By Craig Turpin | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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It took 65 pages to detail how, over a span of 12 hours, a 19-year-old from New Jersey fell down a set of stairs, was left on a couch while others debated the seriousness of his injuries, and, tragically, died as a result.

Timothy Piazza, who grew up in Readington Township in Hunterdon County, died on Feb. 4 in a hospital after falling at a Penn State fraternity house on Feb. 2. He was pledging at the Alpha Upsilon chapter house of Beta Theta Pi, and that evening he and 13 others were taking part in a bid acceptance ceremony. It was supposed to be an alcohol-free fraternity, but it wasn’t.

A Pennsylvania grand jury investigation, detailed in the report, showed there was heavy drinking. There was hazing. And, in the morning and days after his fall, evidence of a cover up.

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The fraternity and 18 of its members are facing many charges, including involuntary manslaughter, Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller announced Friday.

Details of all those charged were reported on NJ.com and on its sister site, PennLive.com.

The grand jury concluded that Penn State’s Intra Fraternity Council, including Beta Theta Pi, created an atmosphere where heavy drinking could happen, concluding Piazza’s death “was not simply an unfortunate accident, but was the direct result of encouraged reckless conduct that demonstrated a reckless disregard for human life, or a reckless indifference to the possible consequences of such conduct.”

Parks Miller told PennLive.com that while she could not say if delays in getting Piazza medical help caused his death, the evidence shows that fraternity members recklessly failed to act.

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The report shows 40 people lived at Beta Theta Pi and that, as a dry fraternity, it has a risk manager whose role it is to keep anyone from consuming alcohol at the house, which are private residences not governed by the university. Anyone using alcohol within the house is supposed to be expelled.

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Although Beta Theta Pi is supposed to be a dry fraternity, testimony showed a coordinated effort to purchase alcohol for fraternity events. Michael A. Schiavone, 21, of Yardley, Pa., the fraternity’s risk manager and head of the social committee, collected a total of $1,179.30 for the purchase of alcohol between Jan. 25 and Feb. 2, intended for use during the fraternity’s upcoming recruitment events.

He then wrote a list alcohol to purchase, cases of Crown Rose vodka, Natural Light beer, 15 cases of Four Loko and multiple boxes of wine, giving the list to Craig Heimer, 21, of Port Matilda, Pa., who purchased it from three businesses. At times, Schiavone accompanied him.

Testimony from State College Police Det. David Scicchitano revealed discussions between members about buying alcohol, including one in a chat group titled “we f*** moms.” During the discussion Schiavone writes: “WE ARE THE SLUSH FUND … social dues is the slush fund … We are literally a fund that collects money for booze … What do we need to buy booze wise today”

What follows is a timeline of the events of Feb. 2 and 3, taken from the grand jury report. Those named below were among the young men who appeared for arraignment on Friday. All were later released on bail. Details of their charges can be found here.

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9:06 p.m.

Pledges had been instructed via a text message from “Joe Beta,” identified as Joseph Ems, to wear watches over their yellow rush bands, according to testimony. These bands are used to identify pledges of any fraternity, who are not to be served alcohol during rushing.

On the night Piazza fell, which was bid acceptance night, pledges were told to be at the house at 9:07 p.m. wearing a jacket, a buttoned-down shirt and khakis. The 14 pledges were taken to the basement where they were told to line up in order of height, put their right hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them and walk single file upstairs to the Great Hall where they read from a book and sung songs.

They were then led the same way back to the basement. The pledges had to finish a bottle of vodka between them by passing it back and forth along the line.

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The pledges then took part in a drinking game known as running a gauntlet. Pledges were taken outside to a side entrance and each entered the fraternity house alone, being met by a fraternity member inside at stations.

At the first they had to drink vodka, run down a hallway and shotgun a beer by drinking it quickly through a hole in the side of the can, and then drinking wine at a third station. Beer was poured on the pledges at each station, who then returned to the basement where they had to play beer pong. The gauntlet ended with the pledges doing another beer shotgun.

For the rest of the evening, where the fraternity hosted a social with members of an unnamed sorority, the pledges were encouraged to consume alcohol from a bar and from fraternity members who carried wine for them to drink.

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10:43 p.m.

Lars Kenyon, 19, of Barrington, R.I., is seen on surveillance footage “assisting Timothy Piazza to walk from the area near the basement stairs to a couch in the Great Hall.” Piazza is staggering, while hunched over, “evidently in the care at that moment of Kenyon,” according to the report.

