Six of the seven Sayreville War Memorial High School football players involved in the hazing incident last year have received their sentences from the Juvenile Court. The seventh has no court date set for trial as of this date. I talked about this back in October 2014, Sayreville Football Players Suspended for possible sexual assaults.
Of the six players that have been sentenced; all of them got probation and will not have to register as sex offenders. A fairly light sentence in light of what they did. Remember that they were charged with sexual assault and abuse against the younger players from the football team.
Six of the seven of the teenagers charged in the Sayreville War Memorial High School football hazing scandal have been placed on probation and will not have to register as sex offenders. The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said “that there were several incidents of sexual assault and abuse against 14- and 15-year-old teammates.
Four of the six teens pleaded guilty to charges of hazing and endangering the welfare of their young fellow teammates. They’ve been placed on probation for two years and were ordered to provide “truthful testimony against their co-defendants.” The two others were found delinquent in a trial and sentenced to one-year probation.
All six will have to serve 50 hours of community service.”
What is very strange to me is what one of the defendant’s lawyer said “This is a good kid, who never should have been treated like this. It was an overzealous prosecutor, putting forward this case.” If he was such a good kid why did he participate in the hazing and go so far as to not stop the sexual assault of the younger players? His client got a very light sentence and it can not be said that he is innocent in taking part in the disgusting behavior that took place. Even if he himself did not perpetrate such actions upon those assaulted, he is unquestionably guilty of not doing anything to prevent it from happening.
I am disgusted by the reactions of those who worship football in Sayreville. What the players did was against the law and should have never happened. To say let us forget what happened and move on with playing football is just not realistic. If it was your child had suffered these indignities, then you would feel very differently about forgetting what happened.
The Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey did not overreact and make charges that were false. All he did was his job, the failing is in the fact that these so called children should have been charged and sentenced as adults. By bringing them before the court as juveniles it lets the defendants get away from public scrutiny and of course the lesser penalties that happen in Juvenile Court.
Now I will update you on what has happened with some things discussed in past blogs. Legalized sports betting will not coming to New Jersey anytime soon, the federal appeals court overturned New Jersey’s sports betting law for the second time in two years, saying federal statutes forbid gambling on college and professional sports except in a handful of states. The state will appeal this ruling, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the court to allow sports betting here in New Jersey. This was talked about in my blog entitled “Will New Jersey Benefit from sports wagering?”
The Fair Voter law was passed and as of now sits on Governor Chris Christie’s desk. Hopefully the Governor will let this either die or veto it outright. I talked about this in my blog entitled “Do New Jersey’s Voter Laws need to be fixed?”
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
