Posted: Wednesday, 06 June 2007 7:48AM
Teens Face Prison for Brutal Hazing of Schoolmates
MANCHESTER, Conn. Three boys accused of brutally hazing three younger classmates at a Glastonbury home for gifted minority boys are facing prison time after accepting a plea agreement.
Jeff Utobor, Silvester Baez and Pedro Reyes each pleaded no contest Tuesday to a reduced charge of second-degree assault before Judge Raymond Norko in Superior Court.
The three teenagers, who are from outside the state, lived at a home in Glastonbury and attended the local high school through a program called A Better Chance. They were among four upperclassmen accused of abusing three freshmen in the home.
According to court documents, the victims were ordered to do push-ups and to fight each other as well as being slapped, punched, kicked and hit with pingpong paddles.
[Hmm. Sound familiar? Prison sentences for the same violence some kids experience in program? Double-standard? Only "therapeutic" if doled out by staff?] Utobor, Baez and Reyes accepted the state's offer of five years in prison, suspended after nine months, followed by five years of probation. Norko may sentence them to up to 24 months active prison time.
A fourth teen, Christopher Lewis, pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in March and was given probation.
The teenagers are 16 or 17 and are from New York City or Massachusetts. They were participants in A Better Chance, a 32-year-old program that accepts out-of-state boys from cities and offers them a Glastonbury education.
The three have separate sentencing dates in August.
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Information from: The Hartford Courant,
http://www.courant.com(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
