By Scott Brinton and Hector Flores
"We [in the Central High School District administration] respect and appreciate the work of the grand jury and their efforts to bring justice to the victims of the tragic incident.
"We have been conducting our own investigation of the events involving Mepham's football team. We took decisive action by canceling the football season and by not reappointing the coaches. Our district does not tolerate hazing and has written policies prohibiting hazing and other inappropriate student conduct.
"It would be inappropriate to comment on the investigation while it is proceeding. I can, however, tell you that if the results of the investigation warrant my taking disciplinary action against anyone involved, I will not hesitate to do so.
"We do not have access to the testimony that the grand jury received. To the extent allowed by the law, we are urging the district attorney in Wayne County to provide the Central District with a copy of the transcript of the grand jury so that we may use this information to expedite our own investigation."
A Wayne County (Pa.) grand jury, which convened last fall to examine the Mepham High School football scandal, lashed out last week at the three varsity players -- Phil Sofia, Ken Carney and Thomas Diasparra -- who confessed to sexually assaulting three junior-varsity squad members at a Pennsylvania camp last August.
In an eight-page report that detailed precisely how the repeated attacks were carried out during the five-day camp, the grand jury stated that it is "appalled and sickened by the crimes committed by the players at this football camp."
The grand jury was given free reign to investigate any and all sides of the scandal, but was specifically assigned to determine whether charges should be brought against the five Mepham coaches who ran the camp. Ultimately, the jury decided that charges were unwarranted.
Before the report, the media had widely reported that the three older players assaulted the three ninth-graders with a broomstick, pine cones and golf balls. Last week, some media outlets began publishing the more graphic and lurid details of the attacks found in the report. The Herald has chosen not to report that information in the interest of protecting the victims.
Attorney Robert Kelly, who represents two of the victims, said his clients "are not happy" that a grand jury report containing details of the attacks was made public. (See editorial, page 34.)
subhead: Wanted them tried as adults
Grand jurors noted that the three perpetrators were tried as juveniles, but jurors believed they should have been charged as adults. "The grand jury is very disappointed with the Wayne County judge and the juvenile justice system that allowed this to happen. The decision to retain these cases in the juvenile justice system let down and insulted the victims and their families, the citizens of their community in New York, the citizens of Wayne County and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."
Wayne County President Judge Robert Conway ruled that Pennsylvania law did not allow the three to be tried as adults. In Pennsylvania, there are only two circumstances in which minors -- those under age 18 -- can be tried as adults: if they have criminal records, or if they used a deadly weapon to commit a crime.
subhead: No evidence to charge coaches
The grand jury examined the role of the five Mepham football coaches -- Kevin McElroy, Art Canestro, Erwin Wolosky, Steve Vernet and Brian Scott -- at the camp, and weighed whether there was enough evidence to charge them with endangering the welfare of children, or recklessly endangering another person, or both.
The grand jury report stated, "After thoroughly examining the elements of those crimes and the evidence presented, the grand jury finds no basis for charging the coaches..."
The report also confirmed that the coaches did not know about the assaults until after they returned from camp.
Still, the grand jury chastised the coaches. "Although the grand jury recognizes that criminal culpability will not be assessed against the coaches ... [we] heard clear evidence that the coaches displayed a lack of common sense accountability when it came to managing or running the camp. The coaches were not even aware that two of the victims had changed cabins on the last night after other older players took pity on them and moved them to a safe bunkhouse.
"The coaching staff as a whole," the report concluded, "appears to have been more concerned with being coaches of a football team than interested in the well-being of the players as students."
In an interview with the Herald, McElroy, the head coach, said he and the other coaches were relieved to hear that no charges against them were filed. "I honestly believed that when I went to the grand jury in December, I had nothing to fear. Now it's officially stated," he said.
McElroy, however, was surprised to read that the grand jury believed the coaches lacked common sense because they did not sleep in the cabins with the players. The coaches followed district policy by staying in a separate cabin, he said. The Bellmore-Merrick Central District doesn't permit coaches or chaperones to room with students for liability reasons, school officials said.
"If I slept in a room with" the players, McElroy said, "I risked insubordination."
Kelly, the victims' attorney, said, "My clients are disappointed that criminal charges were not filed against the coaches. There was evidence that the grand jury did not hear, which would have indicated that the coaches endangered the welfare of the children.
