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Carmel HS Victim Lashes Out: Fox 59

Blasts Scott Laskowski agreement

Excerpt

By Kimberly King | Fox59

Sources have told Fox59 the 15-year-old embellished what happened to him and that there was no anal penetration during the incident despite the fact that a DCS report substantiates his claims. To those accusations, the victim had this to say:

“I’m sure I would not make something like this up. I would not want to be here in this situation if I was making something like this up. This is a very very serious situation.”

The victim says some kids at his new school try to make light of the attacks he endured by the Carmel basketball seniors.

“People joke about it. I’m very distolerant to that in fact I take it personal when kids do that.”

The victim also had a message to other students:

“Speak up. There will always be something, somebody who’s listening. Whether you tell your parents, or you tell the teacher it starts right there and hopefully they listen.”

The victim’s mother also spoke out about her outrage over the plea deal agreed to by Hamilton County Prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp involving one of the accused, Scott Laskowski. She and her husband say Leerkamp has never included them properly in any discussions of the plea or process in the case. Her husband handed her a paper which was a protective order for her son that was given to them at the hearing resulting from the plea deal which she says they were also never consulted on. The misdemeanor count involving her son’s case was dropped as part of the plea yet she says Leerkamp never notified them.

“At that hearing I couldn’t believe my ears. It just made me want to take this piece of paper and rip it up because all this is is a no contact order. I can protect my son myself. I will protect him from this point to the best of my ability.”

Attorney Robert Turner who represents the family criticized Sonia Leerkamp at length including the following statements:

“She’s formulated an opinion about this and she can’t be objective about what she’s doing. Either that or she’s so closely involved politically in Hamilton County with other people that she cannot be fair and objective and maybe she should have appointed a special prosecutor. Politicians in Hamilton County have done everything to undermine rather than assist this victim from the beginning.”

On the videotape (that’s never been released) that supposedly shows the attack on the Carmel basketball bus ride home from Terre Haute, Fox59 News has learned you can make out the individuals Hoge, Kitzinger, and Laskowski going after the kids in the back of the bus. However, Fox59 has a source that says you cannot see any kind of sexual or anal attack involving pulling pants down on freshman as has been alleged by the 15-year-old victim. Turner denies those claims and says he has been shown portions of the video by Rick Lang, the Hendricks County detective working for the prosecutor on possible new charges in the bus incident.

“I have no reason not to believe that that video has not been manipulated and if in fact the U.S. attorney finds that it is then we’re gonna need more judges in Hamilton County,” said Turner.

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024 and April 2025 , the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.

He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com

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