All language subtitles for Houses.of.Horror.Secrets.of.College.Greek.Life.S01E01.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH

It's obviously not
easy to talk about

everything that happened
in the past.

Yeah, a little nervous,
a little anxious.

I mean, there's possible
backlash for coming on here.

No one in the chapter thought
that this would ever happen.

I saw... Danny.

I couldn't believe
what I was seeing.

It's like your absolute
worst nightmare.

This is the worst hazing injury
ever in the United States.

The whole Mizzou community
didn't know what was

really going on
inside the Fiji House.

When they say they don't
know anything, that's a lie,

They lie for each other.
They do know something.

It's the code of silence.

[cheering]

There's no place in the world
that is more exciting

or thrilling than sororities
and fraternities.

But you don't know what actually
goes on behind closed doors.

All of Greek life has some sort
of a tradition of secrecy.

This was a powerful
organization.

I mean, it was a serious
cover-up.

The amount of power that the
fraternities have,

it's so thoroughly woven into
the nature of the universities.

There is always
the same playbook.

Operator: 911. What is the
address of your emergency?

They start the cover-up.
Nobody talks.

Hazing is a huge problem,

and it's resulted in tragedy.

Someone was burning a cross
on the lawn.

They would grab a member,
force their face down

and then make them do
a line of cocaine.

It felt very sadistic.
He wanted me to be hurting.

You send your kid off
to college,

and this happens?

Mom: There's Danny.

Dad: He was fast.

Stole a lot of bases,

covered a lot of ground
in center field.

- There's Danny again.
- Here's number one.

Mary Pat: He always had a big
smile when he was playing.

Tom: Yep.

Mary Pat: Danny grew up his
whole life

in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

We're a close family.

Danny was the youngest of three,

and he just loved his older
siblings, Nick and Meredith.

Nick's 24. I'm 22.
Danny's 20.

Me and Danny got very close
at a young age,

and we'd hang out over time.

I was Mere-Bear,
Danny was Danny Boy.

Everyone just gravitated towards
him all the time.

Whenever we're going to family
gatherings,

everyone wanted to see Danny.

He's always been a little
favorite child.

[laughs]

He's a great athlete too.

Great basketball player.

[cheering]

Once he kinda grew into his own,

he was really excited to have
that sense of independence.

He watched his older siblings
go on to college

at the University of Missouri.

And it was finally his turn.

I was really excited for Danny
to come to college with me.

[music]

Mizzou's in Columbia, Missouri.

It's a college town.
It's big.

I mean, there's over 30,000
kids there.

Fraternities and sororities
and Greek life

are a huge part of campus life
for the University of Missouri.

One-third of all students
are involved.

And we have Greek houses on the
way to the football stadium,

so tailgates are there every
single football game.

[cheering]

My oldest son Nick was
in a fraternity,

and he had a good experience.

So I think Danny had...
you know,

"My brother was in one,
I'm gonna be in one."

It was early August when a
member of the Fiji fraternity

reached out to Danny
and just asked him

if he would be interested
in joining.

Phi Gamma Delta, which a lot of
people call Fiji,

was one of the bigger chapters
on campus.

It was well established.

A lot of times these
fraternities will reach out

beforehand, even before the
start of the semester

to let them know that this
house is

recruiting new members
in the fall.

Mary Pat:
And I read about Fiji,

and they were strongly
expressing

that they are a anti-hazing
fraternity.

Wow. They're addressing
this big topic.

They take hazing seriously.

And I read it and I'm like,

you know, I kinda feel
good about it.

Tom and I drove Danny down,
moved him into his dorm.

And then the pledging classes
for Fiji started right away.

At first I was definitely seeing
Danny quite a bit.

You know, I'd go over to his
dorm, and we would get lunch.

After a couple weeks,
I didn't see him as much.

We just kinda started
hearing from him less.

And, like, I would text his
roommate at his dorm,

and he's like,
"Danny is never here.

"He's always at this house.

They're always making him
come there."

Danny never really elaborated
when we asked him questions.

