Four teenagers have been charged in connection with an alleged series of locker room sexual assaults involving a broom that occurred at Damascus High School in Maryland on Halloween. 
 
 On Monday, the 15-year-old football players made their first appearance in Montgomery County District court and were each released on $20,000 bond on the condition that they stayed away from school and the four alleged victims, Fox 5 reports. 
 
 Jean Claude Abedi, Kristian Jamal Lee, Will Daniel Smith and Caleb Thorpe have each been charged with one count of first-degree rape, three counts of attempted first-degree rape and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree rape. They will all be tried as adults, while a fifth suspect—who cannot be named—faces charges in a juvenile court. 
 
 The four sophomores were all members of the Damascus varsity team, as were the juvenile victims. According to prosecutors, the younger freshmen were seen as easy targets by the suspects. 
 
 “The defendants’ conduct was astonishingly cruel,” Montgomery Deputy State’s Attorney Peter Feeney said in court, The Washington Post reports. “These crimes were intended to inflict pain, degrade and humiliate the weaker members of the football team.” 
 
 The arrest documents reveal gruesome details of the alleged incidents. 
 
 One of the juveniles, identified only as “Victim B”, said that the sophomore players entered the freshman locker room at around 2.30 p.m. on October 31, turning off the light. B said two of the sophomores approached him with a broom. 
 
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 They then proceeded to throw him onto the floor and hold his feet down. While he was on the ground, the suspects “pulled his pants down to his knees and proceeded to poke his buttocks with the wooden broomstick.” 
 
 B said that it was painful, and the broomstick was inserted into his anus. The suspects allegedly went from one victim to the next, and at least two were heard laughing according to Feeney. One juvenile who tried to leave the locker room was blocked from doing so. 
 
 “Each defendant played a significant role in carrying out their plan to sexually assault the victims in this case,” Feeney said, “whether it was pushing, punching, stomping, holding down, tackling or wielding the broom. The crimes could only have been committed with the active participation of each defendant.” 
 
 The incident was brought to the attention of police after the father of one of the victims found him crying in his room that night. The parent immediately called the coaches, who informed the principal. 
 
 “I am offended by the term hazing,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said, according to Fox 5. “It is not hazing, these are crimes.” 
 
 According to one of the defendants, “the broom”—as it is known—had been used in similar assaults for generations and was always in the locker room, but no one has come forward before. ||||| Four Maryland 15-year-olds are out on bail but face life in prison after being charged as adults with first-degree rape in a locker room attack. 
 
 Prosecutors say the Damascus High School students assaulted four 14-year-olds before junior varsity football practice on Halloween. They say the teens restrained the victims, pulled down their pants and raped or attempted to rape them with a broomstick. 
 
 One freshman tried to escape the room but was allegedly blocked, the report said. An alleged victim told police that two players "threw him on the floor" and held his feet down, authorities said. He reportedly said he and was "poked in his buttocks with the wooden broom." Police said the three others were attacked in a similar way, Fox 5 DC reported. 
 
 "Victim C said after they finished with him, they proceeded to Victim A where they pulled Victim A's sweatshirt over the top of his head, punched him in the face, knocked him on his back and stomped on him," investigators said in an arrest document. 
 
 Police reportedly said in court papers that one victim asked an attacker to stop but was told it was "tradition." 
 
 The alleged assaults came to light after a father found his son sobbing in his room later that night, the Fox 5 DC report said. 
 
 Fox 5 DC reported Jean Claude Abedi, Kristian Jamal Lee, Will Smith and Caleb Thorpe were released on Monday. A fifth teen is facing lesser second-degree rape charges as a juvenile. 
 
 Defense attorney Daniel Wright called it "a hazing incident that went to an extreme." 
 
 Prosecutor John McCarthy rejected that, saying "these are crimes." 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report
– Four high school football players in Maryland are facing life in prison for what prosecutors describe as an "astonishingly cruel" assault on four boys. Jean "JC" Abedi, Kristian "KJ" Lee, Will Smith, and Caleb Thorpe, all aged 15 and members of Damascus High School's junior varsity football team, are charged as adults with first-degree rape and attempted rape after allegedly using a broomstick on four 14-year-olds on Oct. 31, per Fox News and the Washington Post. One victim said Abedi and Lee were laughing as they held him down in a locker room after the lights went out, ABC News reports via court documents. The teens allegedly raped the boy with the broomstick before moving on to other teammates, one of whom was punched and "stomped on," court documents state. When another victim told the suspects to stop, Smith allegedly claimed the assault was "tradition," per ABC. Defense lawyer Daniel Wright has since called it "a hazing incident that went to an extreme." But "it's not hazing. These are crimes," prosecutor John McCarthy said at a Monday press conference, adding authorities were investigating whether "this happened in prior years." Court documents note Lee, Smith, and Thorpe admitted involvement in the attack, reported after the father of one of the victims found his son crying in his room, per Newsweek. All four have been released on $20,000 bond. A fifth, unnamed teenager, described in court documents as both a victim and a suspect, is charged with second-degree rape as a juvenile, per Fox News. (This follows a similar incident at a Toronto school.)