Newly released documents from the Kirkland Police Department from its investigation into an October 2014 assault in the Juanita High School boys locker room by several football players sheds new light on the incident.

Among the documents are revelations are that several Juanita High School officials didn’t consider the incident worth reporting to the police and that similar assaults had occurred before within the football team. Additionally, the officers’ reports describe the victim’s legal guardian and family relative as uncooperative, whom police recounted mocked the victim, a special needs student, for being assaulted and repeatedly obstructed attempts by police to interview him throughout the investigation.

The five players arrested after the incident, all freshman C-Team players at the time, were ultimately accused by the King County Prosecutor’s Office of having planned to sodomize the student as part a of hazing ritual known as “jubie,” according to court documents.

According to the newly released documents, the police were first informed of the Oct. 22, 2014 incident at around 9 p.m. by a female family member of the victim with whom he lived. She told police she had been previously contacted by Juanita Athletic Director Steve Juzeler about what had happened. After interviewing the victim at his home, police then tried to contact Juzeler and were finally able to speak with him at 12:30 a.m. the day after the incident, but only after making no fewer than six phone calls and leaving a voicemail asking him to call police immediately, according to the officer’s report.

The athletic director allegedly told them on the phone that he had received their voicemail but planned to call them in the morning. When asked if he knew about the incident, he allegedly told police he had been informed about it by then head football coach, Shaun Tarantola. He said his understanding of the incident was that the victim had been pulled into the locker room by two other students and had his pants and underwear pulled down. He then said he “was not sure why the police were calling, as he didn’t think what had occurred was a police matter.” He also allegedly told police that he had contacted Principal Gary Moed about the incident, who had scheduled a meeting at 8 a.m. the next morning, but had also told Juzeler there was no need to call the police.

When the officer asked Juzeler whether they had notified the Lake Washington School District Risk and Safety Management, he allegedly replied, “No. Why would we have done that?”

According to LWSD Spokesperson Kathryn Reith, when serious incidents happen at a school, staff members report what they know to their supervisor. The officer then asked Juzeler why he didn’t think police should be notified, to which Juzeler allegedly replied “I didn’t think it was that serious. But I guess it is if you’re calling me after midnight.”

The officer replied that even based on his knowledge of the incident the behavior was still criminal in nature and should have been reported.

According to the police documents, the investigation was also troubled by erratic behavior on the part of the victim’s female family caretaker. When she first reported the incident, the documents claim, she kept hanging up the phone and was uncooperative with NORCOM [911] Dispatch. After officers arrived at the house, she became furious when they requested to speak with the victim in private, as the allegations involved possibly embarrassing details. She screamed at them to “Just get the [expletive] out of my house!”

The officers’ reports state they were about to leave but the victim was able to calm his relative. However, the problems didn’t end there. When officers tried to ask the victim questions, the relative insisted “something prejudicial is going on here” and became upset because they weren’t “filling out an application.”

One officer noted in his report that the woman seemed to be “intentionally obstructing our investigation.” Most disturbingly, the officers allege that the relative also repeatedly told the victim, in front of them, that because of this incident the victim should be “glad your daddy’s dead” and that the victim should feel “shame” for what had happened to him. She also allegedly mocked him, saying “you let those boys do homosexual acts on you.”

After interviewing the victim and learning that he had been contacted by Tarantola, who had called the victim to find out about what had happened and apologize, police requested the coach’s phone number. However, the female relative refused to provide it and forbade the victim from doing so, insisting the officers get it from Juzeler.

During interviews the next day between officers and the victim at the school, where the suspects were also interviewed by police, the family relative again injected herself to the point where officers had to stop the interview repeatedly and tell her not to interrupt them.  Following interviews of the first-hand witnesses, it was determined that the intent of the assault was “in fact to sexually assault the victim with a broom handle,” according to the police report. As part of their investigation, officers learned that the student who had allegedly planned the attack had not shown up to school that day. They also were informed that he had recorded the incident on his phone but had been told by other players to delete the footage.

The school and police were eventually contacted by the student’s father, who claimed that he had destroyed the phone in a fit of anger over what his son had done. When the officers asked for them to bring in the broken phone, the father claimed to not know where it was anymore and that he “makes so much money that breaking an iPhone is nothing to him, he can just get another.” The officer then believed that the father had destroyed the phone in order to cover up evidence of his son’s participation in the assault.

KPD spokesperson Lt. Mike Murray said they eventually retrieved all the player’s phones, but didn’t find any usable evidence.

After bringing his son to the Kirkland Justice Center to be processed, the father told police that it “wasn’t an isolated incident” and that his son had been a victim of similar types of behavior.

The claim seemed to be substantiated by several other students who claimed either they or others have been subject to similar types of behavior.

