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Settlement to be reached in swim team hazing lawsuit

Marcantonio, swim team members to reach agreement

<p>Marcantonio said he received emails from a manufactured persona named “Mr. Mean,” allegedly drafted by the five defendants, asking him to come to the Swim House in August of 2014 to “bond” with fellow teammates during “Welcome Week." Marcantonio was a first-year at the time.</p>

Marcantonio said he received emails from a manufactured persona named “Mr. Mean,” allegedly drafted by the five defendants, asking him to come to the Swim House in August of 2014 to “bond” with fellow teammates during “Welcome Week." Marcantonio was a first-year at the time.

All parties in a lawsuit concerning allegations of hazing against former members of the University swim team have reached a settlement date.

Allegations in former University student Anthony Marcantonio’s suit include assault, battery, false imprisonment, tortious interference with contractual relations, hazing and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Marcantonio said he received emails from a manufactured persona named “Mr. Mean,” allegedly drafted by the five defendants, asking him to come to the “Swim House” in August of 2014 to “bond” with fellow teammates during “Welcome Week.” Marcantonio was a first-year student at the time.

The email states whatever Mr. Mean says “goes” and threatens to commit violent acts against first-year swim team members if they were to “tell a soul” about the events which would take place at the Swim House that night.

Marcantonio alleges upperclassmen forced him to grab his peers’ genitals in an “elephant walk,” eat live goldfish, drink large amounts of alcohol, milk and prune juice and wear a bucket on his head while having liquids poured on him.

Marcantonio transferred to Northwestern University after reporting the hazing and being “ostracized” from the team.

All five of the alleged conspirators — defendants Kyle Dudzinski, Luke Papendick, Charles Rommel, David Ingraham and Jacob Pearce — motioned to dismiss portions of the case, stating Marcantonio failed to state a claim.

The defendants said it was Marcantonio’s desire to fit in that drove him to go to the Swim House voluntarily and claim he was not forced into any alleged activities.

Judge Norman K. Moon concluded their motion to dismiss would be “granted in part and denied in part” based on the analysis of each of the plaintiff’s allegations.

Moon referred the case for mediation, or a settlement conference, March 4, upon the request of all parties involved in the suit.

The settlement conference order, filed March 9, sets the settlement date for March 28 at the U.S. District Court in Charlottesville.

“All parties and their lead counsel are required to appear at the settlement conference ... for the purpose of conducting discussions, in good faith, towards a compromise resolution of this case,” Moon wrote in the order.

At the conference, the parties will present the factual and legal aspects of the case and then meet with the magistrate judge.

Moon ordered each party to submit a brief of their legal positions and said the parties should work to negotiate their agreement prior to the conference.

The settlement negotiations at the conference will be confidential, Moon wrote.

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