COLUMBIA, MO (KMOX) - Two men from St. Louis have been charged in the hazing incident at Mizzou that left a student unable to see, talk or walk.
A Boone County Grand Jury indicted Ryan Delanty of Ballwin and Thomas Shultz of Chesterfield with felony hazing counts. They're also charged for supplyiing liquor to a minor. 19-year-old Danny Santulli of Minnesota was hospitalized after drinking a liter of vodka at a Phi Gamma Delta event last October.
Santulli is blind and in a wheelchair after nearly dying during the hazing incident at the University of Missouri.
His father Tom says it happened during what's called, “secret pledge Dad reveal night”, where the young men were ordered to the basement without wearing shirts. Danny was given vodka. There is surveillance video that shows Danny asked for them to stop.
“Danny wanted to stop,” says his father Tom. “He said ‘no more, no more, I'm good.’ And then the pledge that took the bottle, looked at it, realized it wasn't empty, and gave it back. So that happened three times.”
Then Danny was forced to drink from a beer bong. Finally, after falling over, other members of the Fiji Fraternity were seen dropping him unconscious on a couch. Tom says at one point, Danny slid off the couch and panic set in.
“And no one called 911,” says Tom. “It was pretty clear, you know, with his lips blue and his body being cold. You know, first and foremost, you called 911, because we could have used those 15 minutes.”
Danny lost oxygen to the brain and went into cardiac arrest.
“There was a lot of damage to different parts of his brain,” explains his father. “One area is the occipital lobe. That affects your eyesight. So as of right now, he has no eyesight.”
He also can't walk.
“You know, at one time we thought he wasn't going to make it,” Tom told WCCO’s Susie Jones. “So then we all grouped together, my wife, my son, my daughter, and it wasn't good. And we just said, we hope Danny comes out of this alive and he's with us today. Not the same Danny, but he’s still Danny.”
Tom's wife, Mary Pat, has quit her job and is now caring for Danny 24 hours a day.
“The anger's always been there,” Tom said. “It's always been there. And now, you know, with more attention to this, the anger's never going to go away unless there's accountability.”
Settlements have been reached in a civil lawsuit against the national Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and local fraternity members at the University of Missouri which will help in the care for Danny. However, Tom still wants criminal charges filed as well. Missouri has a law banning hazing.
“When you have a felony on your record, that's a wakeup call, right? That is a wakeup call,” Tom told WCCO. “You got to apply for jobs, everyone does background checks. And a misdemeanor, it's not a big deal.”
Tom says they are grateful that Danny is still alive and they hope his condition will improve.
“It's a new life, right? It's a new journey I guess. But we're strong. We're not giving up. We're going to fight this battle and we'll get through this part. We will. It's going to be hard, but on the other end, we just hope that other people make right decisions. So people are held accountable.
And that's it.”
Last week, friends of the family started an online petition on Change.org demanding that the Boone County, Missouri prosecutor file hazing charges against everyone responsible for what happened to Danny. You can see their efforts at justicefordannysantulli.com.
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