By Hector Flores
"Please do not let a bunch of high-school bullies intimidate you into letting extremely serious crimes go unpunished," said Zimmer.
The district attorney has issued a dozen subpoenas requiring Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District officials as well as Mepham High School coaches, football players and their parents to appear before a grand jury in Honesdale, Pa.
Zimmer is seeking answers in a nationally publicized case involving three older Mepham gridmen who allegedly sodomized three younger players with a broomstick, pine cones and golf balls at a Pennsylvania football camp in August.
No arrests have been made in the case, and the names of the suspects have not been released. The district attorney, though, said he is considering filing charges of involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, aggravated assault and kidnapping against the three alleged assailants. Zimmer is also considering lesser charges of simple assault, conspiracy and false imprisonment.
The district attorney said he is frustrated by a lack of information in the case, and during a news conference last Monday, he lashed out at Bellmore-Merrick school officials, saying they have hindered his investigation.
Zimmer said he first learned of the alleged attacks on Sept. 6, and Pennsylvania investigators were dispatched to Mepham High School on Sept. 11 and 12 to conduct interviews with those involved.
The district attorney, however, said that Bellmore-Merrick school officials weren't as cooperative as he had hoped. "The school district administrators and coaches were reluctant to share information with the investigators," he said. "The investigators were informed that certain information they needed -- including the written statements obtained by the school officials from witnesses -- would not be released without receipt of subpoena."
On Monday, the Pennsylvania district attorney's subpoenas were in the hands of the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, which was to serve them.
Bellmore-Merrick school officials defended their actions in declining to turn over their records. Dr. Thomas Caramore, the district superintendent, said in response to Zimmer's criticisms, "We were advised by [legal] counsel for the district ... that the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act forbids us from giving personally identifiable student information without parent consent or subpoena."
On Sept. 12, when Pennsylvania police were in the Bellmore-Merrick district, Caramore said, "We communicated to the officers that we would be willfully violating federal law" if school officials handed over records. "Nevertheless, we advised the Pennsylvania police that we would cooperate fully in every way legally possible."
Caramore continued, "At no time has the Pennsylvania district attorney's office contacted any administrator or official at Mepham High School or the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District."
Richard Hinshaw, spokesman for Nassau District Attorney Denis Dillon, said those served with subpoenas are scheduled to go before Nassau County Court Judge Donald Belfy in Mineola on Friday, Sept. 26. Belfy will rule on whether the served must comply with the subpoenas requiring them to appear before the Pennsylvania grand jury.
"It is during the hearing where people subpoenaed concede to the court order or state their reasons for not submitting to the subpoena," Hinshaw said.
Zimmer also spoke about the numerous difficulties he faces in investigating this case. "The crimes alleged took place in Pennsylvania," the district attorney said, "and all witnesses, victims, perpetrators, school records, hospital and doctors' records are hours away in New York. Our law-enforcement team is being assisted by the Nassau County Police Department's Special Victims Unit and the Nassau County District Attorney's Office."
Zimmer added, "This investigation has absolutely nothing to do with football. It has everything to do with extremely serious criminal allegations. Those allegations can only be properly examined when all the information is made available to the investigators."
