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No criminal charges will be laid for the mysterious death of a Cornell University freshman whose body was found in a throat after attending a fraternity party that allegedly consisted of seven different rooms for various events in alcohol consumption.
The Cornell University Police Department announced on Monday that a year-long investigation into the death of 18-year-old Antonio Tsialas had produced no evidence of a misdemeanor and was accidental.
“Cornell Police investigators conducted approximately 150 interviews and followed nearly 100 other individual leads in an attempt to determine how and why Tsialas died,” the statement said. “The CUPD has not identified any evidence or reason to suspect foul play at this location, and the death remains an accidental death due to a fall from a height as classified by the medical examiner.
The statement said that instead of evidence, the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office, which is overseeing the case, will not lay any criminal charges in connection with the incident. The Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to the request for comment on Tuesday night when contacted by NBC News.
On the evening of October 26, Tsialas’ corpse was discovered in the gorge of Fall Creek, a natural ravine near the Cornell University campus in upstate New York. Police say Tsialas was last seen two days earlier attending a fraternity party at Phi Kappa Psi fraternity in which freshmen were reportedly intimidated by drinking games .
“The investigation revealed that Tsialas attended and participated in an unregistered and covertly planned recruiting event at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house on the evening of October 24, 2019,” the statement read. “During this event, the fraternity members welcomed Tsialas and other potential new invited members, provided them with alcohol and encouraged them to participate in a variety of drinking games, violating a number of Cornell policies.
The teenager’s death garnered national attention last year and sparked a conversation about hazing practices on college campuses, especially as Tsialas’ parents Tomasello and John Tsialas began to remit publicly questioning the role the Ivy League fraternity and school played in their son’s death.
While Cornell University police did not suspect foul play at the time, the teenager’s parents offered a reward of $ 10,000 to anyone with information about his death and months later sued fraternity, Cornell University and several members of Phi Kappa Psi, alleging negligence and liability of the locals.
NBC News reached out to Phi Kappa Psi’s national organization on Tuesday evening but did not immediately respond.
According to the parents’ lawsuit, on the evening of the fraternal feast, Tsialas had dinner with his mother, who was visiting for the university’s annual parents weekend. He vowed to meet his mother the next morning after leaving her to join other freshmen for a Phi Kappa Psi event, not knowing what it was, according to the lawsuit. After arriving at the chapter house of the fellowship, Tsialas and other first year students were taken to the basement of the house where they were told that no phones, videos or photos would be allowed. Then they were divided into groups and escorted by fellowship members to different rooms in the house, each with their own “planned drinking events,” the costume said. Tsialas was not of legal drinking age at the time of the event.
The lawsuit alleged that there was a room called the “Tropical Room,” in which first-year students had to limbo under a stick while alcohol ran down their throats. In the “Santa Claus Room”, freshmen sat on the lap of someone dressed as Santa Claus, who said if they were mean or nice, determining what kind of alcohol they should drink. “Before leaving Santa’s room, each group received a ‘Christmas present’ consisting of a full bottle of New Amsterdam vodka and told they could not leave the room until they had finished drinking. the whole bottle, ”the costume said.
“The in-room activities focused on a series of drinking events where freshmen were enticed, encouraged and coerced into drinking copious amounts of alcohol,” the costume claimed. “Some time after the drinking games ended, Antonio Tsialas was allowed to leave the fraternity house drunk or was taken from the fraternity house while intoxicated, without that none of the accused made any effort to arrest him or bring him safely back to his dormitory.
“From the moment he was seen at the party and then the space he was discovered on site afterwards, no one has said anything,” John Tsialas told NBC News last year. “Nobody recognized anything. It’s just very confusing, confusing.
After Tsialas’ death, Cornell University revoked the fraternity’s recognition and banned him from operating in the university’s Greek community. In addition, 31 students have been referred to the university by police for their involvement in the case, although the university is not disclosing their identities due to privacy laws, according to Monday’s statement. of the CUPD. A college hazing website said the dismissals resulted in “Cornell suspensions, deferred suspensions, probation, reflection exercises and written reprimands.”
Michael Levine, a lawyer for the Tsialas family, told NBC News in a phone interview on Tuesday that the decision not to lay criminal charges for Tsialas’ death is disappointing.
“New York criminalized hazing. It is the law of the State of New York. Under this law, it is hard to imagine that the facts uncovered by Cornell University PD would not result in criminal charges for hazing, ”Levine said. “So it is very surprising that the district attorney does not press charges against anyone or summons a grand jury.”
Levine said the Tsialas family and Cornell University reached a monetary settlement related to the lawsuit on November 27, although he would not release details. David Bianchi, another lawyer handling the case, said the trial was now “over”.
“One of the goals of this lawsuit is to prevent these types of tragedies from happening again,” Levine said, adding that as part of the settlement, the university has set up a Tsialas Memorial Scholarship at assign to a freshman. year and invited Tsialas’ parents to participate in a hazing prevention week, also in honor of Tsialas.
Cornell University vice president of academic relations Joel Malina did not confirm details of a settlement to NBC News, but said the loss of Tsialas “left an indelible void that continues to unfold. feel on our campus today.
“Our students, teachers and employees who had the pleasure of knowing [Tsialas] talk about the impact he had on their lives, inspiring those of us who never had the chance to meet him, ”said Malina. “He was a remarkable young man who was taken from the world far too prematurely. We welcome the resolution of the case and the programmatic actions Cornell is implementing through which Antonio’s memory will live on at Cornell, helping to promote the safety and well-being of our current and future students and hopefully. him, bringing some comfort to his family for their lasting loss.
On the university’s hazing page, the university said the Phi Kappa Psi Brotherhood would never again be eligible for university recognition.
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