Carmel basketball players charged with misdemeanors

Carmel basketball players charged with misdemeanors
By Elizabeth Noel
Current in Carmel

At a press conference Monday, Hamilton County prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp announced that four former basketball players at Carmel High School, all seniors, were indicted on misdemeanor charges stemming from their purported harassment of teammates. 

 John Laskowski was charged with three counts of criminal recklessness. Oscar Falodun was charged with one count battery and two counts of criminal recklessness. Brandon Hoge was charged with two counts of battery and one count of criminal recklessness. Robert Kitzinger was charged with two counts of battery and two counts of criminal recklessness.  None of the former players is a student at CHS. Each was expelled at the first report of possible illegal activities, but Hamilton County Prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp said arrangements have been made for them to graduate.

The purported perpetrators are to report to Hamilton County Jail, where they may elect to post bond. The maximum penalty for criminal recklessness 180 days in prison or $3,000, and the maximum penalty for battery is one year in prison or $5,000. 

 The players were kicked off the basketball team after several harassment incidents in January surfaced. One incident occurred on Jan. 8, when, according to the indictment, all four players were alleged to have been involved in “grabbing” and “holding” two students in the team's locker room. The other occurred on a team bus on Jan. 22, when Kitzinger and Hoge were said to have touched a player in a “rude, insolent or angry manner.”

 Leerkamp said her principal objective was to remain ethical. She would not go into detail about the actions of the alleged perpetrators to avoid further embarrassing the victims and “re-victimizing” them, but she said that the incidents were “beyond hazing” and “out of control.”

 Both Leerkamp and Hendricks County Prosecutor Patricia Baldwin, who represents the geographical territory where the bus crime is alleged to have occurred, said charging the players with misdemeanors rather than felonies was “not a cop out.” Leerkamp said that it was important to separate rumor and innuendo from fact throughout the prosecution process. The court interviewed more than 57 witnesses over 12 days. 
 

“I wasn't sure what was right; that's why I had the process with the grand jury,” Leerkamp said. “But I very much respect (the grand jury’s) decisions.”