 1: him over to the hospital to the ar somebody comes
29:11
Speaker 1: running out from the ear. They do CPR and there
29:13
Speaker 1: Westart his heart. What do you mean he was technically dead? Well, yeah,
29:17
Speaker 1: don't heart people. Doctor Michelle Dupree, explain to me what
29:22
Speaker 1: happened to Danny's system, his body. Nancy, this is it's
29:28
Speaker 1: just atrocious. I can't think of another word to describe this.
29:32
Speaker 1: But alcohol is a CNS depressant, so it depresses your
29:35
Speaker 1: whole central nervous system. Your breathing is decreased, and we
29:39
Speaker 1: talked about the lack of oxygen. Your temperatures goes down,
29:42
Speaker 1: you certainly lose consciousness. Things that can happen when you're
29:45
Speaker 1: in that state, you can have seizures, you can vomit,
29:48
Speaker 1: and you can aspirate. You need to be in a
29:51
Speaker 1: position where if you do vomit, you're not going to
29:54
Speaker 1: swallow that or inhale that, and that goes into your lungs.
29:57
Speaker 1: Alcohol has absorbed very quickly into the body. It's the
30:01
Speaker 1: removal of alcohol is much slower. And so while this
30:05
Speaker 1: is going on, your gag reflex is actually inhibited, which
30:08
Speaker 1: means that it doesn't work properly, and you begin to
30:12
Speaker 1: have respiratory distress, which I think was evidenced by the
30:15
Speaker 1: account that we just heard, not putting him in the
30:19
Speaker 1: proper position, not getting him medical care you know, when
30:21
Speaker 1: he needed it, when he's in such distress. Now all
30:24
Speaker 1: this is just it's unforgettable. Trying to make sense of
30:27
Speaker 1: what you just said with me is a renowned pathologist,
30:31
Speaker 1: doctor Michelle Dupree. So when we hear alcohol poisoning, is
30:38
Speaker 1: your system actually poisoned or is it that you your
30:42
Speaker 1: central nervous system is so depressed that you don't breathe,
30:47
Speaker 1: you lose your gag reflex, the air doesn't get oxygen
30:51
Speaker 1: doesn't get to your body, or lips turn blue and
30:53
Speaker 1: you die. Which are you actually poisoned or do you
30:57
Speaker 1: just have such a depressed like an for Dosa pills
31:01
Speaker 1: your body just quits working well. Essentially, it is the
31:05
Speaker 1: same thing. It is toxic, It is detrimental, It is
31:08
Speaker 1: harmful to the body. It is a poison when you
31:11
Speaker 1: have too much of it. And because you are poisoned,
31:14
Speaker 1: all of those things happen to the body, that extraordinary
31:18
Speaker 1: depression of the respiratory system and all of that that follows.
31:21
Speaker 1: So yes, it is toxic. It is poisoned to the body.
31:24
Speaker 1: In that large amount crime stories with Nancy Grace, the
31:44
Speaker 1: condition of Danny Sintulo is so distressing, permanent brain damage.
31:51
Speaker 1: He can't see. Why is that data debris? Why can't
31:54
Speaker 1: he see? And he again he can't see because the
31:57
Speaker 1: blood is not getting to his eyes. Was opsing nerve
32:01
Speaker 1: again through that central nervous system depression that can cause blindness,
32:05
Speaker 1: as if when you have a stroke. It's the same
32:07
Speaker 1: kind of effect. Guys, take a listen to our cut five.
32:11
Speaker 1: Samantha Jones Kamov, Danny Zantouli's family lawyer, says he had
32:16
Speaker 1: a bright future. He was a wonderful young man, it's
32:19
Speaker 1: a future that was almost cut short. For some reason,
32:23
Speaker 1: these things always seem to happen to the best kids,
32:26
Speaker 1: and I don't understand why. The freshly filed fifty two
32:30
Speaker 1: page lawsuit details the night last October when Danny, a
32:34
Speaker 1: pledge of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at the University
32:37
Speaker 1: of Missouri, was allegedly told to drink an entire bottle
32:41
Speaker 1: of vodka during an event. Hours later, fraternity members took
32:44
Speaker 1: him to the hospital, where he was resuscitated and placed
32:47
Speaker 1: on a ventilator unconscious. His blood alcohol level nearly six
32:52
Speaker 1: times the legal limit. He needs twenty four hour care.
