7 athletes arrested
Published on: 2002-11-15
By Brett Friedlander
Staff writer
Seven Methodist College football players were charged Thursday with hazing another student in the team's locker room after practice Monday.
One of the players, senior wide receiver Antonio Wilkerson, was charged with a second-degree sexual offense. He was released on $5,000 bond.
The others, junior Crasten Davis and seniors Jamar Brown, Angel Garcia, Jamaal Legette, Will McPhaul and Shawn Watkins, were charged with hazing. They were released without having to put up bail.
Davis and McPhaul declined to comment. The others charged could not be reached.
According to witnesses, the group of upperclassmen got in a wrestling match with a freshman teammate immediately after coming off the field from practice.
Such horseplay is not unusual, several team members said Thursday. But this time, the wrestling got out of hand.
"There was a lot of stuff going on, running around, giving people wedgies, writing on (the victim's) butt with a Sharpie pen," said one of the players. "I guess they just crossed the line."
A report filed with the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office by campus police said the attackers held the victim down, stripped him of his underwear and "smacked him numerous times on the rear end."
There were also attempts to write on the victim's naked rear end before one participant, identified as Wilkerson, sexually assaulted the victim with the pen, the report said.
The victim was taken to the emergency room at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. He was treated and released.
He filed a report with campus police that evening.
Immediate suspension
The players were immediately suspended from the team. On Wednesday, a campus police officer filed criminal charges.
Methodist spokeswoman Cynthia Curtis said the college is investigating.
"We're disturbed by it," Curtis said. "But we feel like we've taken appropriate action."
Curtis said that while the school's administration is concerned about what happened, it considers the locker-room attack an isolated incident.
Methodist President Elton Hendricks and head football coach Jim Sypult declined to comment.
"Concern for the safety of our students and anyone visiting our campus is a top priority," Curtis said. "But it's not like we have a rapist on campus. This appears to be a case of horseplay gone awry."
Trouble predicted
At least one member of the football team saw the trouble coming.
He said he warned teammates last week to stop the post-practice wrestling ritual before somebody got hurt or complained to the coaches.
But they didn't listen, primarily because the wrestling has been going on for so long.
"They've been wrestling over there since Day 1, not just this year," said Katherine McPhaul, whose son, Will, is one of those accused in Monday's incident.
"This has been going on ever since my son got there."
McPhaul said she is upset about what happened, but added that she thought her son and several other players have been accused falsely.
"My son is a big boy, and he likes to lift people up and let them down," Katherine McPhaul said. "He told me that's what he did (to the victim) and then he left.
"What the rest of those boys did, they took to an extreme. I don't think they should fault everyone."
A player who witnessed the attack said he thought the media were "blowing all this out of proportion." But a member of the Methodist women's golf team said she thought the players' actions were "pretty crude, to be honest."
Forgettable season
Thursday's arrests marked the low point in an already
forgettable season for the Monarchs.
Their record is 3-6 going into Saturday's season finale against Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival Shenandoah in Winchester, Va.
Six of the seven suspended players are starters.
Wilkerson, who is 21, is a wide receiver from Ocala, Fla.
He leads this year's team with 27 catches for 513 yards and three touchdowns and is Methodist's all-time leading receiver.
Brown, a 21-year-old defensive back from Auburndale, Fla., leads the Monarchs in tackles with 89 and interceptions with two.
Legette, a 21-year-old defensive end from Jacksonville, N.C., is the team leader in sacks with nine.
Garcia, who is 21, is from Tampa, Fla., and Watkins, who is 21, is from Bethany Beach, Del. Both are key defensive players, while Terry Sanford High graduate McPhaul, who is 21, is the starting tight end on offense.
Davis, who is 23, is a reserve linebacker from Mebane.
"That's a pretty big piece of our football team," said John Copeland, a senior at Methodist. "I'm not really certain what happened, but a lot of people around here are talking about it today."