The father of a Brooklyn teenager accused of sexual assault in a football hazing incident claims it was all just “horseplay” — as he shared locker room footage shot the same day.
Early Hunter told The Post on Monday that his 14-year-old son, one of three junior varsity football players charged in last week’s “pantsing” incident at James Madison High School, was left traumatized after being busted, and said the prank was played on several players — including his own son.
“[The alleged victim] said my son pulled his pants down,” Hunter said. “It was horseplay. Kids playing around and now my son’s in handcuffs? He is traumatized, in the back of the precinct being interrogated like he killed someone.
“The dean asked me to ask him what happened and he said, ‘Dad, I don’t know what they’re talking about. It was the pantsing game. Everybody is doing it to everybody. They did it to me. It’s a game,’” Hunter said.
Video of other hazing on the same day and shot by Hunter’s son shows the JV team in the locker room, with one teen sitting on a bench giggling while two boys sit next to him holding his arms and another tries to take off his pants.
At one point the teen is on the ground and another boy appears to punch him in the groin area and then kick him lightly — while most of the others in the room appear to be laughing.
The school and the NYPD didn’t take the hazing as a laughing matter after sources said an alleged victim’s mother called the cops and reported the incident. It’s not clear if the alleged assault took place before or after the caught-on-video hazing.
Three Madison JV players — 13, 14 and 15 years old — were picked up and charged by police, while the school cancelled the team’s games, at least temporarily.
The teens were arraigned in Brooklyn Family Court Friday on charges of unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. They were released to their parents’ custody, with orders of protection ordered to keep them away from the victim pending further proceedings..
Officials at James Madison High School referred questions about the incident to the city Department of Education, which did not respond to a request for comment.
The alleged victim’s mother declined to speak with The Post on Sunday, while the JV coach and the school’s athletic department has declined to comment.
“They fired the coach! That was wrong,” Hunter said Monday. “He walked right past the coach, [the victim], walked right past the coach and told him nothing and went home and told his mother.
“What happened to little kids just horseplaying? They weren’t out there with guns and doing bad stuff,” he added. “They got their grades up to be on that team. The streets are never going to get a hold of my son. He’s never been in trouble. He’s in ninth grade and every day he’s in practice after school.
“If he’s not at practice he’s in school. If he’s not in school or at practice he’s home. My son don’t play.”
The 99-year-old school has been the center of controversy before.
School mom Deslyn Willock has a $2.5 million lawsuit pending against the school and former football coach Nicholas Nugent, claiming he slammed her son’s head into a wall last year.
Willock on Sunday told The Post she’s not surprised at the school’s lack of response in the latest alleged incident.
Nugent pleaded no guilty to assault and menacing charges, which are still pending.
In 2015, a teacher at Madison was accused of having sex with students at the school.
