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Charges Filed Against Seven Sayreville Football Players; Coaches’ Futures in Question

Seven members of the Sayreville high school football team now face criminal charges, including three who are charged with aggravated sexual assault. It is unclear whether the coaches knew what was going on and what will happen to them.

Seven members of the Sayreville high school football team now face criminal charges, including three who are charged with aggravated sexual assault. It is unclear whether the coaches knew what was going on and what will happen to them. Shutterstock

Content note: This article contains a description of alleged sexual assaults.

Charges were filed by the Middlesex County Prosecutors Thursday night against seven Sayreville, New Jersey, high school football players who were investigated for participating in a hazing ritual in which seniors allegedly held down their freshmen teammates and anally penetrated them with a finger.

Three players remain in custody.

The situation in Sayreville first made news a few weeks ago when Superintendent Richard Labbe announced the Sayreville War Memorial High School’s football team, known as the Bombers, would forfeit a weekend game amid rumors of a police investigation into violent hazing by older members of the team.

Labbe then canceled the remainder of the season, saying that the investigation had uncovered “enough evidence to substantiate there were incidents of harassment, intimidation and bullying that took place on a pervasive level, on a wide-scale level, and at a level in which the players knew, tolerated and in general accepted.”

Though Labbe was accused by some players, parents, and community members of overreacting, more information surfaced in the days since suggesting that the hazing incidents were frequent and involved anal penetration.

The prosecutor’s office focused on four separate incidents that allegedly took place at the high school between September 19 and September 29. Three players have been charged with aggravated sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual contact, conspiracy to commit aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal restraint, and hazing.

One of those defendants and four others were also charged with various criminal counts, including aggravated assault, conspiracy, aggravated criminal sexual contact, hazing, and rioting. The names of those charged have not been released, as all are juveniles between the ages of 15 and 17.

Aggravated sexual assault is a first-degree crime and even a juvenile could face up to five years in prison if found guilty. Prosecutors can ask to try the young men as adults. If found guilty, they could get longer prison sentences and could be required to register as sex offenders upon their release.   

While the players face criminal charges, it is unclear what will happen to the coaches.

The Sayreville football program had eight coaches, five of whom are tenured employees of the district, while three serve as substitute teachers. Labbe has told a local paper that he doesn’t believe the coaches had knowledge of what was happening in the locker room.

“I think that if the coaches would have known what was going on or even participated, they would have been criminally prosecuted. I’m not an attorney, but I believe that would have been criminal,” he said. “It was noted in the Middlesex County prosecutor’s statement that at this point no coaches have been charged.”

Labbe and his staff have not been able to question the coaches yet because they remain part of the prosecutor’s investigation.

The coaches were told to report for work this week but their fates remain in question. Firing a tenured employee requires a long process and evidence of at least some kind of misconduct or failure to perform duties. The district school board could decide to suspend the coaches for up to 120 days with pay when it meets again on Tuesday.

In a separate incident apparently unrelated to the Sayreville football program, one assistant coach was arrested in neighboring Somerset County after a routine traffic stop revealed he had steroids and 14 hypodermic needles in his pickup truck.

Labbe and the school board say they are continuing to take the hazing incidents seriously and will cooperate fully with police and prosecutors. In a statement, Labbe said:

As should be evident by now, the Sayreville Board of Education takes this matter extremely seriously and thus will continue to make the safety and welfare of our students, particularly the victims of these horrendous alleged acts, our highest priority. In the ensuing days, weeks, and months, we will come together as a school district and greater community to harness the strength required to support the young men who may have been victimized and then to begin the healing process for our beloved community.

Wendy Rondeau, a community member, told NJ.com that she always believed the allegation were true because “you don’t just make stuff like that up.”

She added, “For something like this to happen is shocking. But we will get through this.” The unnamed parent who first leaked the details of the allegation said: “The only hero in this town are the kids, these freshman kids that stepped up.”