Former UVA swimmer files 10-count complaint against five teammates over "violent" hazing

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Anthony Marcantonio, 19, who currently swims for Northwestern University has filed a lawsuit against five of his former University of Virginia teammates over "violent" hazing in which he says they engaged. The 10-count complaint against upperclassmen Kyle Dudzinski, Luke Papendick, Charles Rommel, David Ingraham and Jacob Pearce alleges assault, battery, false imprisonment, hazing, tortuous interference with a contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and two counts of conspiracy to commit those acts.
     From the Charlottesville, Virginia Daily Progress:

     On the night/early morning of Aug. 27/28, Marcantonio claims in the suit that he and other first-years arrived at a Wertland Street house commonly referred to as the “Swim House,” and repeatedly were blindfolded and subjected to false imprisonment, forced drinking (of beers, liquor, milk and prune juice), verbal abuse, forced sexual contact and a variety of intimidation tactics — including the threat of forced sodomy — at the hands of the five upperclassmen.

     Among other alleged hazing activities that night, the suit claims that first-years were told to chew live goldfish and grab one another’s genitalia... The suit claims there was physical harm done to one of the other first-year swimmers, whose eye was injured when a glass bottle was smashed on the ground.

     The suit claims the hazing activities continued into the following week, with members of the first-year class receiving threatening emails from a joint account created by the defendants under the name “Mr. Mean.” The suit says the messages, filled with harrowingly derogatory and degrading insults, compelled the first-year swimmers to complete a “scavenger hunt” that required them to steal items from a retail store, the university and another teammate.

     The complaint alleges that coach Augie Busch, asked Marcantonio to protect himself by only swimming when other members of the team weren’t around, and on Sept. 15, 2014, stated that Marcantonio’s “physical safety could not be guaranteed.”
     All five of the accused were suspended for half a season. Dudzinski, Papendick and Ingraham did not rejoin the team; Dudzinski and Papendick subsequently transferred to the University of Michigan.
     Ingraham was also suspended from UVA's swimming team in the 2013-2014 season, along with 7 others.