Former Proctor football player settles with district over hazing assault
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A former Proctor high school football player has settled a sexual assault lawsuit against the district.
The attack on the player, who was 15 at the time of the assault led the district near Duluth to cancel most of the 2021 football season.
Another football player, who was 17, admitted to tackling the victim outside a locker room along with a half dozen others and sexually assaulting him with a wooden plunger handle.
The victim and his parents alleged in a 2022 civil suit that staff ignored hazing and harassment.
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U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell approved the settlement last week. The terms are not public, but court documents say that the victim, who has since turned 18, will receive most of the money in monthly payments over the next decade. A third of the settlement will go to attorneys’ fees.
MPR News is not naming either the victim or his assailant because both were minors when the crime occurred, and St. Louis County prosecutors opted not to prosecute the attacker as an adult.
The former player, now 19, pleaded guilty to juvenile charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct last year.
A St. Louis County judge put the teen on supervised probation until his 21st birthday in early 2025 and ordered him to register as a predatory offender for 10 years. No other students were charged in the assault.