4 Sayreville Football Players Admit To Charges In Sexual Hazing Case

Four players connected to the Sayreville High School football hazing scandal last year have admitted to their involvement, according to media reports.

Four of the players pleaded guilty to charges Monday and were placed on two years of probation, My Central Jersey reports. Two others were found delinquent during a trial in Family Court, the reports say.

SI.com is reporting each also was sentenced to 50 hours of community service. The teens avoided having to register for Megan’s Law, however, and none was found guilty of the most serious charges involving sexual assault.

The two teens tried in Family Court initally were convicted of simple assault and disorderly conduct, according to a report on NJ.com. One of those defendants was found delinquent of hindering by lying to police, the equivalent of a fourth-degree indictable offense, the Middlesex County prosecutor’s office said. The two were sentenced to a year of probation.

The two tried in Family Court were originally found delinquent of criminal restraint, officials said, but “without the receipt of any additional testimony, the judge reversed his own findings of fact” and found the juveniles not guilty after an appeal by the defendants, the NJ.com report said. A criminal restraint conviction would have subjected the two to Megan’s Law registration requirements, officials said.

A seventh defendant’s case is still pending, reports say.

The charges stemmed from accusations that surfaced last October, where freshmen players said they were brutally hazed by upperclassmen teammates in the football locker room, who turned off the lights and sexually abused them.

The reports about the hazing -- which may have gone on for a year or more -- led to the removal of the football coaching staff and a complete shutdown of the Sayreville football program.

It also led school districts around New Jersey to re-examine their policies regarding supervision of athletes, as the allegations said the incidents occurred when there were no coaches supervising the players.

NJ.com reported details of the incidents, which included two 15-year-olds holding down a 14-year-old and assaulting him through his clothing, the report said. Those three defendants pleaded guilty, the report said.