The third of five former Wheaton College football players charged in a campus hazing incident pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery count Tuesday in DuPage County court.

Samuel TeBos, 22, of Allendale, Mich., was sentenced to a year of conditional discharge and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service, which is to include at least 25 hours talking to groups about the dangers of hazing.

TeBos, accompanied by his parents, admitted guilt to the charge in a brief hearing before Judge Brian Telander. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped other charges.

TeBos was given the same sentence that two of his former football teammates — Kyler Kregel and Noah Spielman — received in negotiated pleas with DuPage prosecutors.

The cases against James Cooksey and Benjamin Pettway remain pending.

The five were charged last year with several felonies, including aggravated battery, mob action and unlawful restraint, in the March 2016 incident that started in a college dorm room. The five, who were then members of the team, are alleged to have entered the room before striking a freshman player named Charles Nagy. The group then bound the player’s arms with duct tape and put a pillowcase over his head before taking him to a pickup truck.

They allegedly left Nagy semi-naked on a local baseball diamond. The player said he suffered torn muscles in his shoulders from having his arms bound, and the injuries required surgery.

During the court hearing, TeBos admitted that he was the player who bound Nagy and placed the pillowcase over his head.

TeBos’ attorney, Todd Pugh, said his client did not have any malicious intent.

Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter.

A trial is scheduled to begin in July for one of several former Wheaton College football players accused of injuring a teammate during a hazing incident.

James Cooksey, 23, of Jacksonville, Fla., had a July 10 trial date set during a hearing Thursday in DuPage County court, according to court records. He has opted for a bench trial before Judge Brian Telander.

Cooksey is one of five players who were charged in the March 2016 incident in which he and other players are alleged to have struck and then bound a fellow football player during a hazing incident. He is charged with aggravated battery, unlawful restraint and mob action.

One of the former players, Noah Spielman, pleaded guilty in March to a misdemeanor charge of battery in a plea deal with prosecutors. Spielman gave a statement under oath about his participation in the alleged hazing incident that prosecutors said could be used in the trials of the other players. Three other former players, along with Cooksey, have charges pending.

The five former players who were accused were seniors on last season’s team. After charges were filed against them in September, they were declared inactive for practices and games.

At Thursday’s hearing, the judge also said he would release medical records of the player who was targeted in the alleged hazing to the various attorneys representing the players.

During the incident, the victim allegedly suffered two torn labrums, allegedly as a result of being bound with duct tape. The defense attorneys had sought the records to see whether the victim had any pre-existing issues.

The alleged hazing incident took place the night of March 19, 2016. Freshman Charles Nagy, in a civil suit filed against the college, said he was in a dorm room watching TV when several teammates entered and tackled him. They struck him, he said, when he resisted.

The other players then bound him, put a pillowcase over his head and forced him to a pickup truck. They then drove him to a local baseball field where they kicked dirt onto him and then left him there, still bound and partially naked, according to the suit.

Nagy’s injuries required surgery, according to the suit, and he left the college soon after the incident. In his suit, Nagy said Wheaton turned a blind eye to hazing, which Wheaton denies.

Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter.

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WHEATON, Ill. (WLS) —

A former Wheaton College football player charged in the team’s hazing scandal pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in court on Thursday.

Noah Spielman pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery, his attorney said. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss all felony counts against the former football player in exchange for his plea.

“What started out as a harmless prank evolved into a two-year ordeal that taught my client a lot of valuable lessons,” said Mark Sutter, Spielman’s defense attorney.

Spielman, the son of former Ohio State and all-pro linebacker Chris Spielman, appeared in front of a DuPage County judge again Thursday morning. He was sentenced to one year conditional discharge, which is basically probation along with paying a $250 anti-crime fee. He must also complete 100 hours of community service, including 25 hours of talking to youth about the dangers of hazing.

Spielman and four other Wheaton College football players were charged last fall with aggravated battery, mob action and unlawful restraint in connection to a hazing scandal in 2016.

A student who has identified himself as Charles Nagy says the players beat and bound him in his dorm room, then took him to a baseball field, leaving him there partially clothed.

In court, Sutter said that while Spielman accepted responsibility for his actions, he did not cause Nagy bodily harm and only kicked dirt on him after helping carry him to the truck.

“We were able to show them what Noah’s involvement was, the person he is,” Sutter said.

Spielman’s attorneys say because of their client’s lack of criminal history and his respective involvement in this incident, prosecutors agreed to this deal. They say he accepts responsibility for the role he played in this.

DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin’s office wouldn’t comment on the plea dea that doesn’t require Spielman to further testify, but in a statement wrote: “This morning, Noah Spielman took responsibility for his actions. I cannot make any further comment at this time.”

Last week, Nagy filed a lawsuit last week against the school and all the players except Spielman. He says he had to have surgery from some of his injuries. He also withdrew from the school.

All the other players have entered not guilty pleas. Their cases are still pending.

WHEATON, Ill. (WLS) —

A former Wheaton College football player charged in the team’s hazing scandal will be back to court Thursday.

Noah Spielman entered a plea of not guilty when he was charged, but he is set to reverse that. Prosecutors have not released the details of the plea deal.

Spielman is the son of former Ohio State and all-pro linebacker Chris Spielman. He and four other Wheaton College football players were charged last fall with aggravated battery, mob action and unlawful restraint in connection to a hazing scandal in 2016.

Neither Spielman nor prosecutors have been specific about what charge or charges are part of this plea deal.

A student who has identified himself as Charles Nagy says the players beat and bound him in his dorm room, then took him to a baseball field, leaving him there partially clothed.

Nagy filed a lawsuit last week against the players and school. He says he had to have surgery from some of his injuries. He also withdrew from the school.

One of the five Wheaton College football players charged in a hazing incident is expected to strike a plea deal Thursday.

Noah Spielman, 21, was expected to enter a plea, prosecutors said, declining to reveal further details of the deal.

Spielman, of Columbus, Ohio, is charged with aggravated battery, mob action and unlawful restraint in connection with a hazing incident that occurred in March 2016, authorities said.

He and four other football players are accused of forcibly taking a freshman teammate from his dorm, tying him up with duct tape, beating him and then leaving him half-naked in a baseball field, officials said.

Investigators and the victim’s attorney say the freshman player, who identified himself as Charles Nagy, had tears in his shoulders from the incident that required surgeries to repair.

Last week, the Chicago Tribune reported Nagy filed a lawsuit against Wheaton College and seven players – not including Spielman, who is the son of former NFL linebacker Chris Spielman.

That lawsuit alleges that freshman players were regularly hazed and the team’s coach as well as school officials were aware of the hazing.

Spielman was expected to appear before a judge at the DuPage County Courthouse Thursday morning. 

One of the five Wheaton College football players charged with hazing-related felonies is expected to plead to charges in the case Thursday, according to the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office and court records.

Noah R. Spielman, 21, of Columbus, Ohio, is expected to enter a plea, Paul Darrah, a spokesman for State’s Attorney Robert Berlin, said Wednesday. Darrah, however, declined to discuss details of the plea, which is scheduled to be outlined at a hearing before Judge Brian Telander.

Spielman had previously pleaded not guilty.

Spielman’s attorney, Mark Sutter, was not immediately available for comment.

Spielman, along with four other players, was charged last fall with aggravated battery, mob action and unlawful restraint on allegations they injured another Wheaton player during a hazing incident on March 16, 2016.

Authorities say the five players entered the other player’s dorm room and struck him when he resisted. The players placed a pillowcase over his head and bound his arms with duct tape before driving him in a pickup to a nearby baseball field and leaving him there partially clothed, authorities said.

The player, who has identified himself as Indiana resident Charles Nagy, allegedly suffered shoulder injuries from being bound and later required surgery. He withdrew from the school in the days after the alleged incident.

Last week, Nagy filed a lawsuit against Wheaton College and seven players. However, Spielman, who is the son of former NFL linebacker Chris Spielman, is not among the players named in the suit. The civil complaint does name three other players who were not charged criminally.

According to the suit, freshman players commonly faced hazing with the knowledge of the school and the team’s coach.

The case against another of the players was in court Wednesday. In that case, the judge approved requests from attorneys representing Kyler Kregel to subpoena records and witnesses from a dozen organizations and people with connections to Nagy.

Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter.

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A former Wheaton College football player is suing the school and seven ex-teammates, alleging campus officials knew about the team’s hazing tradition and did nothing to prevent an attack in which the player said he was kidnapped, beaten and left half-naked on a baseball field.

The lawsuit, filed early Friday in DuPage County, has been expected since September, when five football players were charged criminally in connection with the March 19, 2016, incident at the small Christian liberal arts college. The charges are still pending, and the defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The injured player, Charles Nagy, 21, of Indiana, said in the 37-page complaint that the coaching staff, including head coach Mike Swider, and the college administration turned a blind eye to a violent and pervasive tradition against freshmen players by creating a “sham hazing policy that it never intended to or actually did enforce in any meaningful way.”

