[Vision2020] Idaho football players raped black, disabled teammate, suit claims

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (May 25, 2016) Idaho Statesman at:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/state/idaho/article79765702.html

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Idaho football players raped black, disabled teammate, suit claims

When a teammate held out his arms after football practice in their high school locker-room, the boy thought he was about to get a hug.  Instead, he got viciously raped, authorities say.

As the teammate restrained the boy, another football player allegedly thrust a coat hanger into the boy’s rectum. Then a third teammate kicked the coat hanger several times, according to a criminal complaint.

The Oct. 23, 2015, incident has rocked the tiny town of Dietrich. This spring, after several months of investigation, the state Attorney General’s office filed sexual assault charges against all three alleged attackers. Two of the teenagers are being charged as adults and could face life in prison, under Idaho law.

Earlier this month, the case took an even darker turn when the boy’s family filed a $10 million lawsuit against Dietrich High School.

Suit alleges months of abuse

According to the lawsuit, the alleged rape wasn’t a one-off but rather the culmination of months of racist abuse by white students against the boy, who is black.

The boy “was taunted and called racist names by other members of the team which names included ‘Kool-Aid’ ‘chicken eater’ ‘watermelon’ and [the N-word],” the suit alleges.

The civil complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Idaho also claims that one of the students charged with sexual assault displayed a Confederate flag and demanded the boy recite a racist song titled “Notorious KKK.”

All three of the boy’s attackers were white, the suit says.

The suit, which names the 18-year-old boy, was provided to The Washington Post by his attorney. However, The Post generally does not name victims of sexual assault.

In addition to Dietrich High School, the lawsuit also names 11 employees as defendants. It claims school administrators and coaches did nothing to stop the racial and physical abuse towards the boy, who was especially vulnerable due to “mental disorders including learning disabilities.”

‘Catcalls, taunts and racial epithets’

The suit even claims that Dietrich football coaches encouraged other players to fight the boy, allowing a much larger student to knock the boy unconscious as other students shouted “catcalls, taunts and racial epithets.”

Dietrich High School did not respond to a request for comment.

Against the alleged backdrop of widespread racial abuse at Dietrich, one individual stands out: John R.K. Howard.

Howard, 18, is one of the three students accused of sexually assaulting the boy with the coat hanger. He is charged as an adult with one count of forcible penetration by use of force or a foreign object, according to the criminal complaint.

The lawsuit paints Howard as the ringleader of the racist abuse against the boy, who was adopted at age four by white parents living in the predominantly white town of 334 people.

When a teammate held out his arms after football practice in their high school locker-room, the boy thought he was about to get a hug.  Instead, he got viciously raped, authorities say.

As the teammate restrained the boy, another football player allegedly thrust a coat hanger into the boy’s rectum. Then a third teammate kicked the coat hanger several times, according to a criminal complaint.

The Oct. 23, 2015, incident has rocked the tiny town of Dietrich. This spring, after several months of investigation, the state Attorney General’s office filed sexual assault charges against all three alleged attackers. Two of the teenagers are being charged as adults and could face life in prison, under Idaho law.

Earlier this month, the case took an even darker turn when the boy’s family filed a $10 million lawsuit against Dietrich High School.

Suit alleges months of abuse

According to the lawsuit, the alleged rape wasn’t a one-off but rather the culmination of months of racist abuse by white students against the boy, who is black.

The boy “was taunted and called racist names by other members of the team which names included ‘Kool-Aid’ ‘chicken eater’ ‘watermelon’ and [the N-word],” the suit alleges.

The civil complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Idaho also claims that one of the students charged with sexual assault displayed a Confederate flag and demanded the boy recite a racist song titled “Notorious KKK.”

All three of the boy’s attackers were white, the suit says.

The suit, which names the 18-year-old boy, was provided to The Washington Post by his attorney. However, The Post generally does not name victims of sexual assault.