A former JHS football player now attending school in another district, told police that a similar incident had occurred to him and others during the summer in 2014 while the team had been at Camp Casey on Whidbey Island, in which upperclassmen had assaulted underclassmen with a broom handle. The player also told police that he had informed his mother about the incident, but begged her not to call the school.

Another player told police that they witnessed other players try to “jubie” another player in the shower but he had been able to fight them off.

Judge John Erlick, who sentenced the three defendants, also stated during an Aug. 31 court date while deliberating over whether or not to grant them a deferred disposition that previous incidents had taken place.

“I think this is a horrific crime,” Erlick said. “I think [the victim] has been both physically and emotionally violated. And I have to look at this crime in the context of a culture, and I call it a culture because from what I read in the submissions not only were these young men perpetrators, but to some extent they were also victims in the sense of being subject to similar types of ‘jubies.’ It doesn’t justify it, and this needs to put an end to that.”

However, the school district claims that a review of the entire Juanita High athletic program demonstrated the incident “does not define Juanita High School as a whole or the athletic experience at the school.”

According to the victim in the Oct. 22, 2014 assault, the attack quickly ended after other players entered the locker room, with one player saying, “This isn’t funny anymore.”

Shortly thereafter, senior players came into the locker room and learned of the incident, with the two senior captains reporting it to then assistant coach Lele Te’o, according to the police documents.

Te’o told police in a Nov. 4 interview that after varsity practice he had gone into the locker room at around 5 p.m. and was approached by a group of seniors insisting they needed to speak with him.

After hearing about the incident, Te’o said he contacted Tarantola.

Te’o was placed on administrative leave on Oct. 31 and asked to leave Kamiakin Middle School where he worked during the day. He told officers he was not given a reason for why he was being put on leave. Tarantola was later put on administrative leave as well. LWSD announced their decision in early November in an email to parents, though it did not name the coaches specifically.

Following the announcements, many Kirkland residents, including football players, wrote to the school district expressing their support for the coaches, who were eventually reinstated to their positions in December.

Tarantola resigned as head football coach in April, and Te’o has now assumed the head coaching position.

While investigating the assault, KPD learned that the school district had conducted their own investigation and that the results had been provided to each of the suspect’s attorneys in the form of redacted statements.

When KPD requested the documents, the school district stated they could not release them unless they were served with a warrant or subpoena. In January, a judge approved a KPD warrant on the district and the documents were turned over to the prosecutor’s office.

According to the school district, they hired an outside investigator to look into the specific incident for disciplinary purposes, but the suspects did not participate in the investigation due to the charges. The school district’s outside investigation is still ongoing.

KPD filed a request in January to temporarily seal the police case until April.

The Reporter originally requested the case documents in December, after charges were forwarded to the prosecutor’s office, but despite the KPD initially granting the request it was ultimately denied, citing RCW 13.50.050(3) which states “All records other than the official juvenile court file are confidential and may be released only as provided in this chapter, RCW 13.40.215 and 4.24.550.”

The Reporter appealed the KPD’s decision, but after a review by the City Public Records Steering Committee, the appeal was again denied. Denied public information requests are considered closed.

Juzeler and Moed did not respond to requests by The Reporter for comment.  Neither of them were placed on administrative leave.

The LWSD has posted a response to the incident on its website defending the district’s actions immediately following the incident, particularly concerning their refusal to turn over internal investigative findings.

“The district could not legally hand over student investigation reports without a subpoena or search warrant since that would be a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that protects the privacy of student records,” the release reads. “The documents were produced immediately after the subpoena was delivered.”

The release also defended the actions of the school officials.

“In the hours following the incident, the school and district administration acted swiftly based on the knowledge of the situation,” the release reads. “Initial reports of the incident came from students who witnessed and put a stop to it. Coaches alerted school administration. The school administration planned to fully investigate in the morning with the help of the School Resource Officer, a member of the Kirkland Police Department.”

“The school and district has a close working relationship with the Kirkland Police and fully cooperated with the investigation,” the release reads further.

The school district says it has taken proactive steps as a result of the investigation, which includes improving after-school supervision at all high schools in the district, particularly in the locker rooms. The district also plans to meet with coaches before each season about locker room supervision and has hired school security staff for after school hours at four of their high schools.

All five of the former JHS football players arrested and given emergency expulsions for the incident were eventually charged with second degree attempted rape for trying to sodomize the victim. Three of them pleaded guilty to third degree assault earlier this year and were sentenced in Juvenile Court to 12 months of community supervision, 48 hours of community service, as well as other conditions, including that they not re-enroll at JHS.

The cases against the remaining two students are still pending in Juvenile Court, according to King County Prosecutor’s Spokesperson Dan Donohoe. One of the defendants started his trial Monday.