Nicholas Kubera, 19, of Downingtown, Pa., is seen encouraging Piazza to stand up and helps him walk through the dining room, kitchen and then back to the living room. Piazza “is obviously staggering with great difficulty walking,” before being returned to the couch at 10:44 p.m. The report showed Piazza’s blood-alcohol content was likely to have been between up to .36 percent by 11:22 p.m.

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10:45 p.m.

Piazza stands back up and, with no one visible to assist him, staggers toward the lobby in the direction of the front door. He is shown turning around, “severely staggering drunkenly toward the basement steps.” He is seen passing two fraternity members, including Luke Visser, 19, of Encinitas, Calif.

A minute later, Visser, who had run the beer pong station, is seen pointing in an agitated manner in the direction of the basement stairs.

Although the fall is not captured on surveillance video, one fraternity member, who was not charged, testified that when he made his way to the top of the basement stairwell, he saw Piazza lying on his stomach, “face-down at the bottom of the steps.”

His testimony mirrored those of others.

At 11:53 p.m., using GroupMe, an instant messaging system used by the fraternity, the same fraternity members writes, “Also Tim Piazza might actually be a problem. He fell 15 feet down a flight of stairs, hair-first, going to need help.”

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10:47 p.m.

Piazza is seen being carried upstairs by four brothers - including Visser and Jonah Neuman, 19, of Nashville, Tenn.

According to the report, Piazza is limp, his eyes are closed and he appears unconscious. He also has a clear bruise on his abdomen, seen clearly despite his distance from the camera. As the brothers help him onto the couch, another pledge can be seen falling down three stairs from the lobby into the Great Hall area.

One person removes Paizza’s shirt and administers what appears to be a sternum rub. Piazza does not respond. The same person also splashes a liquid on Piazza’s face, but he still doesn’t respond. Another person does the same a short time later.

One person lifts Piazza’s left arm, but it falls back limp. Another, Ryan Foster, 21, of Bedford, Mass., removes Piazza’s shoes and turns him onto his side. Piazza nearly falls off the couch, but his body and reflexes do not seem to respond to the possibility of fall.

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10:55 p.m.

Neuman is seen attaching a backpack to Piazza in what appears to be an attempt to keep him from rolling onto his back in case he vomits, according to the report. Over the next 17 minutes, Foster and Neuman are seen trying to keep Piazza from moving, including sitting on his legs. Neuman is seen crawling over Piazza, from his head to his legs. At one point, the backpack is removed.

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11:14 p.m.

A fraternity member is seen becoming “very animated,” pointing to his head and then at Piazza. He would tell the grand jury that Piazza was thrashing and making “weird movements” on the couch while other fraternity members were holding him down. The member said he told them Piazza needed to go to the hospital, stating at one point he screamed at them to get help. Neuman, in response, shoved the member into a wall and told him to leave.

That member sought out Ed Gilmartin, Beta’s vice president, who is seen walking through the Great Hall at 11:15 p.m. He testified that both Neuman and Gilmartin dismissed his concerns, Gilmartin saying he was “crazy.”

The report also revealed two others during also advocated for calling an ambulance during the evening.

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11:24 p.m.

Daniel Casey, 19, of Ronkonkoma, N.Y., and the fraternity’s pledge master, is seen slapping Piazza three times in the face. At 11:37 p.m. one fraternity member is seen tackling another into the couch, landing on top of Piazza.

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1 a.m.

Piazza does not appear able to “pass out” and fall asleep. In response, fraternity brothers backpack him again.

At 1:48 a.m., Piazza falls off the couch and three people, including Foster and Joseph Ems, 20, of Philadelphia, are seen picking him up. They “slammed” him onto the couch, according to the report. Piazza continues to move around on the couch and Ems, at 1:50 a.m., strikes him hard one time in the abdomen with his open right hand. Ems appeared to be frustrated, according to the report.

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2:38 a.m.

Piazza is seen rolling off the couch and onto the floor. He is seen rolling around with the backpack still attached at 3:16 a.m. He still has no shirt on and his legs are moving.

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3:22 a.m.

Piazza attempts to regain his footing while one person can be seen nearby. The backpack comes off, but Piazza “falls backwards and strikes his head off the hardwood floor.” The other person in the room “attempts to shake him for a moment, but leaves the room.”

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3:49 a.m.