32:55
Speaker 1: He can never be left alone. And that's the kind
32:57
Speaker 1: of care he's getting right now. He's going to need
33:00
Speaker 1: rebilitation care forever. Rehabilitation care forever, twenty four hour care.
33:09
Speaker 1: He can never be left alone. David Bianchi, what do
33:14
Speaker 1: you mean by that, Well, he's absolutely incapable of doing
33:17
Speaker 1: anything for himself. So somebody has to be there to
33:20
Speaker 1: make sure that he doesn't aspirate while he's in the bed.
33:26
Speaker 1: He's got to be cleaned multiple times a day. He
33:30
Speaker 1: has to be fed, he has to be groomed. As
33:33
Speaker 1: they try to stimulate him in various ways. They try
33:37
Speaker 1: to massage him. He's got to make sure that he
33:39
Speaker 1: doesn't get bed sores. He has to be rolled over
33:41
Speaker 1: to whose skin can be checked. This is a full
33:44
Speaker 1: time job, twenty four hours a day, and missus Santoulli
33:48
Speaker 1: has decided to devote herself to this, and she quit
33:51
Speaker 1: her job as an executive with a bank so that
33:54
Speaker 1: she can personally do it. Because while they now have
33:58
Speaker 1: the funds to hire whoever they need to hire, she
34:01
Speaker 1: thinks that this should be done by her, along with
34:04
Speaker 1: the help of the family. And that's what she's going
34:06
Speaker 1: to do. As you just heard from Jim Piazza, the
34:10
Speaker 1: father of Timothy Piazza, who lost his life in a
34:13
Speaker 1: hazing incident. That's what it's called. It's certainly not the
34:18
Speaker 1: first time. And without charging these guys with a crime
34:26
Speaker 1: and banning their fraternity from campus forever permanently, I don't
34:32
Speaker 1: see how anything is going to change. Jim, Well, I
34:36
Speaker 1: think a way it's going to change is if law
34:38
Speaker 1: enforcement really does its job. So people need to be charged.
34:43
Speaker 1: The judges need to let those charges stick. It needs
34:46
Speaker 1: to get in front of the jury. The juries need
34:48
Speaker 1: to do those jobs. Their jobs, and then the judges
34:51
Speaker 1: need to properly sentence when these people are found. I
34:55
Speaker 1: agree with the comment earlier this term hazing is kind
34:58
Speaker 1: of it's a very elane term. I believe in Missouri
35:01
Speaker 1: has a pretty strong hazing law, and it's a felony.
35:05
Speaker 1: As somebody is seriously injured. Why isn't that being charged.
35:08
Speaker 1: Why isn't that felony being charged? What about it? David Biancy?
35:11
Speaker 1: Why not? Oh, that's the best question of the whole
35:14
Speaker 1: program here. I agree without one hundred percent. We have
35:17
Speaker 1: been asking repeatedly for the prosecutor to file these hazing charges.
35:23
Speaker 1: It's such an obvious hazing case. It should have been
35:26
Speaker 1: done many, many months ago. It is mystifying as to
35:29
Speaker 1: why they're refusing to enforce the law. If you're a
35:31
Speaker 1: prosecutor and you refuse to enforce the law, you shouldn't
35:35
Speaker 1: be a prosecutor. That law is on the books, and
35:38
Speaker 1: somebody needs to dig into what's going on behind the
35:40
Speaker 1: scenes as to why they were refusing to enforce this law. David,
35:44
Speaker 1: there's a new twist here in Columbia with the prosecutor too.
35:48
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've heard. Yeah, yeah, I'm familiar
35:51
Speaker 1: with that, right, I'm not telling me. Well, Saturday morning,
35:55
Speaker 1: police found our prosecutor dead in his house with a
35:59
Speaker 1: gunshot wound, and the way they would not say it
36:02
Speaker 1: was a suicide. They said it was there is no
36:06
Speaker 1: foul playing involved. And so now our prosecutor has died
36:10
Speaker 1: and we have an interim prosecutor appointed now and they
36:14
Speaker 1: performed him an autopsy on the prosecutor Tuesday, and they
36:18
Speaker 1: is still not confirmed whether it was a suicide or not.
