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Wilson case erodes. Lesser charges planned: Update

From the Buffalo News:

WILSON — The Niagara County District’s Attorney office has decided to withdraw felony charges lodged against three Wilson High School baseball players who had been accused of sexually abusing two junior varsity players on a team bus.

Defense attorneys in the case said after a brief town court appearance tonight that they expect charges of aggravated third-degree sexual abuse and child endangerment to be replaced with new misdemeanor charges of forcible touching and hazing.

The attorneys said their clients would continue to plead not guilty to the new charges. They speculated that prosecutors had decided the evidence was too weak to support felony charges.

Assistant District Attorney Robert A. Zucco would say only that the charges are being “refined.” The three defendants are scheduled to return to court Sept. 9 for what the defense attorneys said would likely be arraignments on the reduced charges.

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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