
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 10, 1993                   TAG: 9312100238
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

EX-COACH, WRESTLERS CHARGED FOR MOCK LYNCHING

In Morris, Minn., a former coach and five college wrestlers were charged with staging a mock lynching on Halloween that they said was meant as a joke on two black teammates.

"I just can't look at this behavior and refer to it as a joke or prank," Stevens County Attorney Charles Glasrud said. "It appeared to the victims to be a lynching."

Former University of Minnesota-Morris assistant wrestling coach Frank Pelegri drove two black wrestlers to a rural site in west-central Minnesota, where the teammates waited, a criminal complaint said.

Some of the wrestlers wore pillow cases resembling the white hoods worn by Ku Klux Klansmen, and a cross was burning at the site, Glasrud said.

Pelegri stopped the car, grabbed a bat and stepped out as if to confront the hooded figures, Glasrud said. A shot was heard, and the coach appeared to fall to the ground. No one was injured.

by CNB