Carmel, Indiana is one of those small towns in the suburbs of a big city (Indianapolis) where the rich people live. The rules in Carmel seem to be different than most places. This news item is very disturbing. Four varsity high school basketball players are accused of raping a 14 year old team-mate yet are facing misdemeanor assault charges...read on...

CARMEL, In -- INDIANAPOLIS STAR - Holding hands and sometimes holding back tears, a mother and father said Wednesday that their 14-year-old son, an aspiring basketball player at Carmel High School, became a target of older players who attacked him on a team bus and in a school locker room.In a news conference with the couple, their attorney, Robert Turner, said the boy was physically violated, adding "that's a little bit more than a simple hazing incident.''

Legal experts said that even Turner's short description of the attack calls into question the filing of misdemeanor counts against four Carmel seniors who were charged earlier this week. Oscar Falodun, Brandon Hoge, Robert Kitzinger and Scott Laskowski were released from the Hamilton County Jail in Noblesville on bond early Tuesday. Falodun, Hoge and Kitzinger face misdemeanor counts of battery and criminal recklessness; Laskowski was charged with three counts of misdemeanor criminal recklessness. Authorities said the charges stem from the Jan. 22 bus incident, plus earlier incidents in the high school locker room from Nov. 1 to Jan. 21. In addition to the 14-year-old boy, at least two other victims are believed to be involved.

The suspects

Turner, a former Indianapolis Police Department official and city director of public safety, described the attacks as "a physical grabbing, a confinement to the point that he was held down, the removal of clothing and just in general I would just say anal penetration. "I won't get any further than that, but that's a little bit more than a simple hazing incident.''Joel Schumm, an Indiana University law professor with expertise in Indiana criminal law, said that as described by Turner, the attacks could have warranted felony charges of criminal deviate conduct. In announcing their investigation of alleged hazing and bullying at Carmel, police officials said in February that criminal deviate conduct was one of the possible crimes under investigation.

Carmel Assistant Police Chief Tim Green declined Wednesday to discuss the filing of misdemeanor charges in the case.The filing of specific charges, Schumm added, would depend on witness testimony and other evidence that remains secret. Hamilton County Prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp opted to take the investigation to a grand jury, where proceedings are private, rather than file charges outright. "If there was some question about the (specifics of) . . . the definition'' of criminal deviate conduct, Schumm said, "that might be the reason the grand jury decided what it did."

Victim advocate Anita Carpenter questioned the decision to go to a grand jury. "I've seen juries and grand juries side with the perpetrator, especially in cases where they have a bright future in front of them,'' said Carpenter, CEO of the Indiana Coalition Against Sexual Abuse. "People don't want to be responsible for ruining someone's life, but they don't think about the victim and the lifelong trauma they'll have to deal with."

Carpenter said she was disappointed with misdemeanors. "You've got to hold offenders accountable,'' she said. "If you don't, it sends the wrong message. I don't think misdemeanor charges hold people accountable, especially if you see them laughing as they're leaving the jail. It's obvious they're not taking this seriously. "These boys will never have a record of committing a sex crime. They'll never have to register on the sex offender list." Falodun's attorney, Mark Sullivan, said his client was not involved in the incident as Turner described it. None of the attorneys for the three other defendants responded to telephone messages to comment on the news conference.

Leerkamp declined to discuss the filing of misdemeanor rather than felony charges, saying she couldn't divulge grand jury discussions. The grand jury was given numerous charging options, she added, but "they declined to indict on those kinds of charges." Her main reason for going to a grand jury, she said, was to protect the criminal justice process. "I still believe that I have acted with a responsible and sensitive manner against everyone involved in these allegations," she said. "The criminal process is not protected when you start talking about evidence that may be presented at some point in time."Retired Indiana University law Professor Henry Karlson on Wednesday reiterated his earlier comments that using a grand jury raises suspicion.

"The press doesn't print the names of sex crime victims," he said. "The only people she could be trying to protect through a grand jury are the suspects. It's a cover-up, pure and simple. It's obscene." At Wednesday's news conference, the mother of the alleged victim also disagreed with Leerkamp's contention that authorities were sparing her son further embarrassment by not describing the attacks or divulging evidence. "Sometimes things aren't pleasant . . . but it's still going to be a better day if the truth comes out," she said. "I think about every child in that school and every other school, and we as parents have to take a look at what's going on in our own households and bring it up in discussion, that this should not be happening to anyone. There is no acceptable level, however you want to look at it.''

The parents -- who have filed a tort claim against Carmel Clay Schools, a move that often leads to a lawsuit -- said their son didn't tell them of the attacks until a family friend informed them of rumors around the school. The attacks started out small and increased, the boy's father said. "It gradually just got worse," he said. "I'm sure in his mind he was thinking at some point in time it was going to level off or stop. And it just didn't happen that way." At that time, the victim's father took him to a hospital emergency room as a precaution. Turner refused to say what, if any, physical injuries the victim suffered. The 14-year-old's life, his parents said, has been turned upside down.

They said they pulled him out of Carmel High School because other students knew what happened and teased him. His parents monitor where he goes alone and try to keep him away from television reports about the case. "Some days he's good; some days, it's tough,'' his father said. "But every day we're concerned about what he's been going through." The boy's father is still haunted by the day his son told him of the attacks. "It was four months ago,'' he said, tearing up, "and I still struggle with that conversation.''