In addition to Dietrich High School, the lawsuit also names 11 employees as defendants. It claims school administrators and coaches did nothing to stop the racial and physical abuse towards the boy, who was especially vulnerable due to “mental disorders including learning disabilities.”

‘Catcalls, taunts and racial epithets’

The suit even claims that Dietrich football coaches encouraged other players to fight the boy, allowing a much larger student to knock the boy unconscious as other students shouted “catcalls, taunts and racial epithets.”

Dietrich High School did not respond to a request for comment.

Against the alleged backdrop of widespread racial abuse at Dietrich, one individual stands out: John R.K. Howard.

Howard, 18, is one of the three students accused of sexually assaulting the boy with the coat hanger. He is charged as an adult with one count of forcible penetration by use of force or a foreign object, according to the criminal complaint.

The lawsuit paints Howard as the ringleader of the racist abuse against the boy, who was adopted at age four by white parents living in the predominantly white town of 334 people.

“Mr. Howard is a large and aggressive male who had been sent to live with his relatives in Idaho due to his inability to keep out of trouble in Texas,” the complaint says. “Mr. Howard is a relative of prominent individuals in the community and, at least in part due to his athletic ability and community connections, the Defendants ignored or were deliberately indifferent to the behavior of Mr. Howard which included aggression, taunting and bullying of The Plaintiff and other students in the District. With deliberate indifference, the Defendants did nothing to curb the vicious acts of Mr. Howard who brought with him from Texas a culture of racial hatred towards the Plaintiff.”

The boy, one of the few black students at Dietrich and the only African American on his football team, was subjected to frequent abuse by Howard and his fellow teammates, including “aggressive ‘humping’, jumping on him from the back and simulating anal sex,” according to the suit. His fellow football players allegedly gave him painful wedgies, stripped him of his clothes and took naked photos of him in the locker room. One student drew a picture of the boy sitting in the back of the bus on a classroom chalkboard.

Portrait of an alleged ringleader

It was Howard, however, who was allegedly behind the worst abuse.

It was Howard who allegedly forced the boy to recite the words to “Notorious KKK,” a bitterly racist and violent rap song set to the tune of Notorious B.I.G.’s “Can’t You See,” the suit alleges.

It was Howard who, with his bare fists, allegedly knocked out the boy, who was made to wear boxing gloves, as teammates and coaches formed a circle around them.

And it was Howard who allegedly kicked the coat hanger five or six times, causing the boy “rectal injuries” that required hospital treatment, the lawsuit claims.

Another player, 17-year-old wide receiver Tanner Ward, has also been charged as an adult with forcible penetration, according to local news website MagicValley.com. According to the lawsuit, Ward, “physically forced a coat hanger into the Plaintiff’s rectum” before Howard kicked it.

Facebook photos show Ward participating in cowboy competitions. A quick-footed wide receiver, he has his own web page on hudl.com devoted to highlights of his football prowess.

A lawyer representing Ward did not return requests for comment.

A third football player, age 16, has been charged as a juvenile. His name has not been released.

Last month, during a preliminary hearing in the case against Ward, the boy testified how he had been tricked with kindness moments before the cruel attack.

‘A pain I’ve never felt’

The boy said Howard and Ward started harassing him before practice on Oct. 22, giving him a “power wedgie” so violent it tore his boxers.

After practice, when the third teammate asked the boy for a hug, the boy agreed, only for the teammate to restrain him and signal for the others to attack, the boy said.

“I screamed,” he testified, according to MagicValley.com. “I was pretty upset. I felt really bad. A little bit betrayed and confused at the same time. It was terrible — a pain I’ve never felt.”

Ward’s attorney argued that the boy’s testimony conflicted with that of another witness, but Judge Mark Ingram allowed the case to continue. Ward’s trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 26. The Lincoln County Clerk’s Office could not say Tuesday whether he had filed a plea.

Howard, who is finishing high school in Texas, has a preliminary hearing set for June 10 and has not yet entered a plea.

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/state/idaho/article79765702.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/state/idaho/article79765702.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/state/idaho/article79765702.html#storylink=
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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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