Public Safety

‘Stop, stop, stop’: Police report describes alleged sex assaults in JV football locker room

By Dan Morse and Donna St. George
November 6 at 7:12 PM

The sexual assaults of four high school football players in Maryland last week were part of a hazing ritual at Damascus High School involving a broomstick, according to the accounts of suspects and victims detailed in a police report about the allegations. ... The suspects, members of the junior varsity squad, attacked teammates in a locker room after turning off the lights, according to the report.

They pinned down two victims during the assault, according to the six-page incident report, which had not been made public but was obtained by The Washington Post. A 14-year-old boy could be heard screaming, then a 15-year-old boy cried and called out, “Stop, stop, stop,” according to the report. Two other targets were allegedly forced to the ground but managed to fight off the attacks.

The alleged attacks took place last Wednesday, on Halloween, in a locker room after school was dismissed at Damascus High, a football powerhouse on the northern end of suburban Montgomery County.

The incident report, written by Detective Dana Williams of the Montgomery County Police Department, describes interviews with the reported victims, who said they previously had heard about broomstick attacks but were uncertain about whether the accounts were genuine. ... One of the boys allegedly attacked “reported that when he was in middle school, he heard about ‘brooming,’ but thought that it was a myth,” Williams wrote. Then the teenager was attacked, the report states, and he pleaded with teammates to stop, but they told him it was a “tradition.”
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Dan Morse covers courts and crime in Montgomery County. He arrived at the paper in 2005, after reporting stops at the Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun and Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is the author of "The Yoga Store Murder." Follow https://twitter.com/morsedan

Donna St. George writes about education for The Washington Post, where she has been a reporter since 1998. She previously worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Times. Follow https://twitter.com/donnastgeorge

Public Safety

‘Astonishingly cruel.’ Prosecutor describes locker room sex assault case at Damascus High School

By Dan Morse and Donna St. George
November 26 at 9:20 PM

When the sophomore football players entered the freshman locker room, authorities say, one held up a four-foot broom. He pumped his fist and chanted. ... Lights went off. The handle of the broom could be heard banging against a wall. ... “It’s time,” another sophomore said. ... One of the freshmen tried to leave. A sophomore blocked him from doing so.

This prelude — as described by prosecutors in court on Monday — came before what authorities said was a terrifying series of sexual assaults against four teammates on Oct. 31 inside a locker room at Damascus High School in Maryland.

Four 15-year-old suspects, making their first appearance in Montgomery County District Court on Monday, have each been charged with one count of first-degree rape, three counts of attempted first-degree rape and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree rape. They were all members of Damascus’s junior varsity team, as were four alleged victims.
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Dan Morse covers courts and crime in Montgomery County. He arrived at the paper in 2005, after reporting stops at the Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun and Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is the author of "The Yoga Store Murder." Follow https://twitter.com/morsedan

Donna St. George writes about education for The Washington Post, where she has been a reporter since 1998. She previously worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Times. Follow https://twitter.com/donnastgeorge