Hillsborough Rutgers Student Sues Star Baseball Pitcher

By CARLY BALDWIN (Patch Staff)

Rutgers -- The former student manager of the Rutgers baseball team has sued a player on the team, saying the star pitcher first attacked him with a water hose and then wrung his neck in a late-night encounter in the dorms.

Albert DeSanto, the student manager, filed the civil suit against John O'Reilly, over a drunken incident that he says happened between the two of them on Oct. 18, 2014, on the third floor of Lynton Towers, south. DeSanto lived in that dorm.

DeSanto, 25 at the time, said he got up to use the bathroom that night, stopped by to say "hi" to friends in another dorm room and that's when he bumped into 19-year-old O'Reilly in the hallway, who was visibly intoxicated.

O'Reilly put down the beer he was carrying in a janitor's closet and then grabbed a water hose attached to a wall, according to the suit. He turned it on and started spraying water, backing DeSanto into a corner in the hallway.

DeSanto said he pleaded with O'Reilly to stop, and O'Reilly responded by drunkenly running towards him, yelling "Don't talk down to me, you're not my parents!"

O'Reilly continued to charge at him, DeSanto said, and DeSanto tried to shield his face. O'Reilly lifted up a wooden wall shelf board, threatening to hit him with it, according to the suit, but two other students intervened then and pulled it away from him. DeSanto said he tried to walk to his room then, but the much larger, 6' 5" O'Reilly wrapped his hands around his neck and lifted 5'6" DeSanto off the ground.

The move caused permanent neck injuries, DeSanto said, which he needed surgery for and still needs treatment for to this day. He was so badly injured he needed a plate and two screws implanted in his spine.

O'Reilly pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disturbing the peace for the incident. Yet he received no discipline from Rutgers university, his lawyers told NJ.com, which first reported the story.

DeSanto said he thinks O'Reilly went unpunished by Rutgers because he's a standout athlete on a scholarship. His civil suit demands O'Reilly pay damages from the incident.

O'Reilly is from Northvale in Bergen County. DeSanto is from Hillsborough. DeSanto was a standout baseball player at Raritan Valley Community College.

He also told NJ.com he still doesn't know why O'Reilly attacked him. He said they only knew each other for a month and had no previous conflicts.

"I'm still unsure why," he told NJ.com. "I was completely sober in my dormitory hallway and returning to my room to go to bed."

Rutgers declined to comment, and O'Reilly's father, Michael O'Reilly, said to an NJ.com reporter in a telephone interview:

"Look, it's an 18-year-old kid in his first semester at college. What do I say? I don't know why this is news a year and a half later."