FLORESVILLE — A former La Vernia High School football player, accused in a hazing scandal that led to multiple arrests in 2017, will stand trial after rejecting plea bargains offered Monday by prosecutors with the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
About a dozen other accused athletes, both juveniles and adults, have accepted plea deals, bringing resolution to all but one of the criminal cases that roiled the small Wilson County town.
Alejandro Ibarra, now 20, rejected two offers from Assistant Attorney General Sharon Pruitt. Visiting Judge Donna Rayes scheduled Ibarra’s trial for July 13 and lawyers anticipate it will last four days.
Defense lawyer Adrian Perez requested one more chance for his client to accept a plea deal closer to trial, but a visibly frustrated Pruitt said all offers would expire Monday, adding, “Today’s our day.”
Ibarra was among 13 students arrested or detained in the case, which the La Vernia police chief at the time said involved athletes in the high school’s football, baseball and basketball programs. They were variously accused of using objects to violently sodomize at least 10 newer varsity teammates in so-called initiations.
Local officials at the time said the practice might have started in the 2014-15 school year. A federal lawsuit against the school district brought by families of the victims is expected to go to trial in February.
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A grand jury indicted four men who were adults at the time of the incidents: Ibarra, Dustin Norman, Colton Weidner, and Christian “Brock” Roberts, on second-degree felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity. Each could have faced as many as 20 years in prison.
Norman, 21, Weidner, 20, and Roberts, 20, pleaded no contest to lesser charges of unlawful restraint, a state jail felony, avoiding prison time under agreements with prosecutors. Weidner and Roberts last month were ordered to serve five years of deferred adjudication probation, while Norman on Monday was given three years deferred adjudication. The three can avoid convictions on their records if they successfully complete the terms, and can ask for early release after completing community service hours and paying fines and court fees.
Two other adults and several juveniles who were charged also avoided jail time. In October, Robert Olivarez Jr., 20, pleaded no contest to unlawful restraint and drew five years of deferred adjudication. On Monday, John Rutkowski, 20, was allowed to plead no contest to hazing, a class B misdemeanor, in exchange for one year’s deferred adjudication.
Weidner’s lawyer, Stephen Barrera of Floresville, said the sentences were appropriate.
“A lot of guys that were accused are also victims” of previous hazing, he said.
Pruitt told the court that Ibarra was offered three years of deferred adjudication probation and a shot at early release if he would plead to the state jail felony of unlawful restraint. When he declined, the prosecutor offered 30 days in the county jail and a plea on a misdemeanor level of unlawful restraint, but Ibarra again rejected it.
Ibarra requested one year of probation for the misdemeanor charge, but Pruitt would not offer less than two years with the misdemeanor, Perez said.
He could not say why his client wouldn’t take the offers, and added, “Frankly, I might not even know.”
On ExpressNews.com: La Vernia football player arrested in sexual assault scandal defends accused ‘brothers’ on Facebook
Ibarra was quick to defend himself on social media after his arrest. He commented on Facebook posts saying he, Norman and Olivarez were innocent.
“They didn’t do anything. … I was with them every day and we were never involved in this stupid s—t!” Ibarra wrote on the Facebook page of a local reporter for San Antonio’s Telemundo affiliate.
Ibarra’s arrest warrant affidavit stated that he, Norman, Olivarez and another suspect held down a 16-year-old teammate and sexually assaulted him with the threaded end of a carbon dioxide tank
After the hearing, Perez apologized to the prosecutor for the back-and-forth negotiations over two hearings beginning in November.
“That’s OK. I have strong witnesses,” Pruitt responded.
Krista Torralva covers several school districts and public universities in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | Krista.Torralva@express-news.net | Twitter: @KMTorralva