Youth league cleared by top court

A local youth hockey association is not responsible for a brawl that erupted among spectators at a 2006 tournament for 13-year-olds in Rome, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday.

The lawsuit was filed by Raymond Pink, who received a head injury in the melee following the game between teams from Rome and Whitestown. He had argued that the Rome Youth Hockey Association failed to enforce a “zero tolerance” policy on violence in the stands.

The court ruled, however, that the hockey association could not have foreseen the incident. The man who struck Pink later pleaded guilty to assault.

“The criminal assault ... was not a reasonably foreseeable result of any failure to take preventative measures,” the court ruled.