[Vision2020] Idaho football players raped black, disabled teammate, suit claims
Kenneth Marcy
kmmos1 at frontier.com
Wed May 25 13:22:37 PDT 2016
This story appeared in the Washington Post feed just a moment ago.
The story was written by Michael E. Miller, a foreign affairs reporter,
which may indicate something about how that paper views Idaho.
Here's a link: *http://tinyurl.com/jbo2le8*
*Ken*
On 5/25/2016 12:36 PM, Janesta wrote:
> *tears*
>
>
>
> On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 12:15 PM, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com
> <mailto:thansen at moscow.com>> wrote:
>
> Courtesy of today's (May 25, 2016) /Idaho Statesman/ at:
>
> http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/state/idaho/article79765702.html
>
> ----------------------------------
>
>
> 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 <http://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
> <http://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
> <http://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=
> ----------------------------------
>
> Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
> "Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
> http://www.MoscowCares.com <http://www.moscowcares.com/>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
>
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