5 WHEAT ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYERS CHARGED IN 2016 HAZING INCIDENT
Five Wheaton College football players face felony charges in connection with a 2016 hazing incident, authorities confirmed Monday.
James Cooksey, Kyler Kregel, Benjamin Pettway, Noah Spielman and Samuel TeBos were charged with aggravated battery, mob action and unlawful restraint, the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office told ABC7 Chicago.
A DuPage County judge signed arrest warrants Monday afternoon, setting bail for each at $ 50,000.
In a statement, Wheaton College officials said they were “deeply troubled” by the allegations against the five football players and called the conduct “entirely unacceptable and inconsistent with the values we share as human beings and as members of an academic community.”
“We are profoundly saddened that any member of our community could be mistreated in any way,” the statement said.
College officials said the incident was brought to their attention by other members of the football team and coaching staff in March 2016. Officials say they hired an independent, third- party investigator to conduct an internal investigation, which resulted in a range of “corrective actions.”
But officials said they were unable to share details of those disciplinary measures due to federal student privacy protections.
The incident prompted the college’s board of trustees to engage outside experts to lead a campuswide review of the effectiveness of the school’s anti- hazing policy and “the culture around how students treat one another in our campus communities, athletic teams and organizations,” the statement said.