Lawsuit: Fort Worth teen raped Idaho teammate with coat hanger

For weeks last fall, the football players at Dietrich High School in Idaho taunted their African-American teammate with racist nicknames like “chicken eater” and “watermelon,” a federal lawsuit says.

They allegedly taught him a Ku Klux Klan song and shouted epithets as one player knocked him out with bare fists.

And they raped him, forcing a coat hanger into his rectum after pretending to give him a hug, the lawsuit says.

Leading the “brutal physical violence,” the lawsuit alleges, was a Fort Worth teen sent to live with family in the rural Idaho town of Dietrich because he couldn’t stay out of trouble in Texas.

John R.K. Howard, 18, is also facing a felony charge of forcible sexual penetration by use of foreign object against the victim’s will, according to Idaho court records.

This month, the family of the mentally disabled victim filed a lawsuit against the Dietrich school district seeking $10 million in damages.

The Idaho attorney’s general office filed the charge against Howard and another teen, Tanner Ward, 17, in March.

Ward, according to the lawsuit filed May 13, “physically forced a coat hanger into the [victim’s] rectum” in the school locker room on Oct. 23.

Howard, according to the lawsuit, then kicked the hanger several times, “forcing it further into [victim’s] rectum.”

The victim “screamed and cried out but no staff member came to his assistance or even attempted to investigate the clamor from within the locker room,” according to the lawsuit.

The victim was later taken to two hospitals and treated for rectal injuries, the lawsuit said.

Weeks of abuse

The lawsuit describes the incident as the culmination of weeks of “humiliating mental abuse” and “brutal physical violence” by Howard, Ward and other football players.

The lawsuit names the 18-year-old victim, but the Star-Telegram typically does not identify victims of sexual assault.

Howard, described in the lawsuit as a “large and aggressive male,” transferred to Idaho from Texas before the school year “due to his inability to keep out of trouble in Texas,” the lawsuit says.

Howard brought with him a culture of “racial hatred” when he joined the football team, the suit says.

At the beginning of the season, team members called the victim racist names, including “Kool-Aid,” “chicken eater,” “watermelon,” and used a racial epithet, according to the lawsuit.

Howard taught the victim a “vicious” Ku Klux Klan song and demanded that the victim sing it, the lawsuit says.

In another incident before the football season, the team had a “toughening up” program at a farm near Dietrich, the lawsuit says.

The victim, in the presence of coaches, was given boxing gloves and placed in a circle to fight Howard, who was bare-fisted.

“Multiple times the [victim] was knocked down and finally knocked unconscious,” the lawsuit says. “The beating of the [victim] was accompanied by catcalls, taunts, and racial epithets ... in full view of the coaches who not only failed to prevent the abuse but actively promoted it.”

Howard was arrested by the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department and returned to Idaho on March 22, according to court records. He posted a $75,000 bond two days later.

The Washington Post reported that Howard is finishing school in Texas. His Tarrant County address is listed within the Keller school district. A district spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny Howard is a student there, citing student confidentiality rules.

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 11:56 AM with the headline "Lawsuit: Fort Worth teen raped Idaho teammate with coat hanger."