BELLEFONTE--The name of Tim Bream, the head athletic trainer at Penn State, cropped up occasionally during preliminary court hearings for 18 fraternity brothers charged in connection with Timothy Piazza's death.

But Bream's role in the case and questions about what he knows derailed a preliminary hearing on Friday and extended the case into September.

Some court-watchers fully expected the preliminary hearing to wrap up on Friday with closing arguments from the 16 defense attorneys. (Two defendants waived their initial hearings.) The preliminary hearing already has spanned five days over two months.

Instead, the judge shut the case down abruptly Friday afternoon when a defense attorney asked Magisterial District Judge Allen Sinclair for a contempt of court order against Bream for allegedly dodging attempts to call him as a witness.

Different defense attorneys have alleged that Bream knew about the fraternity parties in advance, that he signed off on an alcohol-chugging obstacle course for pledges known as the "gauntlet" and that he may have told fraternity members to delete text or social media messages about the night Piazza suffered mortal injuries.

Sinclair agreed to hold a hearing to find out whether Bream was properly served a subpoena and was in contempt of court. Sinclair said he planned to issue subpoenas for both Bream and his attorney, Matthew D'Annunzio, to appear on Aug. 30

The judge said he plans to allow Aug. 30, Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 for questioning of Bream by defense attorneys and the prosecutor as well as closing arguments.

Bream, a Gettysburg native and Penn State graduate came back to his alma mater in 2012 after a lengthy stint as head trainer for the NFL's Chicago Bears. He had been living at the Beta Theta Pi house since August.

Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller took questions from reporters after Friday's hearing and the bulk of them centered on Bream and why he wasn't charged with a crime. Her reasons:

Allegations against him are just "red herrings" by defense attorneys

"They believe Mr. Bream, because he was 58 years old, somehow makes their client not guilty because he was living in the house," Parks Miller told reporters.

"What I've gotten (from defense attorney allegations)... is that there's an older man living in the house, therefore if my client committed any crimes, they should not be allowed to be charged."

But that's not an excuse, Parks Miller said.

"It's just the same old blame game," she said. "All these defense attorneys that want to talk about Mr. Bream and imply things through their questioning: Give us the evidence if your clients have it if Mr. Bream did something different."

Allegations that Bream told members to delete messages are shaky

A grand jury presentment against the 18 defendants contains a text message between Beta brothers Ed Gilmartin to Lars Kenyon that apparently refers to Bream.

Gilmartin told Kenyon to "get rid of the social exec GM," referring to a GroupMe message group.

Kenyon noted that "they still get archived.

"Right," Gilmartin allegedly responded in a text message. "But it's just so people don't get screen shots or anything that could leak to the media. Tim's idea, as a precaution."

Parks Miller said she would need one of the Beta members involved to verify in court that the "Tim" mentioned in the text was indeed Bream. She also would need someone to testify to what "Tim" exactly said and any context since the text message alone represents "hearsay."

While Gilmartin told a police detective that he was referring to Bream, Parks Miller she said it was unlikely the brothers would to take the stand to testify for the prosecution since both brothers are criminally charged in the case.

She also said she would have to prove that Bream's alleged direction was "in anticipation of a police investigation," which she described as a key element in the criminal charge of tampering.

Defense attorneys for students charged with tampering, however, say similar comments made by their clients ended with their clients getting slapped with criminal charges.

Allegation about Bream approving the gauntlet is brand-new

A defense attorney this week alleged that Bream met with the executive board of the Beta house nearly every Sunday night and that he was made aware of every party in advance.

Evan Kelly, the attorney for Craig Heimer, asked a police detective on the stand Thursday whether he knew that Bream had "personally approved the gauntlet."

Parks Miller said that was "the first time I heard it."

The prosecutor has complained that questions by defense attorneys don't equal facts.

There is no "chargeable culpability."

"I know why people have a problem with Bream," Parks Miller said. "He is 58, living in a house where kids are committing crimes. That stinks, but you have to be a participant in some fashion in a crime to be charged and at this point, Mr. Bream was not there participating that night."

She said Bream didn't buy alcohol, contribute to serving alcohol or participate in the gauntlet.

"That's why Mr. Bream was not charged," she said.

There's not enough evidence

"If someone's not charged it's because there not enough competent, believable, reliable evidence to charge them for full responsibility in the death of Tim Piazza," she said.

If more evidence surfaces, and Parks Miller said she's still looking for evidence, then that could change.

"If we uncover it, I'll let you know," she said. "I don't think it's funny that anyone gets away with a crime. If someone in this case is guilty of something, we will be the first one to lodge those charges.

There is no way you can be thinking we have information on Mr. Bream that we're ignoring."

The lack of charges or action by Penn State has disappointed Piazza's parents.

"It's clear that Tim Bream was very involved the evening of the bid night and was very involved in the aftermath," Jim Piazza told PennLive. "There's more for all of us to learn. And I'm extremely disappointed in the university administration and the trustees' failure to take any action whatsoever relative to Tim Bream."

Bream could not be reached for comment.

UPDATE: This article was updated to correct the date that Bream moved into the house.