{"id":4351,"date":"2016-12-20T09:25:26","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T14:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=4351"},"modified":"2016-12-20T09:25:26","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T14:25:26","slug":"footballer-spared-jail-kicking-coat-hanger-disabled-teammates-backside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2016\/12\/20\/footballer-spared-jail-kicking-coat-hanger-disabled-teammates-backside\/","title":{"rendered":"Footballer spared jail for kicking coat hanger into disabled teammate\u2019s backside"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ashitha Nagesh for Metro.co.uk<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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IDAHO – A high school footballer player who kicked a coat hanger into the rectum of a mentally disabled teammate has avoided prison.<\/p>\n

John R. K. Howard, 18, was originally charged with \u2018forcible sexual penetration by use of a foreign object\u2019 after he and two other white football players kicked a coat hanger into the rectum of their black, mentally disabled teammate.<\/p>\n

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This could have landed him with a life sentence if he were convicted at trial. However, he was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge in a deal with prosecutors, avoiding a trial and a prison sentence.<\/p>\n

At a court appearance on Friday Howard, who goes to\u00a0Dietrich High School in Dietrich, Idaho, agreed to plead guilty to one count of felony injury to a child, the Twin Falls Times-News<\/a> reported.\u00a0 For this, he will be sentenced to 300 hours of community service with two to three years of probation.<\/p>\n

The assault, carried out in October 2015, was originally being treated as both racially motivated and a sex crime, because of claims he called the victim racist names like \u2018watermelon\u2019 and \u2018n****r\u2019. Prosecutors have now said they are not treating it as either. At the same time, another $10million (\u00a38.1million) civil lawsuit filed by the victim\u2019s family is making its way through the US District Court.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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That case claims the attack was the culmination of months of \u2018severe and pervasive harassment, racial discrimination, mental and physical assault and battery\u2019.<\/p>\n

It goes on to accuse Howard of taunting and humping the victim during sports practices, forcing him to learn a Ku Klux Klan song while waving a Confederate flag, knocking him unconscious during football camp as coaches and players cheered in a circle, and calling him racist names like \u2018Kool-Aid, chicken-eater, watermelon and n****r\u2019.<\/p>\n

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In response to news of the plea deal, the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence released a lengthy statement<\/a> condemning the decision not to treat it as a sex crime.<\/p>\n

\u2018In our culture there is an acceptance of toxic masculine energy, which is defined by domination, aggression, and domestic and sexual violence,\u2019 it said.<\/p>\n

\u2018The young man who was brutally penetrated was viewed as less than our dominant culture \u201cideal\u201d of masculinity. This was a sex crime.\u2019<\/p>\n

Source metro.co.uk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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