WHEELING, W.Va. — Two Wheeling Park High School basketball players are facing expulsion from school after they allegedly admitted to school administrators to holding down a third basketball player, pulling down his pants and touching his genitals on a return school bus trip from Morgantown.
The incident that played out on an Ohio County school bus two weeks ago today is detailed in a lengthy police report released Monday by the Ohio County Sheriff’s Department.
The six-page report, filed by Deputy Chad Clatterbuck, was released publicly Monday and provides a detailed narrative of how the incident came to be reported, discussions between law enforcement and school officials, interviews with the students themselves and how jurisdictional issues – namely the fact that no one is quite sure where the alleged incident took place, except that it didn’t happen in Ohio County – led to no charges being filed in the matter, even though Ohio County Prosecutor Scott Smith said in Clatterbuck’s report that charges were warranted.
In all, three students are facing potential criminal charges for their alleged conduct on the school bus, if jurisdiction can be determined. Along with two students allegedly holding a third down, two others – one of whom is the alleged assault victim – reportedly exposed themselves in the aisle of the bus, and there is video evidence from the bus to confirm those actions, according to the report.
There is no video evidence of the alleged assault, as according to the report the video recorder on the bus “malfunctioned.” However, the two players who allegedly held down the third admitted their roles to Wheeling Park administrators Katrina Lewis and Stephanie Bugaj, the report states, and they in turn informed Clatterbuck.
The first notification to the sheriff’s department came at about 10 p.m. Jan. 30, four days after the alleged incidents took place. According to Clatterbuck’s report, Ohio County Schools Superintendent Dianna Vargo and Wheeling Park Athletic Director Dwaine Rodgers contacted him about what had been reported to them from head boys’ basketball coach Michael Jebbia.
According to the report, Jebbia told Rodgers that while returning from Morgantown, he learned that a basketball player had been restrained by two others – one of whom held him from behind in a chokehold while the other sat on his legs, pulled down the student’s pants and reportedly touched his genitals.
Rodgers said Jebbia learned of this when one of his assistant coaches, Terry Payne, was contacted by a parent of another student who was on the bus. Other than Jebbia and Payne, it is unclear which coaches were present for the bus trip, where they were seated and exactly how the students were chaperoned.
The alleged victim confirmed what happened to Clatterbuck, but told him he didn’t wish to pursue charges.
It was during the investigation into the alleged assault that the other incidents came to light. Following initial interviews, Clatterbuck noted he met with several Ohio County administrators and coaches to review video footage from the bus. While the video was not working during the alleged assault, it did work earlier, and it showed students in the aisle with their pants down, with one urinating in a bottle, then throwing that bottle on the bus floor.
Following the video footage, Clatterbuck said Vargo asked him if the activity on the video appeared criminal.
“I advised Vargo that I would define the exposure incidents as criminal in nature and as misdemeanors; however, the reported incident could be a felony offense. I advised that having viewed the film it was my obligation as a law enforcement officer to document all my observations and forward any known evidence to the Ohio County Prosecuting Attorney for consideration of prosecution,” Clatterbuck wrote.
On Feb. 2, school administrators informed all four students involved in the incident, including the victim, that they were suspended from school and could not play sports for 10 days. The two students who allegedly held the victim down also are recommended for expulsion.
Clatterbuck also noted that after extensive viewing of the video footage, it appeared “all exposure incidents that occurred while the bus was in transit did not take place in Ohio County.”
The matter did not come up during Monday’s Ohio County Board of Education meeting. Following the meeting, Vargo declined comment, noting the matter had been turned over to the district’s legal counsel.
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