According to arrest affidavits, they stand accused of pushing down a 16-year-old boy on a bed while raping him with the threaded end of a carbon-dioxide tank.Īlso charged were 18-year-old Colton Weidner, 18-year-old Christian “Brock” Roberts, and 18-year-old John Rutkowski-all members of the school’s basketball team. The suspects facing criminal charges include 17-year-old Alejandro Ibarra, 17-year-old Robert Olivarez Jr., and 18-year-old Dustin Norman.
A total of 13 students-six of them legally considered adults-were arrested and charged with either sexual assault or sexual assault of a child. Varsity players on all three teams were accused of sodomizing younger teammates with baseball bats, flashlights, and carbon-dioxide tanks. (The Texas Rangers and the State Attorney General’s Office have said the investigation is ongoing, but provided few other details.)
The full scale of the assaults is not yet publicly known, but it has roiled the tiny town about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio.
Ultimately, police found that the alleged abuse-perpetrated by players on the high school’s baseball, football, and basketball teams-targeted at least 10 victims and spanned more than three years. In February of last year, a La Vernia student told local police he was sexually assaulted by varsity athletes.