It was, "Oh, yeah, it's going
good. It's going well."

"All right, tell me more."
"No, Dad, it's good."

Okay.

Groups who haze seem to
really lean in on secrecy.

"So you can't say anything
to anyone

"about what we do here,
because that would be

"a violation of the oath
that you've taken.

"But really it would be a
problem for us

because we would likely
get into trouble."

It's brand-new.
This is just opportunity.

Enough about it.

Only the guys who've gone
through these rituals

and this process know
what happened here.

Yeah, a little nervous,
a little anxious.

I feel like it'd be better
to remain anonymous.

I mean, there's possible
backlash for coming on here.

I was a pledge with Danny

during the fall pledge class
of fall '21.

I think there was 45 of us.

I was having a great time
with all my new friends.

And I could just tell that
Danny was a good kid.

If that hits, guys...

Booze!

If that hits, ball's going out.

The pledging process is kind of
a slow start.

They kinda wanna make everything
fun at first

so you don't just drop
right away.

It took a couple weeks for those
real things to start happening.

We had a fraternity group chat,

and we would get a message
and would just be like,

"Every person in this chat
come to the house at 9:00 p.m.,

and come in this room,"
or something.

They could message you
whenever, really.

You would have to do tasks
for the older guys.

There's some that sleep over
at the house.

-[laughing]
Frat member: You're on.

Somebody else grab him.

Sometimes for days on end
without going home,

without showering,

without being able to
go to class.

And I started to notice that
Danny wasn't going to class.

And then Danny started
to tell me

that he doesn't have any money.

I was like, "You're only not
even a month into being

a freshman at Mizzou, like,
what..."

This isn't making sense.

They were ordering Danny
and the other pledges

to go get alcohol,
get marijuana,

and buy food,

and he'd have to pay for it
with his own money.

They would make him come over
to the fraternity house

and clean their rooms.

They'd tell him to do
homework for them.

All of these things were
going on, day and night,

seven days a week, while he's
brand-new to college

and supposed to be in school.

You're supposed to feel like...
almost like a piece of dirt.

In a sense that you're
a servant for them.

You're not a person,
you're a pledge.

Like, you have to do anything
until you're actually initiated.

And then, you know, there's
the lineups.

The lineup is usually done
somewhere private,

away from windows,
other peering eyes.

They would literally lineup
the pledge class

and abuse them.

We've seen numerous examples
around the country,

from creating concoctions
of hot sauces

and onions and other vile
liquids for them to consume.

[boys shouting]

Boy: No, no, no, no!

Go, go, go!
Drink it! Drink it!

Drink the [indistinct]!
Drink the [indistinct]!

Oh, my God!

To have individuals have to do
strenuous activities

or stand up at a wall
while other members

pound them on their chest.

[shouting, indistinct]

What a pledge is trying to
demonstrate is that their tough.

They can handle it.

They're worthy to be a brother.

Danny struggled with
the physical things, I think,

because of his, um...

he's just a skinnier, like,
smaller kid.

But he seemed like he was
a pretty...

tough kid for most of the time.

But a lot of kids had
a hard time with it.

There's some kids that drop out.

And after you drop,
you're kinda just shunned.

Like, you're not tough enough.

You're not strong enough
to be in this group.

I mean, kids leaving,
honestly, just fuels the fire.

It makes you just think like,
"I'm doing good still.

I don't need to leave
at all."

I feel like it almost builds
a group sense of strength.

Danny had sent me a text,
and he said,

"Hey, Mom. I just wanted
to let you know

"that I was walking down
the street,

"and I stepped on
a piece of glass,

and I had to go to
the Emergency Room"

And I'm like, "Oh, my God!
Are you okay?"

He's like, "Yeah, I'm fine.

"They bandaged it up,
and I had to get stitches."

It just didn't add up.

And I kept asking.

I was like, "Danny, what
actually happened?

Like, why weren't you
wearing shoes

while you're walking in
the middle of the street?"

And...

I never got answers.

