Indiana

Keep It Civil

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

The attorney for the former Carmel High School student who was a victim of alleged hazing by four student athletes has released the Department of Child Services report regarding the attack on his client.

You can read a copy of the report here.  It’s pretty graphic so consider yourself warned.

What I found most interesting about the report is that the case manager who investigated stated there was enough credible evidence for a finding that sexual battery had taken place.  That’s important, not because of the criminal trial, but because of the civil trial.

Remember, in a civil case all you need is a preponderance of the evidence that the event occurred, beyond a reasonable doubt is the standard for criminal cases.

If I were the Carmel school district, the last thing I would want is a young man to get up on the witness stand so he could talk about how  his classmates would “take their fingers and repeatedly shove them up my behind”  and how they threatened to “beat his ass” if he told anyone.

School officials probably would want to write the check now and get this behind them.

It ain’t gonna be pretty folks.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on June 28, 2010 (boomark / email).