Oregon1 Basketball Players Indicted On More Abuse Charges

BEND, Ore. (AP) _ A Deschutes County grand jury has indicted five Molalla High School basketball players on various sex abuse charges alleging they harassed a teammate. <br/><br/>Four of the players already

Saturday, June 16th 2007, 3:20 pm

By: News On 6

BEND, Ore. (AP) _ A Deschutes County grand jury has indicted five Molalla High School basketball players on various sex abuse charges alleging they harassed a teammate.

Four of the players already faced similar charges in Clatsop County.

The indictment alleges the teens subjected the player to inappropriate and unwanted sexual contact during a late December trip to Sisters for a basketball tournament, said Deschutes County Deputy District Attorney Jason Kropf.

The freshman basketball player told the Oregon State Police that some of the boys restrained him while others engaged in unwanted sexual contact, Kropf said.

``The offenses took place over the course of days but at the same hotel,'' he said.

The indictment handed up Thursday in Deshutes County charged Onisefor George Kutsev and Josh Paul Haqq, both 17, John William Berokoff, 18, and Vlasy Kutsev, 16, with sex abuse, assault, unlawful sexual penetration, attempted unlawful sexual penetration and harassment.

A fifth player, who was not charged in Clatsop County, Cody Lee Anderson, 16, was charged with the same 16 counts in Deschutes County as the Kutsev brothers, Haqq and Berokoff, officials said.

``Each of the participants are facing the same charges though their role in the crimes may be different,'' Kropf said.

None of the attorneys for the teens returned phone calls made to their offices Friday.

The sex abuse and unlawful sexual penetration charges fall under Oregon's mandatory minimum sentencing law. The statute requires that older juveniles be charged as adults for certain offenses.

The additional offenses also charge the teens as adults because they occurred in conjunction with the alleged sex offenses, Kropf said.

Each of the sex abuse and unlawful sexual penetration charges carry a mandatory minimum sentence of six years and three months in prison.

Each of the teens has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Clatsop County.

Those charges were filed after the victim reported an encounter on a school bus as the team traveled back from a tournament at the Oregon Coast, Kropf said.

Kropf said the Sisters trip involved ``multiple incidents.'' He said some of the defendants may not have been involved in all the incidents.