5 high school athletes charged in Frederick County locker room assault

This story contains details of an alleged sexual assault.

Five teenagers are charged with assault, and one with sexual assault, after an investigation into a reported attack last April in a lacrosse locker room at Brunswick High School in Frederick County, Maryland.

Investigators said they also uncovered an earlier incident, previously unreported.

The criminal allegations against the five students, ranging in age from 15 to 17, will be handled in juvenile court, Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said.

He said detectives investigating the April 11 incident discovered an earlier and similar incident April 3, with a second alleged victim, in which some of the same students were involved.

“I think the investigators did a great job of broadening the investigation to find that second event, second incident that happened previous to the first reported incident,” Jenkins said.

A lawsuit has been filed by the parents of one of the alleged victims, referred to as John Doe #1, a minor.

It accuses Brunswick’s principal, athletic director and head lacrosse coach of negligence.

The suit claims the alleged assault took place in the lacrosse locker room before practice and that it was unsupervised at the time.

It alleges that “[…] as many as three lacrosse players held [the student down],” and”[…} touched, assaulted and slapped him with a [sex toy].”

The lawsuit goes on to allege, “the perpetrators videorecorded the sexual assault and the video has been distributed to the public.”

It alleges that John Doe left the locker room afterward and immediately called his mother, who contacted the athletic director and coach and demanded they call the police.

Several hours later, when none of those people contacted the authorities, the lawsuit alleges, the parents did so themselves.

Brunswick parents News4 spoke with expressed concern.

“Anything like that to take seriously, yes, but it’s also important that the administration is held accountable, too,” one parent said.

A spokesperson for Frederick County Public Schools said they do not comment on pending litigation.

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