MAY 27--A quartet of high school wrestlers from Wisconsin’s state championship team is facing criminal charges for allegedly sexually harassing a fellow grappler in the squad’s locker room.
A 15-year-old boy told cops about his Lincoln High School teammates “dancing around him while they are naked, swinging their penises at him,” according to a criminal complaint based on an investigation by Wisconsin Rapids Police Department officers.The freshman wrestler told cops that he was harassed “about five to ten times” during the season, and that “during some of those occasions he was hit by each of their penises on his leg.” Additionally, he told of one incident in the shower when a teammate “placed his penis on [victim’s] butt.” The boy added that he “could not get away because he was boxed in by two other wrestlers.”
On another occasion, the victim said that he “had to climb into a locker” to prevent being hit in the face by the penis of another wrestler.
Investigators learned of the alleged harassment after the boy’s mother contacted the school’s principal to report that her son did not want to go to the team banquet “because of the sexual harassment he was receiving.”
Police interviewed six witnesses who confirmed aspects of the boy’s account of his abuse. As a result, the four wrestlers were charged this week with misdemeanor disorderly conduct, according to the complaint filed in Wood County Circuit Court.
The defendants are Zachary Benitz, 18; Kasey Einerson, 17; Rylan Lubeck, 17; and Devin Peterson, 17. Benitiz’s father is coach of the school’s wrestling team, which this year won its 20th team state championship. Benitz, Einerson, Lubeck, and Peterson are pictured, clockwise from upper left, in the above photos. (3 pages)