Kind of like, why is my brother
on crutches,

like, a month into school?

So I called up a kid I knew
in the fraternity,

and he's like, "Yeah, this kid,
like,

threw him in a dumpster
two nights before."

I'm like, what is going on?

Oh, my God!
Shaky camera.

It was during homecoming.

We'd been drinking a little bit,

and someone made Danny
step into the trash can

and then there's glass shard
at the bottom of the trash can

that just went right
through his foot.

There was a lot of blood.

Danny wasn't up front
with me about it,

but they told him not to tell
us what happened.

That guy just was...
disgusted

I was like, I really probably
should call somebody

and tell them what happened.

But I brought it up to Danny
and he just said, "Don't, Mom."

You know...

So we just moved on from it.

The next month, Danny told me
that there was

a party going on at
the Fiji house.

So I ended up going
to the house.

And I was hanging out
with Danny,

and he just all of a sudden
broke down to me.

He just said, "I can't
do it anymore.

My grades are slipping.
I'm so tired."

He was clearly distraught.

You know, balling his eyes out.

And then these two members
walked in the room

and, you know, they're like,

"Danny, you need to come
to this room, like, right now."

I don't know what was gonna
go on in that room,

but it seemed like
a hazing room.

And Danny looks me in the eyes.

I was like, "No.
I'm taking him home."

I dropped him off.

And then I go home and...

I'm-I'm freaking out

So then I call my parents
first thing in the morning.

That Sunday I talked to him,
and I told him

that he didn't have to be
in the fraternity

if he didn't want to,
if he wanted to drop out.

We're telling him,
"Screw this, Danny.

Get out of this fraternity,"
and he didn't want to do it

'cause he didn't want
to get shunned.

He said, "It's done in two
weeks. I wanna push through it."

I'm like, "Okay."

"Only got two weeks.
I think we can make it.

My family had talked to Danny
that Sunday,

and then Tuesday,
during the day,

I went to lunch with Danny.

He said, "I have to do
study hours."

And so I dropped him off
at the Fiji house.

I still didn't have a good
feeling.

He has his backpack, and then I
see him walking into the house.

And that was the last time
I've heard from him.

[phone ringing]

That night, my cellphone rang
at 1:27 a.m.

It was the Emergency Room
doctor.

And she said, "Do you have a son

at the University of Missouri?"
and I said, "Yes."

She said, "Well, we have him
here in the Emergency Room."

And at that point, I just...
I just...

I mean, I stopped breathing.

And I called Meredith
immediately.

My dad asked, "Do you know that
Danny's

in the Emergency Room?"

And I said, "No.
What happened?"

They said, "You need to go there
right now."

So I got up. I sped to
the Emergency Room.

I was living at home, and my dad
comes downstairs,

kicks my door and is like,
"Nick, we have to go now."

I'm like, "What's going on?"

He's like, "Danny's not good.
We have to go."

I'm like, "You go to
be kidding me."

So we packed a small bag.

You know, 10-15 minutes,
we were on the road.

We drove seven-and-half hours.

We drove through the night
to Missouri.

We were just so in shock.

I walked into
the Emergency Room.

The ER nurse comes up to me.

She said a member of the
fraternity house

had dropped him off
in the parking lot

and... left.

They said they don't if Danny's
gonna make it through the night.

I'm by myself.
I don't know what to do,

and I didn't even know
what to say.

I start crying and I was like,

"Well, what happened?"

They said it's from alcohol.

Danny's blood-alcohol reading,

according to the medical records
at the hospital, was .468%

Which is incredibly high.

That's four-and-a-half times
greater

than the presumed limit
for drunk driving.

Most people don't survive.

We're in communication with
Meredith along the way.

Mary Pat: Meredith didn't wanna
tell us

how bad it actually was.

Tom: She said it was alcohol
poisoning.

Alcohol poisoning.

And so when you think that...

You think, "Oh, maybe they'll
pump his stomach."

Yeah. 'Cause it's gonna
be fine.

