MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Two high school athletes are charged with sexually attacking more than a half dozen fellow students.
Investigators say most of those assaults happened at Browerville High School in a classroom, the locker room, and gym showers. Browerville is Northwest of the Twin Cities.
Seven accusers, all boys, have come forward. They say those older teenagers, both 18 years-old, repeatedly sexually touched them.
Investigators say this went on for months until one victim came forward and several others started talking to police.
Victims told police that Seth Kellen, who was a senior at the time, tackled them, grabbed them and touched them inappropriately. He was a player on the Browerville Boys Basketball team, a team that’s prided itself on big wins, like the Section A Championship. Now, the team is taking hits off the court, following multiple sexual abuse charges.
One victim recalled being attacked when he had gotten out of the shower. Another said Kellen pushed him against the lockers before sexually assaulting him. A third recalled Kellen taking off all of his clothes when he was attacked.
Kellen, they say, would pick his target and run after them holding up two fingers.
While most incidents allegedly happened in private, at least one happened with other students around in shop class. Kellen allegedly took his clothes off, ran up to his victim, and pressed his genitals against the victim’s lower back.
There were also two incidents during the State High School Basketball Tournament in Minneapolis.
A player describes being attacked in his downtown Marriott hotel room by his roommates.
He says a younger-player held him down, while Kellen and fellow Senior Connor Burns sexually assaulted him. Burns also faces felony charges for taking part in the two incidents, leaving a black-eye on Browerville’s basketball program.
The Todd County Sheriff called the allegations disturbing. The County Attorney thinks the acts were not part of a hazing ritual, but rather they were sex crimes.
Both teenagers could go to prison for several years and pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines if convicted of the allegations. They’ll be in court in a couple of weeks.
