High school hazing probe embroils Boise State football player
Thu, Dec 16 2010

By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - An investigation into sexual hazing in
southeast Idaho that has embroiled a member of Boise State University's
powerhouse football team has grown to include more victims, authorities
said on Thursday.

Three college football players and two others are facing a raft of
sexual crime, battery and false imprisonment charges stemming from
incidents at a high school in Blackfoot, Idaho, last year, according to
court documents.

Police say the five athletes forcibly penetrated fellow members of the
high school basketball team and battered and restrained the victims in a
locker room and on a school bus during a three-month period that began
last December.

Charged are Anthony Clarke, now a freshman wide receiver at Boise State
University, Nathan Walker, a tight end for the Idaho State University
Bengals, Logan Chidester, a freshman on the football team at Carroll
College in Montana and Tyson Katseanes of Blackfoot, all 19.

A fifth, unnamed defendant has been charged as a juvenile in the case.

Blackfoot Police Captain Kurt Asmus said on Thursday that law
enforcement officials had contacted additional victims since charges
were filed earlier this month based on allegations made by four people.

"It has mushroomed from there," Asmus said. "Now that everything is out,
more victims are coming forward because they realize they are not alone
and they don't need to be afraid or embarrassed."

He said authorities are tracking leads in other states and that
additional charges were likely.

University officials were reluctant to comment on the players, all of
whom have been suspended from their teams. Frank Zang, spokesman for
Boise State, said Clarke, a freshman walk-on, had yet to play in the
2010 season.

Boise State, which plays on its signature blue painted field, was ranked
among the top ten teams in the nation at the end of the regular season.

SMALL TOWN DIVIDED

Blackfoot residents and officials say the lurid allegations of sexual
hazing have divided the farming community of 11,000 about 20 miles south
of Idaho Falls, Idaho, where the defendants were star athletes who
excelled at multiple sports, including varsity football and basketball.

"This has impacted us harshly on all sides of the issue: the defendants,
the victims, the families," said Blackfoot School District
Superintendent Scott Crane. "We're a small town and it is very difficult
to deal with."

Crane said most school systems have established strict policies on
hazing and bullying in recent years, with research pointing to the
psychological damage those practices inflict.

A benchmark University of Maine study in 2008 revealed 47 percent of
students enrolling in college had experienced hazing in high school and
that 55 percent of college students involved in clubs, teams and
organizations had been hazed.

That study echoed the findings in 2000 of Norman Pollard of Alfred
University, showing that a quarter of high school athletes surveyed were
subject to dangerous or life-threatening hazing, which compared to 45
percent who reported hazing they considered humiliating.

Attorney Stephen Blazer, who represents Walker, said the rush to
judgment is damaging his client and the other teens.

"These kids are being hung out to dry," he said. "It's been put way out
of proportion. There are a lot of unfounded rumors and accusations that
have no basis in fact."

But Bingham County Deputy Prosecutor Randy Smith said he will prove that
the victims, all members of the boys basketball team, suffered, and some
more than once.

"Hazing is an inadequate term since it wasn't a once-and-done kind of
thing but an over-and-over kind of thing, with one victim experiencing
it multiple times," he said.

In Idaho, a conviction on forcible sexual penetration with a foreign
object can bring a life sentence.

An Idaho judge on Thursday denied Smith's motion to seal police reports
and other information in the case.

- - -

I can just imagine their defense..."Well, what else is there to do in
Idaho? Go to a tea party? A white separatists beer bash?"

In article , payer33859
@mypacks.net says...

High school hazing probe embroils Boise State football player
Thu, Dec 16 2010

By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - An investigation into sexual hazing in
southeast Idaho that has embroiled a member of Boise State University's
powerhouse football team has grown to include more victims, authorities
said on Thursday.

Three college football players and two others are facing a raft of
sexual crime, battery and false imprisonment charges stemming from
incidents at a high school in Blackfoot, Idaho, last year, according to
court documents.

Police say the five athletes forcibly penetrated fellow members of the
high school basketball team and battered and restrained the victims in a
locker room and on a school bus during a three-month period that began
last December.

Charged are Anthony Clarke, now a freshman wide receiver at Boise State
University, Nathan Walker, a tight end for the Idaho State University
Bengals, Logan Chidester, a freshman on the football team at Carroll
College in Montana and Tyson Katseanes of Blackfoot, all 19.

A fifth, unnamed defendant has been charged as a juvenile in the case.

Blackfoot Police Captain Kurt Asmus said on Thursday that law
enforcement officials had contacted additional victims since charges
were filed earlier this month based on allegations made by four people.

"It has mushroomed from there," Asmus said. "Now that everything is out,
more victims are coming forward because they realize they are not alone
and they don't need to be afraid or embarrassed."

He said authorities are tracking leads in other states and that
additional charges were likely.

University officials were reluctant to comment on the players, all of
whom have been suspended from their teams. Frank Zang, spokesman for
Boise State, said Clarke, a freshman walk-on, had yet to play in the
2010 season.

Boise State, which plays on its signature blue painted field, was ranked
among the top ten teams in the nation at the end of the regular season.

SMALL TOWN DIVIDED

Blackfoot residents and officials say the lurid allegations of sexual
hazing have divided the farming community of 11,000 about 20 miles south
of Idaho Falls, Idaho, where the defendants were star athletes who
excelled at multiple sports, including varsity football and basketball.

"This has impacted us harshly on all sides of the issue: the defendants,
the victims, the families," said Blackfoot School District
Superintendent Scott Crane. "We're a small town and it is very difficult
to deal with."

Crane said most school systems have established strict policies on
hazing and bullying in recent years, with research pointing to the
psychological damage those practices inflict.

A benchmark University of Maine study in 2008 revealed 47 percent of
students enrolling in college had experienced hazing in high school and
that 55 percent of college students involved in clubs, teams and
organizations had been hazed.

That study echoed the findings in 2000 of Norman Pollard of Alfred
University, showing that a quarter of high school athletes surveyed were
subject to dangerous or life-threatening hazing, which compared to 45
percent who reported hazing they considered humiliating.

Attorney Stephen Blazer, who represents Walker, said the rush to
judgment is damaging his client and the other teens.

"These kids are being hung out to dry," he said. "It's been put way out
of proportion. There are a lot of unfounded rumors and accusations that
have no basis in fact."

But Bingham County Deputy Prosecutor Randy Smith said he will prove that
the victims, all members of the boys basketball team, suffered, and some
more than once.

"Hazing is an inadequate term since it wasn't a once-and-done kind of
thing but an over-and-over kind of thing, with one victim experiencing
it multiple times," he said.

In Idaho, a conviction on forcible sexual penetration with a foreign
object can bring a life sentence.

An Idaho judge on Thursday denied Smith's motion to seal police reports
and other information in the case.

- - -

I can just imagine their defense..."Well, what else is there to do in
Idaho? Go to a tea party? A white separatists beer bash?"

Another Snotty for the Harry ID spoofer.