We got there probably about
9:30 in the morning,

and I thought when I got there,
he would probably have...

woken up.

But he was hooked up to so many
different tubes and...

- Machines.
- Machines and...

he was on a ventilator
and I-I just...

I couldn't believe
what I was seeing.

I just...

It was awful.

[sighs]

Just the way he looked,
and we just...

just dropped to the floor
and like,

"This can't be real."

It's like your absolute
worst nightmare

Mary Pat: It's like we don't
have good news.

They said there had been lack of
oxygen to the brain and...

that's, you know,
when it got serious.

They did an MRI and told us

that parts of the brain were
damaged,

and they said, you know,

he has so much swelling
on his brain.

But I still didn't know what
all the damage

actually was at that point.

We all knew right away
that it was hazing.

I mean, I didn't even have to
question it.

What did they do to him?

I went ballistic, like,
that first day,

just trying to get all this
information from people.

In the fraternity,
no one's talking to me.

Like, what happened?
Why is no one talking?

So I broke into
the fraternity house.

I'm like, okay, I'm getting in.

I'm like, I'm getting an answer.

Somebody in the fraternity house
that can talk to me?

I ran into some random kid.
I'm like,

"Who's the president? Call them
right now on the phone."

And he called him, and he just
wouldn't talk.

He said he already had a lawyer.

Within 12 hours.

We couldn't get any information
from him.

I needed to know what
happened...

to my son that night.

I was contacted by a member of
the Santulli family

who asked if they could talk to
me about what happened to Danny.

They explained that Danny
had been hazed,

that he was very seriously
injured,

and so I agreed to
represent them.

Initially, the family wanted
to know what happened,

and it took a lot of digging
to get the details.

David got right on
the investigation.

He was in contact with
the Mizzou Police Department.

The Mizzou Police had
a search warrant,

and they grabbed the server
from the local fraternity.

The police department
told us like,

"Yeah, we got the hard drive."

And they had 25 cameras
around the house.

When I found out that there were
surveillance cameras

all over the house,
I was just shocked

at not only was the hazing
horrific,

but they did it with everything
being recorded.

Most fraternity houses had
security cameras

and security systems
and surveillance cameras

in some capacity in some places
in the house.

What I didn't expect is that
we'd see

how much of what happened
that night.

You can see the whole night
unfold, on that footage.

Just looking and you're like,
"What the hell is going on?"

This is the surveillance
footage from that night,

from October 19th.

It just seems surreal
to even think about...

Everyone's blindfolded,

and we're getting taken down to
the basement.

Watching it is kinda crazy,

reliving the moment of...

going all the way down there.

No one ever thought something
like this would happen.

Pledge: It just felt like
a normal day.

We got a text saying how we all

had to be at the house
that night.

And since it was so close to
the end of our pledgeship,

we all just assumed that
we were gonna have

a big event, like
a Pledge Dad Reveal.

Pledge Father Reveal Night
is a big night for fraternities.

It tends to happen near the end
of the pledging process.

But there's definitely a pattern

with some of these Pledge Father
Reveal Nights

producing injuries or deaths at
fraternities around the country

because of how much alcohol
is consumed.

There's a case a few years
before Danny's

out at Florida State University
that was tied

to a Pledge Father Reveal Night.

There have been others
just because all the conditions

are sort of in place
for this to be

an especially dangerous event.

We all showed up,
and they told us

to remove our t-shirts and use
them as our blindfolds.

Then they have everyone
in one chain.

This part's where you're getting
taken down to the basement.

We were all kinda anxious about

what was gonna happen
down there.

So this is Danny
coming down the stairs,

in the green shirt which is
wrapped around his face.

Some of the older guys
were messing with you

and had a couple beers
poured on you.

It's definitely a scary thing

because they're yelling at you
to hurry up,

and you're having to go down
the stairs fast,

make sure you're not falling.

It's a frightening thing.

There's no cameras
in the basement.

[cheering, yelling]

And then as soon as we
got down the stairs,

there's a...

like there's a bunch of loud
music and screaming and yelling.

