Reply to Reported hazing incident involving Damascus High School JV Football team

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Reply to "Reported hazing incident involving Damascus High School JV Football team"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
These kids were charged as adults because they found it to be first degree rape. [b] First degree!!!! That means it was premeditated. It was planned. They planned to rape or attempt to rape. [/b]That is not group psychology or peer pressure. This was not a caught up in the moment event. There is enough evidence to show it was planned. I understand a 15 year old does not have a fully developed brain until after 21, but they do know right from wrong. Unfortunately, they made a choice to follow through with one of the worst crimes you can possibly commit. I feel for their parents. I feel for the victims and to be honest, I feel for those alleged rapists.  They had so much potential and their whole lives ahead of them. In one minute, they made a choice which has basically ruined their lives and the lives of others. 
[/quote]

No, that is the definition of first degree murder, not rape.  For rape in MD, the MD Criminal Code says that any of the following make rape a first degree indictment that must be referred to the adult court system and not the juvenile court system:

[url]https://maryland-criminallawyer.com/maryland-sex-crimes-lawyer/rape/laws/[/url]
[quote=MD Criminal Code, Section 3-303][list][b]Use, brandish, or display a dangerous weapon or a physical object the victim reasonably believes is a dangerous weapon.[/b][/list]
[list]Inflict serious injury on the victim or another person while committing the rape. This also includes suffocating, strangling, or disfiguring the victim.[/list]
[list][b]Threaten the victim, or otherwise put the victim in fear, that either the victim or another individual will be killed, strangled, suffocated, disfigured, or be subject to serious physical injury or kidnapping.[/b][/list]
[list][b]Rape the victim while assisted by another person.[/b][/list]
[list]Rape the victim as part of a first, second, or third degree burglary.[/list][/quote]

The bolded are the reasons that this was first degree rape and referred to the adult court system.  The perpetrators acted as a group, and they came into the locker room banging the broomstick on walls and lockers, e.g. brandishing it like a club.  They pushed, punched, kicked and stomped on the victims while stripping them of their clothes.  All of these make this a first degree felony crime in the state of MD and force the case to the adult court system.  It wasn't a choice to charge them as adults, it is written into state procedures that first degree felony rape must be sent to the adult court system.  The judge can opt to waive down the case back to the juvenile court system, but it must be reviewed by a judge in the adult court system first.

[quote]
As for MCPS and Damascus, they should have called it what it was and it wasn't hazing. It is an absolute disgrace that they referred to it as hazing.  It was rape. Sending out a video was a piss poor way to deal with any of this. Use peer pressure to make a change. Suspend the whole team for a game, two or a season for anyone caught hazing or bullying. These kids know what is going on. There is talk about what is going to happen. However, parents don't want their poor little Randy to suffer for someone else's actions.  Well, maybe if Randy knew that the actions of his teammates affects him as well, he would step up and prevent nonsense like this or tell someone so it can be prevented. 
[/quote]

I agree.  While I agree the intent was to haze, this goes far beyond hazing.  Hazing does not include a crime, let alone a felony crime.  Once it goes into felony assault, battery, kidnapping, rape or other similar crimes, then it has passed out of hazing and into violent crime.  Hazing does not include felony crime.  If your definition of hazing includes any of these, then I think you need to revisit your definitions and do a little moral self-reflection.  For those who don't agree, the state attorney for Montgomery County, John McCarthy, agrees with me:

[url]https://www.vladtv.com/article/250298/4-high-school-football-players-indicted-for-raping-freshman-with-broomstick[/url]
[quote]State Attorney for Montgomery County John McCarthy warned against calling this a hazing incident, however. He told reporters, "I would caution anyone to refer to this as hazing, [...] These boys were victims of criminal acts. They were not victims of hazing. They were victims of first-degree rapes and attempted rapes. These were crimes."[/quote][/quote]

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