Student released in hazing case

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FONTANA, Calif., July 17 (UPI) -- A California high school student accused of trying to sodomize two boys with a steel bar and a broomstick was freed from jail on a plea bargain, lawyers say.

Fernando Salgado, 18, made a deal with prosecutors Monday that would spare him four years in prison. In exchange, he agreed to testify against Emmanuel Delarosa, a teacher accused in the same June 14 and 21 incidents during summer school classes at A.B. Miller High School in Fontana.

KLA-TV, Los Angeles, reported Salgado has been charged with one count of unlawful sexual penetration with a foreign object and one count of assault with a deadly weapon.

As a part of the plea bargain, he would only have to answer to the charge of assault with a deadly weapon. If his testimony is found credible, he would be placed on three years of felony probation and be required to serve 180 days in the county jail on weekends, with credit for 24 days served.

Delarosa, 27, is charged with child abuse and failure to report child abuse. He pleaded not guilty to both counts last week, and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 24. He has also been charged with false imprisonment and attempted sexual penetration by a foreign object.

In the June 21 attack, authorities allege three other students pulled off a boy's pants and held him down while Salgado tried to force a piece of steel rebar into his buttocks. Similarly in the June 14 attack, three boys held down another student while Salgado allegedly tried to push a broom handle into his buttocks.

Delarosa is accused not only of allowing the abuse to take place, but encouraging the hazing.