Everyone just gets pushed
around the room

with the blindfolds on,

and you find a spot on the wall
for the lineups.

There's things being thrown,

and everyone's getting covered
in condiments and stuff.

As a pledge, you just have to
think everyone that's

doing it to you has been through
this exact same thing,

and I'm gonna walk in
and get through this night.

Soon as it was over, everyone
took off their blindfolds

and you found out who
your Pledge Dad is.

That's intended to be
a celebratory moment

of "this is the member
who's going to be your mentor

for the rest of your time
in the fraternity."

Then what is often a tradition
that comes with that

is that there's a family bottle
of alcohol,

some sort of hard liquor that's
been chosen for each pledge

that is taped to your hand
until you finish it,

which for Danny was
a fifth of vodka.

An awful lot of vodka that
he was presented.

This is after everyone's,
you know,

first coming up from
the basement.

Here we come with the bottles.

The pledges are walking around,

and they're getting
drunker and drunker.

They go into the courtyard
of the fraternity house.

They start the party,

and there's a lot of pressure
on these pledges

to drink the bottle
of alcohol they were given.

There's a catchphrase that was
being chanted

and yelled at the pledges,
that "There's no [bleep]

in the house tonight."

That they weren't worthy of
being a member in that chapter

if they couldn't get through
this night

and be able to finish
that bottle of liquor.

We didn't know if we
wanted to see it.

It took a while.

- It's extremely difficult.
- That's hard.

Yeah.

Forcing someone to drink that
amount of alcohol,

not even knowing how much their
tolerance level is.

Most of these kids have never
experienced it.

These kids just graduated
high school.

They don't know.

When you're a pledge, like,
it's hard to say no.

You don't want to be humiliated.

You don't want to be the one
pledge that...

doesn't do what these
older guys say.

There's definitely an imbalance
of power with that.

This is an older member.

We're trying to please
that person

and make sure we become members
of the organization.

That's a lot pf power put
into that person's hand.

And a lot of these pledges
are thinking,

"There's only one more
of these events.

"I'm tough. I can make this.
I can get to the end."

And then something goes wrong.

There was a fraternity member
walking around the courtyard

with a beer bong.

You see they put a tube
in Danny's mouth

with a funnel at the top,

and beer is being poured down
the tube into Danny's throat

after he's already been drinking
the vodka.

You can see Danny is now
very intoxicated.

Pledge: I was probably just...
some other room,

drinking with my Pledge Dad.

This is Danny right here, yeah.

It looks like he's just having
a conversation,

and then you can notice him
wobbling.

He's crossed a line into severe
intoxication by this point.

Then you see him falling
backwards.

They're kinda just making fun
of him, laughing at him.

Imitating him.

You can see some members,
you know, trying to carry him.

It's clear in that moment,

you know Danny is
not doing well.

That's when they picked him up
and put him on the couch.

They basically, like, threw him
on there, like a rag doll.

Tom: On his back.
And he threw up...

Mary Pat: Very, like,
disorientated.

Nobody seems to be particularly
concerned for Danny.

It seems like this is maybe
something that

often happens at parties where
someone is very intoxicated.

So it seems like nothing is
too out of control,

at least as far as the
fraternity members are concerned

at this point in time.

By that point in the night,
I head on home,

and everyone that's here has
just had so much to drink

that they're starting to get,
like, blackout drunk

and everyone's kinda just
passing out.

The other kids on the couches
are pledges.

Some of the guys are going out
to the bars

and leaving the house.

And, um, Danny's just got kinda
forgotten and left behind.

Now Danny's so drunk,

he cannot even sit up
on the couch.

And he's sliding off of
the couch.

You just realize that, you know,

this is a life-altering moment
for Danny.

It's probably 12:30, and Danny
was just already so drunk

that his body kinda...

I mean, he's going to sleep,
you know.

He's shutting down.

Everyone has left
the living room.

Saddest part is, we're not there
to help him.

We were not there to help him.

