New Jersey high school football players put on probation for hazing

[September 01, 2015]  (Reuters) - Six of the seven New Jersey teenagers charged with sexual assault in a high school football hazing scandal last year have been sentenced to probation and will not have their names put on a sex offender register, the New York Times reported on Monday.

The seven Sayreville War Memorial High School players, aged between 15 and 17, were arrested in October and charged with the sexual abuse of four freshmen on the team, prosecutors in Middlesex County, New Jersey, said.

The victims were held against their will while other team members touched them, the prosecutors said.

NJ Advance Media, citing interviews with victims, reported that the freshman players were held down while other players inserted fingers into their rectums and then their mouths.
 

Four of the players had pleaded guilty to the charges of hazing and endangering the welfare of team members and were put on probation for two years and ordered to serve 50 hours each of community service, the NYT reported Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey as saying in a statement released late on Monday.

Two other teenagers were convicted of simple assault and lying to the police and will each serve one year of probation and 50 hours of community service, the NYT said.

None of them will have their names added to a sex offender registry, the newspaper reported.

Details of the case were kept confidential until Monday because the teenagers were tried as juveniles.

A seventh teenager is awaiting trial.

The hazing scandal last fall made national headlines and forced the cancellation of the remainder of the football season at Sayreville War Memorial High School. Five coaches were suspended during the investigation

(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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