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Hazing News

Wilson cases coming to court soon: Buffalo News

Judge’s Decision Below on Priors

05/29/09 06:50 AM
Judge in Wilson hazing case refuses to revisit ruling

WILSON—The judge presiding over the case of two Wilson High School baseball coaches charged in an alleged hazing incident refused Thursday a request to revisit his previous ruling that barred evidence of the coaches’ actions or inactions previous to the alleged crime.

In a written ruling issued Thursday, Town Justice George R. Berger denied a motion from Assistant District Attorney Robert A. Zucco asking the judge to reconsider his April 23 ruling preventing the introduction of the evidence—unless the defense raises the subject first. The judge said introducing this information would be “prejudicial.”

Thomas J. Baia and William M. Atlas face misdemeanor child endangerment charges. They are accused of failing to act during a team bus ride April 17, 2008, when varsity players were allegedly harassing junior varsity players.

A jury trial is scheduled to begin July 6. The trial for the three former varsity players is scheduled to get under way June 20.

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank 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. 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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