Charges dropped against four coaches and officials related to New Mexico HS hazing incident
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Bill Jempty | Monday, September 14, 2009 |
Two male students have already pled guilty to charges arising from hazings that took place in August 2008. From the Las Vegas Optic-
Charges have been dropped against school officials and coaches accused of not reporting a series of attacks at a football camp last year — and at least one victim’s parents, as well as the prosecutor who initially filed the charges, aren’t a bit happy about it.
Superintendent Rick Romero, Athletic Director Michael Yara, former head football coach Ray Woods and former assistant coach Adam Alvarez were each facing a misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect. Eighth Judicial District Attorney Donald Gallegos said he dropped the charges after determining that the case would not likely hold up on appeal, even if he could get a conviction.
“The duty-to-report statute did not fit this particular aspect of this crime,†Gallegos said Friday.
The legal sticking point was in the state’s definition of an abused child, Gallegos said. In the Children’s Code, a person is required to report suspected abuse, but it goes on to define such abuse as coming from a “parent, guardian or custodian†— not another child.
Gallegos added that legislative intent may have been to require reporting child abuse regardless of the age of the person doing the abuse, but the law doesn’t state this.
At least one of these animals men facilitated rape(One assistant coach walked into a cabin while the sodomizing of a student took place and took no action other than to tell the boys to stop it.) and they will face no criminal punishment? This is just outrageous.
I am not the only one holding that viewpoint.
The parents went further in suggesting the ramifications to such a decision:
“What District Attorney Donald Gallegos and Prosecutor Leslie Fernandez are saying is that if a teacher knows that a female student is forcibly held down by several male students and sodomized, then they have no legal responsibility to report the crime because it was not committed by adults.
“We allege that the only reason this is different is because these are sexual assaults committed by boys against boys,†the parents said. “It is an unpleasant topic that nobody obviously wants to deal with, (but) deal with it! We are!â€
If it had been a case of a girl being raped and a school official had turned a blind eye to it, the outrage would have resounded a lot further than New Mexico and it would have increased in volume when the prosecutor dropped the charges. The boys who were being sodomized were allowed to remain in the company of their tormentors. How about charging at least one of these people as being an accessory? What a spineless jellyfish of a criminal prosecutor Donald Gallegos is.
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