Eleven lacrosse players at West Hill High School in Syracuse, N.Y., have been charged with unlawful imprisonment in the second degree — a misdemeanor — due to their alleged involvement in the extreme hazing of five younger teammates.
As reported by CNN, citing a partially redacted complaint Thursday by the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office and the Onondaga County District Attorney’s office, the teens are accused of plotting or participating in the same stunt: staging a kidnapping scene and making younger teammates believe they were being abducted by armed assailants dressed in black.
The fates of the suspects could vary widely, and the closeness of their tight-knit community presented an unusual challenge for victims’ families, CNN's Emma Tucker, Holly Yan and Shimon Prokupecz reported.
All 11 suspects surrendered to authorities last week after district attorney William Fitzpatrick publicly offered them a deal Tuesday: Turn yourself in within 48 hours, and face a misdemeanor charge of unlawful imprisonment. Don’t turn yourself in, and face a more serious charge of felony kidnapping, CNN reported.
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Authorities have not identified the suspects due to their ages. While most of the suspects are minors, at least one is older than 18, Onondaga County first chief assistant district attorney Joseph Coolican said.
The suspects have started facing school suspension hearings, two people familiar with the process told CNN.
Westhill Central School District superintendent Stephen Dunham has declined to share details about the students’ discipline, citing privacy measures. In a message sent to the school community on Friday, Dunham said the teens “have accepted responsibility and will face consequences” under the district’s code of conduct, which prohibits hazing.
The district plans to bolster its current hazing and bullying prevention programs by providing additional training for coaches and student-athletes and performing a review of its current policies, Dunham said.
The hazing incident in question took place April 24, when some of the suspects tricked several younger players into believing they were going to McDonald’s after a lacrosse game.
The driver of the vehicle claimed he was lost in a remote part of the county, the DA said. That’s when accomplices dressed in black and wielding what appeared to be at least one handgun and a knife jumped out of the woods, pretending to be kidnappers.
Some of the young victims managed to escape, but one student couldn’t flee, the DA said. The perpetrators put a pillowcase over that teen’s head, tied him up and threw him in the trunk of a car before ditching him in another wooded part of the county, according to authorities.
The young player thought he was “going to be abandoned in the middle of nowhere,” the district attorney said. He was eventually returned home.
The incident was captured on video, and “you can hear that some of the (suspects) found it amusing,” Fitzpatrick said.
Under New York state law, offenders aged under 19 can be eligible for Youthful Offender Status, which seals their criminal record and gives greater discretion to their punishment.
A judge must ook at the nature of the offense, whether the suspect has prior felony convictions, and whether the suspect is accused of other violent crimes, which could make them ineligible for that status.
For an 18-year-old suspect, defense lawyers will likely ask for their clients to be given Youthful Offender Status “because it’s the more favorable treatment in terms of the sealing of their record and the punishment,” CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson said, as opposed to “getting slammed as an adult.”
