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East High School (Utah) football update–guilty on hazing

Judge finds teen guilty in sex-related locker room hazing
By Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 02/29/2008 05:21:33 PM MST

Posted: 3:45 PM- A juvenile court judge this afternoon found a former East High football player guilty in connection with sex-related locker room hazing incidents last fall.
The judge said the 16-year-old is guilty of forcible sexual abuse and attempted forcible sodomy, both first degree felonies, and lewdness, a misdemeanor.
The teen allegedly touched his genitals or buttocks to the faces or heads of other football players who were held down by two other team members.
The other two players pleaded guilty in December to misdemeanor counts and were ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and write letters of apology to the victims. They also agreed to testify against the other teen.
The teen found guilty today is also charged with asking two boys whom he was baby-sitting to perform sex acts on him last spring at his Salt Lake City home.
The boys, ages 8 and 11, refused to participate in the sex acts, according to court documents, which allege the defendant also held a gun to the boys’ heads and told them to clean the house.
A March 7 trial has been set in the case involving the two young boys.
If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum punishment of detention at a juvenile facility until he turns 21.

Update on second charge

Teen refuses deal in sex-related case

A teen convicted of a sex-related hazing incident in the East High football team’s locker room balked Tuesday at pleading guilty to attempting sexual activity with two boys he was baby-sitting.
The 16-year-old defendant, who had been expected to accept a plea deal, told 3rd District Juvenile Court Judge Dane Nolan he changed his mind based on the advice of an attorney. A pre-trial hearing was set for March 18 in the baby-sitting case. Sentencing in the hazing case is set for March 27.

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, 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 Warsaw, Poland and 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 and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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