After being curled up on the floor with his knees toward his chest, Piazza is now seen on his knees, holding his abdomen. Over the next hour, he tries to get up several times, but falls on the hardwood floor. At one point, at 4:59 a.m., he is seen falling head first into an iron railing leading up to the second floor, landing on a stone floor.

He tries to get to the front door, but falls head first into it.

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5:15 a.m.

A fraternity member is seen walking downstairs for a drink of water, stepping over to Piazza and looking at him before leaving for the kitchen. He then goes upstairs.

Another member, at 5:26 a.m., also comes down for a drink of water. He also sees Piazza on the floor and tries to walk him back to the Great Hall. But, Piazza falls down three steps. He steps over Piazza and leaves him on the floor.

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6:44 a.m.

Piazza, who has made it back to the Great Hall, is still on the floor. A fellow pledge enters and sits on the couch. He begins to use Snapchat to take pictures of Piazza before leaving the house at 7:12 a.m.

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7:18 a.m.

Piazza is seen staggering toward the basement steps. His is not seen again until three fraternity members are captured on the surveillance video carrying him back upstairs. They had gone to look for him after two others had found his shoes in the Great Hall.

One of those, a pledge, testified that Piazza was found shortly after 10 a.m. in the basement behind the “away bar” on his back, his arms clenched tight at his sides and his hands in the air. He was breathing heavy and had blood on his face. He was cold, his skin pale and his eyes half-open.

Over the next 42 minutes they shook him, tried to prop him up on the couch, covered him with a blanket, wiped his face, attempted to dress him, but did not call 9-1-1, according to the report.

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It was during this time that, according to the report, that some fraternity members Googled Piazza’s symptoms, debated about contacting the fraternity's live-in senior advisor and waited for the fraternity’s president, Brendan Young, to arrive.

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10:48 a.m.

Ryan McCann, 21, of Pittsburgh, calls 9-1-1 for an ambulance. But McCann doesn’t tell the dispatcher Piazza had fallen down a set of stairs or that it occurred the previous night. McCann is one those who tried to help dress Piazza, according to the report.

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Piazza was flown to Hershey Medical Center later that same day. Surgeons, according to the report, discovered nearly 80 percent of his blood was in his abdomen.

They also found bleeding on the brain so severe there that there was no corneal reflex, no gag reflex, no response to painful stimuli, and his pupils were fixed and dilated. Almost half of his right skull was removed to reduce compression on the brain.

However, the injuries were so severe that surgeons did not believe Piazza would survive them. He was pronounced dead at 1:23 a.m. on Feb. 4.

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There was also evidence of attempts to cover up what had happened, according to the report.

Young, it was stated in the report, instructed Casey on Feb. 3 to “(m)ake sure the pledges clean the basement and get rid of any evidence of alcohol.”

On Feb. 4, Young is asked via text if he was told to delete the GroupMe message group, and replies yes. There are also other texts and messages where members are told not to talk about what happened. Investigators were able to recover some, but not all, of the messages, according to the report.

Young, in another text message sent on Feb. 5, writes: “They could get us for giving him alcohol that contributed to his death. Also the guys taking care of him didn’t call an ambulance right away, so they could get in trouble for negligence. I just don’t know what I’m liable for as president.”

The report states on fraternity member, in a deleted text found on his phone that was apparently sent to his pledge, says, "If need be, just tell them what I told you guys, found him behind an away bar the next morning at around 10 a.m., and he was freezing-cold, but we decided to call 911 (sic) instantly, because the kid's health was paramount."

Gilmartin also told police they discussed erasing surveillance video, according to the report. He also said fraternity members were concerned about calling 9-1-1 because they were fearful police would find out about the hazing and underage drinking.

The reported concluded fraternity members "understood that their actions constituted hazing and what the likely consequences would be if discovered."

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In the weeks that followed Piazza’s death, the fraternity was permanently banned from Penn State. “The details alleged in these finding are heart-wrenching and incomprehensible,” Penn State President Eric J. Barron said on Friday, adding the details outlined in the grand jury report are “sickening and difficult to understand.”

Barron said hazing, excessive drinking and sexual assaults are problems found at university’s across the nation, and reiterated the university’s efforts to address them.

“While some have criticized our measures as excessive,” he stated, “they are not. It is essential that all … including these private greek-letter organizations alumni, parents, national organizations … are committed in in order to ensure immediate, vital and sustainable changes.”

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