Two college football players are facing assault and battery charges for allegedly beating up a homeless man in Massachusetts.
Craig “CJ” Parsons is a former tight end from Boston College, and Anthony Varrichione used to play at Marist College as a quarterback–and they’ve entered Not Guilty pleas in court in connection with the January beating of 50-year-old Michael Hudson in Boston.
Police claim that Parsons and Varrichione got into a “verbal confrontation” with Hudson while he was panhandling in the neighborhood of Allston. The two told Hudson to leave the area and stop begging people for money. When Hudson refused, the two started kicking and punching him until he was knocked unconscious. Prosecutors claim that Hudson’s head was “slammed into the sidewalk three to four times by Craig Parsons.”
A woman happened upon the altercation and stopped it by covering Hudson with her body. Other witnesses also intervened on Hudson’s behalf and Parsons and Varrichione fled the scene. Hudson was in the hospital for three days in critical condition. Prosecutors said that Hudson’s beating was so bad that he has no memory of the incident. Both faces felony charges of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Parsons faces an additional charge of witness intimidation for trying to get one of the witnesses not to identity him as one of the assailants.
If you ask us, it sounds like we’ve got a couple of “droogs” in the making. Maybe their prison will have some kind of psychological rehabilitation that can make them feel physically ill whenever they think of violence and can help us understand the dangers of forcibly curbing human behavior.