02-14-07: Charges Dismissed Against Ex-Flower Mound Wrestler

[Nathaniel Bryan 6]

http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_045140524.html

Feb 14, 2007 1:02 pm US/Central

Charges Dismissed Against Ex-Flower Mound Wrestler

(AP) FLOWER MOUND The Denton County District Attorney's Office has dismissed hazing and assault charges against a former Flower Mound High School wrestler.

Dustin Everett, 19, was scheduled to stand trial Wednesday on three counts of hazing and three counts of assault stemming from a 2005 pool party held by the Dallas-area high school wrestling team.

Allegations of organized hazing, violent beatings and sexually charged actions led to the arrest of 18 students and the team's head coach. Wrestling team members and their supporters maintained that the accusations were exaggerated accounts of boyhood roughhousing.

Jamie Beck, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, said the accusers requested that the case against Everett be dropped. She said prosecutors still felt they had a strong case.

"We met with all of the victims and their parents, and through many discussions with them about the case, what a trial is actually like and just the length of time that's gone by for them, they felt it was in their children's best interest that this be over," Beck said Tuesday.

Everett's attorney, Frank Jackson, couldn't be reached for comment on Tuesday. But he said Monday that he was confident Everett, who was 17 when the party took place, would be acquitted at trial.

"I wouldn't plead this case for a $5 fine," he said.

The dismissal of Everett's charges brings to an end all of the criminal cases resulting from the party.

Former wrestler Cory Talbert, 18, pleaded no contest last month to a charge of assault with bodily injury and was sentenced to probation.

Last year a grand jury recommended that charges be filed against five juveniles at the party, ages 15 or 16, including two felony counts of sexual assault, a misdemeanor count of assault with bodily injury and 10 misdemeanor counts of hazing.

Charles Zascavage, the team's coach at the time of the party, also was indicted. A judge dismissed the hazing charge against Zascavage because the law was too vague. Zascavage is no longer the school's wrestling coach.

Three juveniles have pleaded guilty in adjudicated agreements since January, Beck said. Two other juveniles' cases were concluded but Beck was uncertain of their outcomes, she said.

The grand jury declined to indict three other students and did not recommend eight juvenile students for prosecution.

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