Eventually some fraternity
members come up,

and they find Danny and realize
that he's not just passed out,

he's not just sleeping this off.

Something worse has happened.

Someone's putting him back up
on the couch,

and the other guys coming in
realize that he's... he's limp.

And they're taking
his pulse right now.

It looked like
he wasn't breathing.

But no one called 911.

Their first instinct is to
protect themselves

and the fraternity.

Nobody wanted to be
the person blamed

for what was going on here.

Instead, they got one of
the fraternity members

who had a car to agree to drive
him to the hospital.

They carried him out of the room

and down the hallway of
the fraternity.

At one point, as they're getting
close to the exit door,

they're holding him upside down
by his ankles,

and they drop him on his head.

They then pick him back up,
and they carry him outside,

and they put him into the car.

It was a block-and-a-half away,

from the fraternity house
to the hospital

A block-and-a-half.

The kid actually did call 911
but for directions,

not paramedics.

Medical personnel were brought
out to a car

where in the back seat
was Danny.

At this point is when his lips
were blue,

his heart had stopped beating,

and the hospital staff had to
perform CPR on him

in the back seat of a car.

They then bring him inside,
they get the heart restarted,

but by then, it's too late

because he's sustained
significant...

significant brain damage.

When you lose oxygen in your
brain, every second counts.

If you call 911 right away,

they'll walk you through
what to do.

But having them carry him
to the car

and drive around, trying to find
a hospital,

that's 20 minutes that we
needed, obviously.

But they're not thinking
like that.

Until the next morning,
I didn't even know

that anything was wrong
with Danny.

I just... I woke up and I
didn't remember much

from the last night.

But finding out, you know,
20 minutes after waking up

from my phone, via text,
that Danny was hospitalized

was just kinda crazy.

The University of Missouri has
stopped all fraternity activity

after a freshman is found
unresponsive

in the Phi Gamma Delta house.

The University of Missouri
reached out to us right away,

and, um, they just expressed
how...

how sorry they were and that
they were gonna support us

in any way they could.

The University realized there
needed to be

some sort of immediate response
to what happened to Danny.

So the University of Missouri
Fiji Chapter was shut down.

That was a joint decision by
both the University

and the national chapter
of the fraternity.

It was gone the next morning.

And a really strong condemnation
of Fiji on campus.

Within a couple nights,
there was a protest

that drew probably
200-300 people

outside the Fiji house chanting.

Man: Shut down the [bleep].

[bleep].

[bleep].

A lot of people were just
incredulous that

something like this could happen
in an organization

that brains itself
on brotherhood.

As a pledge, we didn't really
care about

what happened with
the fraternity.

All we cared about was Danny.

We were all just kinda praying,
and it was, uh...

It was devastating.

At the hospital, it was just a
roller coaster of news.

Like, we were told by one nurse
that he's completely brain dead.

And then 30 minutes later, they
come back with positive news.

A couple weeks later,
it was like

"Oh, there's a lot of
damage."

That was tough.

No one truly knew what his
condition was like at that time.

The older guys were just telling
us to keep it quiet.

We were just told to politely
decline any media interviews,

told not to talk too much
about it with

family and friends
or anything at all.

It was damage control, 24/7,
by Fiji members... right away.

But the police got the
fraternity members' phones.

And we saw a lot of group chats.

They had a lot of group chats.

Tom: And the police pretty much
shared everything with us.

What we uncovered when
we were reading

all the communication
going back and forth is,

"You gotta keep your mouth shut.

"What happens in the house
stays in the house.

"You gotta stick to a code of
silence or else...

there's consequences."

The more I saw,
the more infuriated I got.

Because not only did they
work so hard

to put on this illegal and
dangerous hazing event,

but then they worked hard to try
and cover up what they did.

The police investigation was led

by the University Police
Department.

And when we got the police file,

there were copies of all of the
text messages and group chats

from the fraternity members'
cellphones.

That was enormously helpful.

Because it told us who did what
and when they did it.