36:21
Speaker 1: But the police chief told me he said he believes
36:24
Speaker 1: no one else was involved. So the prosecutor that was
36:26
Speaker 1: handling Danny Santouli's case is no longer with. What does
36:30
Speaker 1: that mean for the case? David Bianchi? It should not
36:33
Speaker 1: mean anything because there's already been someone appointed to take
36:38
Speaker 1: his place, and there are other prosecutors in the office.
36:40
Speaker 1: There are assistant district attorneys exactly. Guys, Again, this is
36:45
Speaker 1: not the first time that this has happened. Take a
36:48
Speaker 1: listen to our cut thirteen. Does the name stone faults
36:53
Speaker 1: ring about? Because I will never forget the name. The
36:56
Speaker 1: one that we know is nonresponsive ajink alcohol, a lot
37:00
Speaker 1: of alcohol. So where is he at um? Where how
37:05
Speaker 1: old is your friend. Uh, he's twenty twenty okay, And
37:10
Speaker 1: what's he doing right now? Um? He's laying down on
37:13
Speaker 1: his side and his ears are his face is really purple,
37:17
Speaker 1: and his people aren't responsive. Okay. Is he breathing? Yeah,
37:24
Speaker 1: he's breathing, but j really shallow and he's been drinking,
37:30
Speaker 1: he said, yeah, okay. Is he taking anything else we
37:35
Speaker 1: need to know about? No? What's your name? Okay? Can pata? Okay?
37:42
Speaker 1: Are you positive he's breathing? Um? Yeah, yeah, I'm pally
37:48
Speaker 1: his chest rising up and down. No, don't right now?
37:52
Speaker 1: What happened to Stone Vaults? Take a listen Our cut
37:55
Speaker 1: fourteen Our Friends at NBC four. According to the families
37:59
Speaker 1: a turn Rex Elliott. At nine o'clock that night, Stone
38:02
Speaker 1: was blindfolded, put in a basement, and told to drink
38:06
Speaker 1: a bottle of alcohol before he could leave. By ten thirty,
38:09
Speaker 1: members of the fraternity dropped him off at his apartment,
38:12
Speaker 1: leaving him unresponsive and alone. Those brothers that said they
38:16
Speaker 1: were going to be there with Stone who were not,
38:20
Speaker 1: so he was left alone after he began turning blue,
38:24
Speaker 1: much the same as the case with Danny Sintuli that
38:27
Speaker 1: we're covering right now, and take a listen to our
38:29
Speaker 1: cut seventeen, Dan Harris, ABC News the horror that played
38:35
Speaker 1: out inside a frat house at Penn State University as
38:38
Speaker 1: a nineteen year old lay dying after a night of
38:41
Speaker 1: alcohol fueled hazing. The fraternity brothers allegedly did little to help. Instead,
38:47
Speaker 1: their concern was reportedly how to cover it all up.
38:50
Speaker 1: Tonight we hear from the one student who says he
38:53
Speaker 1: tried to help that actually lost it. I was like,
38:57
Speaker 1: I was screaming and yelling. I was saying, we need
38:59
Speaker 1: to even to the hospital. We should call an ambulance.
39:02
Speaker 1: Style nine. One one one those plays fell on deaf ears.
39:08
Speaker 1: Another young man died and with us today is his father,
39:13
Speaker 1: Jim Piazza. Jim, how are we going to make a
39:17
Speaker 1: difference again? I think we need law enforcement to step up.
39:21
Speaker 1: Enforcement needs to understand what this is and that the
39:25
Speaker 1: hazing laws we're trying to strengthen across the country. But
39:28
Speaker 1: if they don't, if they don't get enforced, and the
39:31
Speaker 1: sentences aren't aren't proper, it's the message is just not
39:35
Speaker 1: Harrison students, what about it? Susan Lukins, doctor Lukins joining US,
39:39
Speaker 1: author of Preventing Hazing you know, the beat goes on
39:42
Speaker 1: and this just continues over and over. I don't think
39:45
Speaker 1: that it's going to be responded to by just changing laws,
39:52
Speaker 1: because even if the laws are enforced, the kids don't learn.