Hazing was “an open secret at Wheaton College, a practice well-established and long-standing within the Wheaton College football program, handed down from class to class while the head coach and other adults, aware of the practice, looked the other way in disregard of the health and safety of players,” attorney Terry Ekl, who filed the suit on behalf of Nagy, said in a statement Friday.

Wheaton College allowed the hazing practice as a “means of building character and a perceived unity within the team,” Ekl said.

A Wheaton College spokeswoman could not immediately comment because school officials have not seen the lawsuit.

Ekl said he is seeking more than $1 million in damages from the college. The suit also seeks at least $50,000 from each of the named seven players. Four of them — James Cooksey, Kyler Kregel, Benjamin Pettway, and Samuel TeBos — are facing criminal charges. They are all 22 and live out of state.

The fifth charged player, Noah Spielman, 21, was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Ekl said his client has ongoing settlement discussions with Spielman and both sides agreed to a 30-day extension to Monday’s one-year statute of limitations for litigation.

The suit also names three other Wheaton College football players who prosecutors did not charge criminally but who Ekl said conspired with their teammates in the alleged attack.

The Tribune sought comment early Friday from the players’ lawyers.

“This incident is overblown and sensationalized,” said attorney Paul DeLuca, who represents Kregel in the criminal case. “It’s sad. These are good young men who have been portrayed as thugs by virtue of this lawsuit. We expect and believe the evidence in the criminal case will contradict a number of the allegations.”

Todd Pugh, who represents TeBos, said Nagy is likely going after the college because it would have more money than the football players.

“It appears to be the strategy of the plaintiff’s attorney and the plaintiff to reach deeper pockets,” Pugh said. “I don’t disagree with the strategy from a plaintiff’s lawyer’s perspective, but the facts don’t support it.”

Nagy reported to authorities that he was watching the NCAA basketball tournament in a dorm the night of the incident when several teammates entered the room and tackled him, according to the lawsuit and investigative records obtained by the Tribune. Then a 19-year-old freshman, Nagy said he kicked his legs and yelled at them to stop, only to be punched and have his bare legs and wrists wrapped in duct tape.

The players put a pillowcase over Nagy’s head and took him from the residence hall. Nagy was placed in the back seat of a teammate’s vehicle and held down by at least two players while others piled into the vehicle, according to the lawsuit.

After the vehicle began moving, they played Middle Eastern music, and at one point the players suggested to the freshman that he had been kidnapped by Muslims who wanted to fornicate with goats, the lawsuit states. They patted his foot and suggested he would be their “goat” for the evening, according to the complaint.　

The lawsuit states the players restrained him with more duct tape during the drive, pulled down his shorts and underwear, then tried to insert an object into his rectum. After the freshman yelled at them to stop, he was beaten, according to the lawsuit.　

The accused players have denied trying to insert anything into Nagy’s rectum. None of the criminal charges against them allege a sexual offense.

The players drove to a park off campus and carried the teen onto a baseball diamond, the complaint states. Nagy told investigators that players threw dirt on him, took his cellphone and left him half-naked on the field.

Nagy, who went to the hospital and spoke with police officers later that night, suffered two labrum tears that required surgery, authorities said. He withdrew from the school a short time later.

A second player also was targeted that night, but he was not injured and did not file a complaint. He remained on the football team last season.

Five players — Spielman, Cooksey, Kregel, Pettway and TeBos — were charged with aggravated battery, mob action and unlawful restraint. They were suspended from the team’s games and practices following the charges.

Under an intense national spotlight after the Tribune broke the story announcing the criminal charges, college administrators issued a harsh statement that called the incident “entirely unacceptable” and contrary to the school’s religious values and “values we share as human beings.”

Away from public scrutiny, however, the college stood more firmly behind the players after finishing its internal investigation a year ago. College officials, who hired a third-party investigator to review his account, sent the accuser a letter in November 2016 stating they found the players’ account “more credible” than his, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Tribune.

The complaint, however, alleges college officials have long known about the team’s hazing traditions for decades and have done nothing to stop it. The suit accuses the players of battery and false imprisonment. The college is accused of negligence and willful and wanton conduct, according to the lawsuit.

“The complaint seeks to have a public accounting of what happened, not only to compensate our client for the substantial suffering and losses that he has sustained because of the illegal conduct of Wheaton College and the involved players, but also to raise awareness of the significant risks of hazing to deter others from doing it and to encourage school and athletic officials to intervene and halt hazing practices where they occur and before the worst happens,” Ekl said, in his prepared statement.

