Four Carmel High School seniors have been charged in two aggressive hazing incidents involving the basketball team.
A grand jury indicted Scott Laskowski, Robert Kitzinger, Brandon Hoge and Oscar Falodun on misdemeanor charges of battery and criminal recklessness.
The charges stem from a Jan. 22 school bus incident and a Jan. 8 Carmel High locker room attack. Both incidents were originally characterized as hazing. Prosecutors said there were two victims on the bus and one in the locker room incident.
Details of the alleged crimes were not released.
“I would say it went beyond hazing,” Hamilton County Prosecutor Sonia Leekrcamp told reporters at a press conference.
Today’s news:
>> Falodun is charged with two counts of criminal recklessness and one count of battery.
>> Hoge is charged with two counts of battery and one count of recklessness.
>> Kitzinger is charged with two counts of criminal recklessness and two counts of battery.
>> Laskowski is charged with three counts of recklessness.
Lakskowski and Falodun were involved in the locker room incidents. Hoge and Kitzinger were linked to the event on the team bus trip.
Leerkamp said she was disturbed by attitudes she found among young people during the investigation. Some youngsters feared they would be the next victims; others thought the victims brought the attacks on themselves.
“Both of those attitudes are unacceptable,” Leerkamp said.
The four suspects were expelled, but will be allowed to graduate, Leerkamp said.
The deliberate pace of the investigation fueled rumors in Carmel about the case and criticism of the police and prosecutors. Leerkamp said the severity of the charges under investigation, as well as the youth of the students involved, required that police and prosecutors take their time.
