Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Carmel Teen Victim's Attorney Says Felony Charges Warranted

One of the victim's attorneys of an alleged sexual assault "touching in a rude or insolent manner", or hazing if your prefer, by several former members of the Carmel High School basketball team is speaking out about the mere misdemeanor charges Hamilton Co. Prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp announced on Monday. "But based on what my client told me, there was criminal conduct that took place that would support felony charges," Robert Turner told the Star. When questioned by reporters about the more lurid details missing from the indictment on Monday, Leerkamp cautioned reporters not to put stock in the rumor and innuendo associated with the case. On the other side of the coin, I'm hearing that there is "rumor and innuendo" being spread by friends of the accused that no sexual assault "touching in a rude or insolent manner" took place because, in the case of at least one of the victims, he was gay and wanted it, or so the story goes. From the beginning, Leerkamp, the Carmel police and Carmel school officials have seemed far more concerned about protecting the accused than the victims in this case. While the rest of the world may not have known the victims, their identity was known to most students who attend the school. Their lives are permanently scarred and the accused don't seem the least bit bothered by what has transpired.

Did anyone catch the surveillance video of them while they were in lock up on local television news stations last night? It showed John Laskowski and one of the others charged acting seemingly relaxed practicing their golf swings, doing high kicks and squats and otherwise carrying on as if they hadn't a care in the world. A psychology expert interviewed by one of the news stations after reviewing the video tape found their behavior under the circumstances disturbing. I was surprised the sheriff's department released the surveillance video tape to the news media. Somebody is probably getting their butt kicked good for doing so as I write. 

Some people have brought to my attention that a pornographic website, which supposedly shows real videos of hazing of college guys trying to get into a fraternity, is representative of the mind set of some of our esteemed male youth on the notion of rite of passage. I'm not going to link to it so nobody mistakenly links to it and gets in trouble for violating their computer use policy at work, but if you google the words "haze him", you won't have any problem locating it.

UPDATE: One of the victim's attorneys, Robert Turner, confirms to reporters that his client's pants were pulled down and he was anally penetrated by one of the accused while the others held him down. From his comments, it appeared that this took place on more than one occasion. Here's what he had to say:

Attorney Robert Turner said the four seniors, then teammates of the victim on the high school basketball team, held the victim down, pulled down his pants and proceeded with some form of "anal penetration." Turner said the attacks occurred on a team bus Jan. 22 and earlier in a high school locker room. He declined to say how many times the attacks occurred.

12 comments:

Paul K. Ogden said...

What they need to do is ship them down to Jail #2 in Marion County where they will be in a unsecure dormintory style housing. Witnesses there tell me that when the lights go out it becomes "Wrestlemania" and the guards won't get involved in breaking up scuffles. If they were at Jail #2 I'm sure some inmates would be glad to show them how their hazing ritual felt to the victim.

Indy4U2C said...

They aren't taking it seriously because there is no reason to take it seriously. Their wealthy parents got the fix in.

By charging misdemeanors for Criminal Deviate Conduct, a felony, they will just have Mommy & Daddy pay a mere fine to the prosecutor (perhaps something to her campaign fund for the good job she did) and the charges will be dismissed as "diversion."

After a short time, Mommy and Daddy will have an attorney expunge this "misunderstanding" and it will completely disappear.

This was a violent sexual assault, and it's being treated about as serious as towel flipping!

This is not justice.

Gary R. Welsh said...

The television report said the only one of them who seemed subdued about the charges was the African-American, Oscar Faladun.

Blog Admin said...

As you said, Gary, special treatment for special victims.

WIBC had a law school professor from IU-Indianapolis Law on yesterday. He said his daughter, who is a prosecutor elsewhere, has convicted on criminal deviant charges with less evidence than what is known about the Carmel hazing incidents (eye witness, video camera, medical report).

My prediction: A plea bargain on these misdemeanor charges will result in a slap on the wrist. Just like what happened years ago with their...hockey team, right?

interestedparty said...

Sad sad story. Unfortunately, when people are not held accountable for their behavior, they may not accept that there is a need to change. They may continue to do reckless things and expect to always be free from the consequences. This can lead to more bad behavior and even worse situations. Let's pray this is not the future scenario for these young men, especially because their future actions will impact the lives of others.

Covenant60 said...

Hey is that laskowski kid related to John Laskowski of the Indiana Hoosiers?

Covenant60 said...

And I checked out that haze him website.

It is not college hazing. It's gay porn. Produced as gay pornography. I guess it is a gay porn "genre".

You can also look at hetero porn with similar settings.

Fraternity hazing is really no big deal. At least in my day. Mostly it was hijinks. Nothing anyone cant handle.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Sorry, Michael, but you must have visited the wrong site, which describes it as "Real tapes of college debauchery and fraternity hazing--the world's only user-submitted college and fraternity ritual site." It may be a popular website for gays to visit, but it is not portrayed as a gay website; it is portrayed as straight guys forcing other gays to engage in sex acts and other things as part of their hazing.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Yes, Laskowski is John Laskowski's son of Hoosier basketball fame. Michael, some of these guys believe they aren't gay if they are having someone else perform oral sex on them, or if they are on the giving end of anal sex, believe it or not. I think I recounted a magazine article I recently read about hazing rituals at some elite private, all boys schools where the rich and famous send their kids that are pretty far out there.

Blog Admin said...

Michael, I wouldn't go that far.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazing_in_Greek_letter_organizations

Hanid said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Marycatherine Barton said...

Thanks to the officer who releeased the surveillance tapes of those punks while they were in jail. Let any young girl thinking about dating them, rethink.