Among the seven Wall High School football players accused of bullying and hazing younger students in the boy’s locker room, including attacking a 10th grader with a broomstick as he pleaded with them to stop, five just accepted plea bargains.
These plea bargains require them to plead guilty to “juvenile charges of hazing and harassment.” In exchange, charges of criminal sexual contact and false imprisonment will be dismissed. If the five students completely six months-one year probation periods without incident, all charges will be dropped.
A video obtained by nj.com shows five teenagers holding a smaller student in the air and forcing him to spread his legs while another boy moves in holding a broomstick “to poke him on the buttocks between his legs.” It also shows a victim pushed down to the locker room floor and “getting poked with a finger through his shorts by an attacker.”
The five students who agreed to the plea bargain will be required to attend anti-bullying training and perform community service. Also,
A seventh accused player, who had also been charged with sexual assault in separate incidents involving female students off-campus, was not offered the same agreement, according to the sources. They said they could not comment on the status of the sexual assault case, and the prosecutor’s office has declined to talk about it since announcing those charges.
Deborah Gramiccioni, a lawyer who represented other Wall students, said the agreements were a form of restorative justice. “It allows children, and it allows families, to move forward without labels and without a juvenile record, because the charges are dismissed at the expiration of the deferred disposition period,” she said.
Wall Township district’s athletic director Thomas Ridoux and assistant coach Anthony Grandinetti were fired and several other coaches were suspended. Last November went the incidents took place, the staff members were being represented by the New Jersey Education Association. “An attorney was assigned to the NJEA members involved,” said Dawn Hiltner, NJEA spokeswoman. “We have no further information about what may have taken place.”
Parents of three of the students who were victimized have given the district notice that they’re filing “tort claims,” which precede a lawsuit. They accuse the district of allowing students to “viciously assault” at least three teammates on multiple occasions due to the “carelessness, recklessness, and negligence” of coaches and other district staffers.
