By Victor Ochieng
Had the law enforcement not intervened, five football players from an Illinois evangelical Christian college involved in beating up and raping a student could’ve only faced minor punishment. According to reports, the students were only asked to do 50 hours of community work and write an 8-page essay in which they were expected to explain their actions.
Now the students have to go through the justice system after the police took over the case and had the five players arrested and charged.
In the 2016 incident, the victim was left half-naked and tied using duct tape. He’d been beaten and left with two torn shoulders.
James Cooksey, Kyler Kregel, Benjamin Pettway, Noah Spielman and Samuel TeBos, all students at Wheaton College, were booked and their bail set at $50,000 this past Monday. According to a report released by the Chicago Tribune, each of the college athletes was charged with “aggravated battery, mob action and unlawful restraint.”
Even though the police declined to share details of the case, the Chicago Tribune learned that on March 19, 2016, the victim was watching TV when his teammates attacked him. He tried to resist, but his attackers overpowered him and wrapped his legs and wrists in duct tape. No one intervened as the attackers carried the victim out of the building with a pillowcase on his head.
The freshman victim reported that he was bundled in the backseat of one of the teammates’ cars and held down on the seat even as other teammates pushed themselves into the vehicle. As soon as the car started moving, the students played Middle Eastern music and uttered slurs against Muslims, the victim recounted.
Court records further reveal that the victim told investigators that at some point, the players threatened him saying he’d been kidnapped by Muslims interested in fornicating with goats and that he’d be their goat for that evening.
During the drive, the students used more duct tape to restrain the freshman. They pulled down his shorts and underwear before they tried to insert something into his rectum. That was a little too much for him, so he yelled at them to stop, only to end up being beaten up by them.
“This has had a devastating effect on my life,” the victim told the Tribune. “What was done to me should never occur in connection with a football program or any other activity. … I am confident that the criminal prosecution will provide a fair and just punishment to the men who attacked me.”
The question many were left asking is how the school could only punish such an act by asking the perpetrators to only do 50 hours of community work and write an 8-page essay.
Hemant Mehta, editor of Friendly Atheist who also shared the story on Patheos.com, wrote: “They reportedly assaulted, kidnapped, and sodomized a student. Maybe two of them. And all they had to do so far was write a godd*mn essay and do some volunteer work. Their punishment was something many college students do on their own already.”
It’s good that justice is being done.
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