Two men were charged in an alleged hazing incident that resulted in a former 19-year-old University of Missouri student being wheelchair-bound, blind, and unable to speak.
On Friday, a Boone County grand jury indicted Ryan Patrick Delanty, of Ballwin, and Thomas Andrew Shultz, of Chesterfield, with felony hazing and supplying liquor to a minor or intoxicated person. Both of them have bonds set at $50,000. Shultz is facing an additional charge of tampering with physical evidence.
Former Mizzou freshman Danny Santulli was hospitalized after drinking a liter of vodka during an event at the Phi Gamma Delta house in Oct. 2021. “It’s impossible to have damages that are worse than what Danny Santulli has and still be alive,” said the family’s attorney, David Bianchi. “As a result of what they did to him, he has massive brain damage. He’s lost his eyesight, so he’s blind. He cannot walk, and he cannot communicate in any way.”
The 55-page lawsuit that was filed stated that another frat brother, Alec Wetzler, made Santulli drink beer using a tube. Wetzler reportedly faces two misdemeanor charges alleging he provided alcohol to a minor. Santulli’s “skin was pale and his lips were blue, yet no one called 911," as written in the lawsuit. Santulli was rushed to University Hospital in Columbia in one of the brother’s cars.
“When they arrived, hospital staff went to the car only to find that [Santulli] was not breathing and in cardiac arrest,” the suit stated. “CPR was performed, and [Santulli’s] heart was restarted.” Santulli was then moved to the intensive care unit and put on a ventilator. He was later removed from the ventilator and said to be able to breathe on his own. However, he was still unresponsive, unaware of his surroundings, unable to communicate, and had an injury to his brain.
Meanwhile, outgoing chair of the faculty affairs and student affairs committee of the MU Faculty Council, Phil Wood, said, "It's really, really hard to change the culture of alcohol.” Wood provided a timeline of hazing incidents in Missouri that related to deaths and serious injuries dating back to 1980. Among those is the 1990 MU Bid Day Bash incident in which 35 were injured, including a high school student who grabbed an electrical wire while drinking a can of beer while beer cans were also being thrown at him.