We saw that on Pledge Father
Reveal Nigh

when Danny was brought to the
couch and he's laid down,

and his Pledge Father, who is
this new mentor

who he had just been assigned,
he sent a text to someone,

jokingly referring to Danny
as dead at this point.

Meaning that Danny passed out.

The Pledge Dad was
supposed to just

be there with you
the whole night,

and Danny's Pledge Dad just
said, "Screw it.

Danny's drunk.
I'm gonna leave."

And he want to a bar
in Columbia...

and just left him.

The following day,
after it was clear

that Danny was so seriously
injured,

you can see in the text messages

they were doing all
sorts of things

to try to cover their tracks.

There was a meeting.

A whole bunch of fraternity
members, off campus,

where they got together
to discuss

the fact that there was now
a police investigation

into what was going on,

and they all got together to try
to get their stories straight.

Meredith: Instead of them,
you know,

being concerned for Danny,

they were focused on deleting
all the text messages

and evidence that occurred
in the house.

And they knew they were
in big trouble

because they were strictly
forbidden

to have any alcohol
in the house.

We found out that the university
had already put Fiji

on probation as a result of
prior hazing and alcohol events.

And just 13 days before
Danny Santulli was hazed,

this chapter was placed on
disciplinary probation

for the second time.

So that on the night that this
event happened to Danny,

they were on double probation,

and all the fraternity members
knew it.

- We had no idea.
- No idea.

The officer of the local chapter

were discussing, "Hey, you know,
we're on probation.

"We really can't have it
at the house.

Maybe we should just take them
to a bar."

The other Fiji members said,

"No, no, we're all gonna be
hammered."

Mary Pat: He said there are
gonna be

too many that are disabled
that night.

From booze.

Mary Pat: They just decided
they're gonna

have it at the house.

It's like fraternities
and sororities,

if you wanna have an event
at the house,

you need to register it
with the school.

But since Mizzou put the Fiji
house on probation,

they went behind, you know,
the school's back

and did it privately.

And they basically thumb their
nose at the university rules.

We were at the ICU in Columbia
from October 19th

till December 8th.

I was just crashing at
my sister's apartment.

My parents were staying
in a dorm.

It was just a long,
exhausting... journey.

Finally got him stable enough
where he was in

a minimally conscious state,

and he was able to
move on to rehab.

In Colorado.

Mary Pat: They specialize in
brain and spinal cord.

Once we got there, they were
doing special tests

to-to, um, test his vision
and his hearing.

And his hearing was good,
but the vision was gone.

That was... That was very
difficult.

And then we just had to, um...

continue on with rehab
for six months

before he could come home.

Danny's condition remains
as it was

shortly after this
incident happened.

He's blind, he cannot speak,

he cannot walk,
cannot care for himself,

he cannot feed himself,

and he will need 24-hour care
every single day

for the rest of his life.

We wanted the fraternity
to be held accountable,

and we were all wondering
when they're gonna be charged.

The family wanted to see
charges. Because in Missouri,

life-endangering hazing
is a crime.

It's a Class-D felony in
Missouri.

There's already a law in place
for that.

But it's up to the prosecutor
as to whether or not

you're gonna enforce the hazing
laws in your state.

People warned us, saying,
"Tom, you know,

nothing may happen out of this,
just so you know."

Yeah. I mean, the lead detective
said don't...

Don't count on it.

Don't be surprised, but none of
these kids will go to jail.

I can't believe that
this is happening.

We knew that Danny's injuries
were horrific.

He was gonna require
a lifetime of care,

which was gonna be hugely
expensive.

The tally of Danny's
medical expenses

went up pretty quickly.

It cost about $2 million
within those first few months.

The family was under
such stress,

they didn't need
the financial stress

of millions of dollars.

So we pursued the civil case.

Danny's family filed against
an initial 23 defendants,

and that included the national
fraternity itself,

it included the student leaders
of the chapter,

and a few specific students
who were involved

in the incident itself.

I said to the family, I said,

"It's not gonna be his word
against his word

"in terms of what happened.

It's all gonna be right there
on video."

