Former Sayreville Football Player Sues, Says He Was Targeted Because He Was Black

Sayreville, NJ - The Sayreville football sexual assault hazing scandal was exactly this time two years ago, September 2014. But the incident reared its ugly head yet again on Monday:

A former Sayreville High School football player is now suing the school district and the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, alleging, among other things, he and six other football players were prosecuted for sexually-based hazing allegations in 2014 because they are black. Dylan Thillet, who has since graduated from Sayreville High and was the captain of the football team at the time — and one of the seven accused — filed the civil suit, "DT vs. Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office," this month in Middlesex County Superior Court.

"Their actions were reprehensible and merited this litigation," Thillet's East Brunswick attorney Richard Klein told Patch. Sayreville's superintendent Dr. Richard Labbe and Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey, among others, were named in the suit.

In 2014, the seven older players were accused of hazing younger freshmen: They would enter the locker room, blast loud music, flick the lights on and off, yell “Hootie hoo!” and then pin a younger's boy arms, while others punched, kicked and groped him, freshman football players told The New York Times at the time. At least one freshman said he was penetrated from behind, while he was wearing his football pants.

Four of the senior players pleaded guilty to hazing (a disorderly persons offense) and third-degree endangering the welfare of their teammates. Team captain Thillet, however, chose to go to trial, in closed Family Court. He and another player were found not guilty of the most serious charges, but were found guilty of lesser charges (simple assault and disorderly conduct), as juveniles and sentenced to probation, reported NJ 101.5.

None of the seven was found guilty of the most serious charges of sexual assault.