39:56
Speaker 1: They always think it's not going to be met. I
39:58
Speaker 1: believe that hazing is going to change when the kids
40:00
Speaker 1: themselves say we're not going to do this anymore. We're
40:03
Speaker 1: just not going to participate in. How do we get
40:05
Speaker 1: to that? To Monique, you've investigated similar cases. How do
40:10
Speaker 1: we get to the point where I wouldn't call them kids,
40:14
Speaker 1: you know, they're eighteen through twenty two years old, other
40:19
Speaker 1: than prosecuting them criminally. Well, I agree. I mean maybe,
40:23
Speaker 1: first of all, get rid of the word hazing, call
40:25
Speaker 1: it what it is. Charge these people, any of these
40:29
Speaker 1: this outside of the fraternity. Chances are most of these
40:33
Speaker 1: crimes they would charge them criminally, but because they're in
40:36
Speaker 1: a fraternity, it's categorized differently. I guess, Mark Slavitt, what
40:41
Speaker 1: about it? Is there any move to move to go
40:45
Speaker 1: forward with criminal charges in this case? You sure, Yeah,
40:50
Speaker 1: it's up to Like what we're saying earlier, it's up
40:52
Speaker 1: to the prosecutor. I know it's up to the prosecutor.
40:54
Speaker 1: We know it's up to the prosecutor. Right, have they
40:57
Speaker 1: done anything? Have they called a grand jury? Have they
41:00
Speaker 1: level to charge and they've done anything? Are they investigating
41:02
Speaker 1: it as a crime. They've done it with one person
41:05
Speaker 1: so far, and that's all and it looks like that's
41:08
Speaker 1: all they're going to do. Well. There's also another person
41:11
Speaker 1: named Samuel Gandhi who chose not to help Santuli. That's
41:16
Speaker 1: added to David Bianki's list of defendants. He had twenty
41:20
Speaker 1: three originally settled with those that the two other ones
41:23
Speaker 1: are Wetsler and Gandhi, and Gandhi has not been charged
41:27
Speaker 1: by the prosecutor's office. Season what about a David Bianki
41:30
Speaker 1: Because a money settlement is not gonna work. That's gonna
41:33
Speaker 1: be paid up by some insurance company or the mom
41:37
Speaker 1: and dad will fit the bill I'm talking about. How
41:40
Speaker 1: do we stop this from happening? Final thoughts. We have
41:43
Speaker 1: to aggressively pursue criminal charges to put these guys in jail.
41:47
Speaker 1: In the Andrew Coffee case, we had a wonderful prosecutor
41:51
Speaker 1: in Tallahassee, and within sixty days of Andrew's death, criminal
41:55
Speaker 1: charges were filed thirty days later, the first guy went
41:58
Speaker 1: to jail, ultimately nine the jail. You've got to try
42:01
Speaker 1: that because nothing else works. Can I add something, Jeff Hannes,
42:05
Speaker 1: couldn't this be categrais is premeditated? I mean they keep
42:09
Speaker 1: visa bottles to their hands. Absolutely, We just need a
42:12
Speaker 1: prosecutor with the backbone to do it, to have a
42:18
Speaker 1: serious felony charge and then don't settle it for a
42:23
Speaker 1: cheap plea, go forward and take it to a jury.
42:29
Speaker 1: Timothy Piazza is dead. So many others are dead, beautiful
42:36
Speaker 1: young college students with their life in front of them,
42:40
Speaker 1: their parents devastated. But yet we are not seeing the
42:45
Speaker 1: action necessary to stop this crime. Now as we all
42:52
Speaker 1: go about our days. Danny Sentulli, a teen boy is
42:57
Speaker 1: brain damaged, and these twenty or seven care. What is
43:03
Speaker 1: the district attorney going to do about it? Nancy Grace
43:07
Speaker 1: Crimes story signing offer Goodbye Friend,