And there was no getting around
it for these guys,

and they knew it.

The family of a teen
hospitalized

after a night of drinking

at a University of Missouri
fraternity

has settled a lawsuit with all
23 people that were sued.

We don't celebrate
these settlements,

although we're very pleased
with the settlements.

We're just happy to take care
of Danny,

and that's all that matters.

And when the family settled
the civil case,

they were really adamant
at what they wanted to see was

criminal charges pressed
in the case.

Boone County stepped up
to the plate.

Charges have been issued today
in connection with

a hazing incident at
the University of Missouri.

And June 3rd of 2022,

the first criminal charges
were filed against Fiji members.

Reporter: In total, there were
11 members

criminally charged
in the incident,

10 of which have been indicted
by a grand jury for hazing.

We saw through the spring
of 2023,

some of the first defendants
pleading guilty.

Tom: I wouldn't wanna be in
their shoes, but...

- Their lives will go on.
- Their lives will go on.

But they, you know...

They can do a lot more
than Danny can.

Hopefully, they'll...

they'll do something good
in their life.

But they also have to live with
what they did.

And I think that's a heavy
burden to carry.

All the pledges,
we still love Danny

We still care for him.

We're all wishing that
he can be better

and wish that he could still
be with us.

Even though...
we're all pledges,

I mean, we still, you know, have
that sense of guilt and regret.

And everyone just feels like
there's something

that we could have done
to help him out.

Since the incident,

Greek like at Mizzou is
a bit different now.

A lot of people have been
playing it safe,

and a lot of the culture
around hazing

has just declined since
what happened at Fiji.

The University of Missouri
has rolled out

some new trainings for members
of Greek life around hazing.

But at the same time,

things rebounded fairly quickly.

A new fraternity has moved into
the old Fiji house.

You can go by that house
and you would have

no way of knowing that anything
ever happened there.

It all seems normal there.

And that's kind of the nature
of these things,

that Greek life
and fraternities,

they find a way to bounce back
from these incidents.

But for Danny and his family,
life is far from normal.

We live a different life,

and we're...adapting to this
new life.

You know, it's never easy.

It doesn't get easier.

But it's made us stronger.

I did decide to do my last
semester online.

And it's been nice to be home
and be with Danny.

My mom's the main caregiver.

I'm also, like, helping too.

We're all, like, pretty much
medically trained now.

So I guess I can put "nurse"
or something on my resume.

[laughs]

He definitely is aware of
who's coming in the room

and who's talking to him,
and he hears us very well.

I mean, he's alert,
he's, you know,

he responds to us.

You know, we've noticed
some improvements, definitely,

over the past 12 months,
for sure.

But we really don't know what
the outcome's gonna be like.

We're gonna do whatever we can
to get him

a better quality if life.

That's just that way it is.

If it takes two years,
if it takes 10 years,

you know, we're just...

we're in it for the long haul.

Captioning provided by
A&E Networks.

The problem with fraternities

is fraternities wield
a lot of power.

Members are instructed
to stay silent.

Do not disclose the secrets of
the organization.

She said,
"Do you wanna pledge?"

She didn't ask me,
"Do you want to be hazed?"

I'm in the South now, [bleep]!

[shouting, indistinct]

Segregation allegations at the
University of Alabama campus.

Do you believe that
if I was White,

we wouldn't have had
the same issue.

We endure the abuse.

Being hit, being punched,
being paddled,

being humiliated.

I see Tim on the couch.

I'm advocating, we need to get
him to the hospital.

One of the brothers wanders up.

He's throwing me
against the wall.

All the bruises on his body.

Like, what the heck was
going on at that house?

This operation resulted in
the arrest

of a hundred individuals

involving distribution of
cocaine.

I think Ciaccio and the others

felt like they were untouchable.

This is not a brotherhood.

This is not a place where
there'll be growth and honor.

Rumor was that it was
sexual assault expected.

Men: No means yes.
Yes means anal.

What happened?

I wanna know the truth.

Not on the record.