DAMASCUS, Md. (AP) — Four Maryland 15-year-olds are out on bail but face life in prison after being charged as adults with first-degree rape in a locker room attack.
WTOP-FM reports Jean Claude Abedi, Kristian Jamal Lee, Will Smith and Caleb Thorpe were released on Monday. A fifth teen is facing lesser second-degree rape charges as a juvenile.
Prosecutors say the Damascus High School students assaulted four 14-year-olds before junior varsity football practice one day in October.
They say the teens restrained the victims, pulled down their pants and raped or attempted to rape them with a broom stick.
Defense attorney Daniel Wright called it "a hazing incident that went to an extreme."
Prosecutor John McCarthy rejected that, saying "these are crimes."
Separately, school officials want to know who staged brooms around campus Sunday.