"Neither of my clients," Kelly said, "were asked to testify before the grand jury -- only the district attorney, the coaches and one of the attackers. If they had been asked by the D.A. to testify, then there would have been evidence that the coaches knew of hazing."
subhed: Hazing traditions
Kelly continued, "I'm not suggesting that [the coaches] knew [about the sexual assaults], but they certainly knew that there was a tradition of hazing. The coaches knew that it was going on, and they knew that it was going to happen. They should have had a zero-tolerance policy."
The grand jury report noted a culture of hazing at the camp and at Mepham High. The report did not indicate a past history of sexual assault. It stated that in previous years, players punched or beat up one another, dunked one another's heads in toilet bowls and flushed (a practice known among players as a swirly), and squirted toothpaste in underclassmen's hair.
The report also spoke of Freshman Friday, an annual day of hazing that has gone on at Mepham and numerous other South Shore high schools for years, which the Herald first reported in September. On Freshmen Friday, upperclassmen traditionally pick on male ninth-graders, knocking their books out of their hands, punching them in the arm, stuffing them in lockers and taping them to the flagpole, several freshmen told the Herald.
The grand jury report stated that Mepham football "coaching staff warned the players before the camp that they would not tolerate any hazing or other such activity. The written camp proposal that went home with the players for their parents' approval contained ... six rules for the campers. Number six among the rules was, 'There will be no hazing of players.' This was the only rule printed in all capital letters."
The report continued, "Despite these warnings and policies, the players all expected hazing to take place in one form or another at the camp. There was no evidence that players expected the types of assaults that did occur, or that the activity would continue over a number of days."
Subhead: Fear dominates
According to the report, fear flowed through the football camp. The grand jury stated in its findings that the assailants used their larger size to intimidate the three victims into silence. The report noted that the victims said nothing to the coaches, even though they had opportunities to do so.
Kelly said, "All the kids were threatened over and over. That is why no one said anything ... The victims were threatened that they were going to get broomsticked again ... Kids don't like reporting attacks because they are embarrassed."
The attorney said that one of his clients telephoned his parents during camp and complained that his ankles hurt and he had to miss a practice. "It wasn't until the victims came home and realized how seriously they had been injured [by the attacks] that they told their parents," Kelly said.
subhead: Harsh words for administrators
The report also criticized Central District administrators. "The lack of accountability appears to permeate the entire structure of the administration and running of this camp program. The [Mepham] high school administration knew of the problems with the student who eventually became the main perpetrators and instigator of the crimes.
"He had previously threatened teachers and been involved in fights with other students over a two-year period," the report stated. "He appeared at the bus the day it left for camp without a signed permission slip to attend. In spite of all this, he was allowed to go to the camp because he was a good football player."
McElroy said he believes the perpetrator, Carney, had his mother sign a permission slip just before he got on the bus for camp. The slip, he said, was later discovered to be missing, and he isn't sure why. Nevertheless, he said the school received "implied permission" for Carney to attend, because his mother dropped him off at the bus.
The report, which grand jurors asked to be sent to Pennsylvania and New York lawmakers, offered suggestions for improving student safety at training camps. The ideas included:
¥Increase the number of adult chaperones.
¥Improve on the system of cabin sleeping assignments.
¥Increase random bed checks.
¥And overall, increase checks on students and their activities.
The Herald was told by a football father last fall that he had volunteered to serve as a chaperone for the camp, but was not allowed to attend. McElroy said that a parent and a guardian had each offered to act as volunteer coaches, but the district administration wouldn't allow them at the camp, even though McElroy wanted them there. The district said it was a liability to have non-district coaches at the camp.
McElory also said that over the years, he has asked for a sixth coach, but has been repeatedly denied one because of budgetary constraints. In 2002, when he had nearly 100 players at the football camp, he was given a sixth paid coach. Then, during the 2002 season, roughly 15 players dropped out of the football program and the sixth coach was cut, according to McElroy.
Finally, the report encouraged the Central District to undertake "an exhaustive review and updating of policies and procedures for activities such as the football camp."
District officials said Bellmore-Merrick will no longer sponsor sports camps. And Dr. Thomas Caramore, the schools superintendent, noted that the Central District is reviewing and revising its hazing, bullying and character-education policies through a 90-member committee that will conclude its work in June.
Kelly said he could not comment about how, specifically, he believes the coaches failed to protect the victims, but that he would do so during a news conference in Mineola on Wednesday, after press time, at which his clients will announce two civil lawsuits against the Central District.
