In another, at the Navarro High School gym on Jan. 12, 2017, several teammates held the boy down and raped him with a flashlight, according to the lawsuit.
(The suit indicates that teammates who were accused of raping the student were among those arrested last year.) 23 in federal court in San Antonio, claims that Doe suffered physically, emotionally, and in academic performance because of the assaults. It claimed that school coaches “sanctioned these rituals,” that it allowed a culture of hazing to flourish, and that other school officials “turned a blind eye toward the abuse, even after the abuse was reported to them.” The first civil lawsuit lodged against the district was filed in April. Cabanas called the investigation “extremely slow.” He said the AG’s office has sent over documents from the investigation, which are still under protective order, for the defense lawyers to review. San Antonio Attorney Alfonso Cabanas, who represents Norman, told The Daily Beast on Friday that there is still no sign of indictments for any of the suspects. It is unknown if the John Doe in the most recent lawsuit was a victim of these incidents-or a separate one entirely.Įach of the suspects have denied their involvement in the alleged crimes. According to arrest affidavits, Weidner, Rutkowski, and an unidentified juvenile held down a 15-year-old while Roberts sodomized him with a flashlight. According to arrest affidavits, they stand accused of pushing down a 16-year-old boy on a bed while raping him with the threaded end of a carbon-dioxide tank.Īlso charged were 18-year-old Colton Weidner, 18-year-old Christian “Brock” Roberts, and 18-year-old John Rutkowski-all members of the school’s basketball team. The suspects facing criminal charges include 17-year-old Alejandro Ibarra, 17-year-old Robert Olivarez Jr., and 18-year-old Dustin Norman. A total of 13 students-six of them legally considered adults-were arrested and charged with either sexual assault or sexual assault of a child. Varsity players on all three teams were accused of sodomizing younger teammates with baseball bats, flashlights, and carbon-dioxide tanks. (The Texas Rangers and the State Attorney General’s Office have said the investigation is ongoing, but provided few other details.)
The full scale of the assaults is not yet publicly known, but it has roiled the tiny town about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio. Ultimately, police found that the alleged abuse-perpetrated by players on the high school’s baseball, football, and basketball teams-targeted at least 10 victims and spanned more than three years. In February of last year, a La Vernia student told local police he was sexually assaulted by varsity athletes.
You can find Jake Bain on Instagram or on Twitter and Hunter Sigmund on Instagram. By being themselves at a time in life that is very challenging, the couple have done a lot to end stereotypes and increase acceptance. In the fall, Sigmund will attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an honors student, while Bain will attend Indiana State, where he will also play football. But the students, faculty and administration at Burroughs have been ultra-supportive of Bain, who drew a protest from the Westboro Baptist Church homophobes after his coming out as a high school football star became national news. While having openly LGBT couples at proms is not rare, it also remains an issue in many parts of the country. It is nice to be able to go to prom with whoever you want and not have to worry about what other people might think.” Hunter Sigmund, left, and Jake Bain. “We have been the only openly gay couple at Burroughs since I’ve been here, but it isn’t a problem at all at our school. “This is the second year he and I have gone together, as well as to our homecoming dance the past two years, so this wasn’t the first time,” Bain, the school’s high school football captain, said. “It was my fourth school dance with Jake and I couldn’t have imagined a better way to spend our last high school dance.”īain, 19, and Sigmund, 18, are the only openly gay couple at John Burroughs School, but their being at the dance was old news to the students there. “Prom this year was amazing,” Sigmund, a swimmer and water polo player told Outsports. Louis athletes made the most of it this weekend. For seniors Jake Bain and Hunter Sigmund, it was their final high school dance together.