The attorney for a former Wheaton College football player who authorities say was the victim of a hazing by five other players turned over his client’s medical records to a DuPage County judge Wednesday.

The records were sought by attorneys representing the five players, who are charged with aggravated battery and other crimes. But Terry Ekl, attorney for the ex-player, said the defense attorneys were “trying to create an issue that doesn’t exist.”

Authorities allege the five players injured the other player during a hazing incident in March 2016. The other player has since left Wheaton College.

At a court appearance last month, defense attorneys requested the medical records of the former player, who authorities say suffered shoulder injuries during the alleged incident. Evidence of a pre-existing injury could bolster the case for the accused players — Kyler Kregel, Noah Spielman, Samuel TeBos, Benjamin Pettway and James Cooksey.

At a hearing Wednesday, Ekl gave the records over to Judge Brian Telander.

“We’re willing to turn these over because they don’t show anything,” Ekl said afterward. “There’s no pre-existing shoulder injury.”

The judge will inspect the medical records and then share anything deemed relevant with the defense attorneys.

Meanwhile, attorney Paul Moreschi, who represents one of the players, asked the court to allow him to subpoena a dozen other people or organizations that had contact with the player who was allegedly hazed.

Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Pawl asked for additional time to review the defense request to see whether prosecutors would seek to object. The judge set a status date for March 21.

The five players are accused of aggravated battery, unlawful restraint and mob action. Authorities say they restrained and beat their teammate, a freshman, as part of a hazing incident. The player’s arms were bound so tightly with duct tape that he suffered muscle tears in both shoulders that later required surgery, authorities said.

After the alleged incident, the player left Wheaton College and transferred to a school in Indiana.

Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter.

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The attorney for a former Wheaton College football player who authorities say was the victim of a hazing by five other players turned over his client’s medical records to a DuPage County judge Wednesday.

The records were sought by attorneys representing the five players, who are charged with aggravated battery and other crimes. But Terry Ekl, attorney for the ex-player, said the defense attorneys were “trying to create an issue that doesn’t exist.”

Authorities allege the five players injured the other player during a hazing incident in March 2016. The other player has since left Wheaton College.

At a court appearance last month, defense attorneys requested the medical records of the former player, who authorities say suffered shoulder injuries during the alleged incident. Evidence of a pre-existing injury could bolster the case for the accused players — Kyler Kregel, Noah Spielman, Samuel TeBos, Benjamin Pettway and James Cooksey.

At a hearing Wednesday, Ekl gave the records over to Judge Brian Telander.

“We’re willing to turn these over because they don’t show anything,” Ekl said afterward. “There’s no pre-existing shoulder injury.”

The judge will inspect the medical records and then share anything deemed relevant with the defense attorneys.

Meanwhile, attorney Paul Moreschi, who represents one of the players, asked the court to allow him to subpoena a dozen other people or organizations that had contact with the player who was allegedly hazed.

Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Pawl asked for additional time to review the defense request to see whether prosecutors would seek to object. The judge set a status date for March 21.

The five players are accused of aggravated battery, unlawful restraint and mob action. Authorities say they restrained and beat their teammate, a freshman, as part of a hazing incident. The player’s arms were bound so tightly with duct tape that he suffered muscle tears in both shoulders that later required surgery, authorities said.

After the alleged incident, the player left Wheaton College and transferred to a school in Indiana.

Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter.

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The next hearing on the case is set for March 14, but DuPage County Judge Brian Telander is not requiring they attend the hearing. The records being subpoenaed including those from a orthopedic doctor in Fort Wayne, Ind., the victim saw at one time.

At about 11:20 p.m. March 19, 2016, Wheaton police officers responded to Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield regarding an incident that involved members of the Wheaton College football team.

The victim reported receiving serious injuries when he was attacked by five members of the team and left in a field with his limbs secured with tape.

“He was attacked by the suspects in a dorm room where he was subdued with tape,” Wheaton Deputy Police Chief William Murphy previously said in an email. “His arms and legs were bound and a hood placed over his head. During this [time] his shoulders were injured. They dropped him off in a nearby baseball field.”

A second person also was hazed as part of the incident but chose not to press charges, Murphy said.

Wheaton College previously had released a statement saying it was “deeply troubled” by the allegations, The college revised its anti-hazing policy in 2014 and improved its training protocols to “include a formal review of our anti-hazing policy with all student athletes every year, with required student signatures,” the statement read.