Phoenix – The boys in the cabin and their camp counselors called it “brooming.” Some of the youngsters’ parents say it was sexual abuse. A prosecutor disagreed, pronouncing it “hazing gone wrong.”
Whatever it is called, what happened in the cabin at the Chapel Rock summer camp in Prescott has raised a furor among the parents and led to suspicions of undue political influence in the way prosecutors handled the case.
Last June, investigators say, counselors at the camp abused 18 boys by poking them in the rear with broomsticks, a flashlight and a cane, as punishment or just because they counselors were in a bad mood. Although the boys wore underwear or swim trunks, photos taken by fellow campers show them grimacing in pain.
Two counselors – one the son of a state senator – were charged by the Yavapai County attorney’s office with 18 counts of kidnapping and 18 counts of aggravated assault. County Attorney Sheila Polk rejected demands from parents that she press sexual-assault charges, saying there was no sexual intent or penetration.
Then, last month, she struck a plea bargain with the counselors that spared them from the possibility of decades in prison.
Clifton Bennett, 18, pleaded guilty to one count of assault and could get up to two years in prison. Kyle Wheeler, 19, pleaded guilty to two assault counts and could get up to four years.
Parents complained that prosecutors told them they wanted just five days in jail for Bennett and 10 for Wheeler. Polk would not confirm that.
Some parents have charged that the counselors were let off the hook, and they have suggested the deal was tied to Bennett’s father, Ken Bennett, president of the Arizona Senate.
“Everything we’ve heard points to shenanigans – to go from 18 counts down to two or one is an insult to the victims and an insult to the criminal-justice system,” said the father of one of the victims. “It’s sick. It’s favoritism. If he wasn’t a senator’s son, it would not have happened.”
The elder Bennett declared he had “absolutely no influence” on the case. Similarly, the prosecutor denied the plea bargain was the result of political pressure.
