Three East Chicago Central High School administrators have been charged with residential entry after storming into a student’s home to demand items the student and two friends stole from the school’s locker room.
East Chicago Central High School Principal Abrian E. Brown, of East Chicago, East Chicago Central High School Dean Corey D. Bailey, and East Chicago High School Varsity Basketball Coach Alaa Mroueh were charged Dec. 17 with residential entry.
The student, who wasn’t named in the report, said around 9 p.m. on Oct. 25 he and two friends attended an East Chicago High School football game against Hanover Central High School and Haunted Hallway event. The three of them admitted to police that they stole items from a locker room.
They left the school around 9 p.m. and walked to his home, the boy told police. About two hours later, the three school administrators came to the home and banged on the door, according to the affidavits.
The student’s mom told police the administrators yelled “give me all of it, give me everything that you stole,” according to the affidavits. She told police she recognized the three administrators to be Brown, Bailey and Mroueh.
She told police that Mroueh was five inches from her son’s face yelling at him to return the items. Brown told the students that “the police are outside. If you don’t return everything, you will be taken to jail,” according to the affidavits.
The administrators left after receiving the stolen items: Two sets of AirPods, one headphone, two pairs of Crocs and a pair of pants, according to the affidavits.
The mother went to East Chicago High School on Oct. 28 to talk to the administrators to ask them why they entered her home without permission and yelled at the three students.
“My first thing is, I know what he did was wrong, not trying to dispute that, not trying to get over it. But what made you think it was right for three grown men to enter my house at 11 at night?” according to a recording to the meeting transcribed, in part, in the affidavits.
One of the administrators told her that they knocked on the door, and when they did, it opened, according to the affidavits.
“The reason that we made a sudden decision to retrieve the items cause they would have went to jail that same night,” one of the administrator’s responds in the recording.
The student’s mom said the administrators could have called her, reminding them they have her cellphone number, to let her know what happened. She reminded the administrators she asked them multiple times after they entered her home what they were doing there, which they ignored. She told them they could’ve pulled her aside that night to tell her what happened, according to the affidavits.
“I’m trying to talk them out of not pressing changes against the kids. At this point I don’t know if they gonna press charges, kind of up to me continuing to talk with them,” one of the administrators said. “We’re trying to keep these young men out of jail.”
Bailey called Brown and Mroueh to inform them the Hanover Central High School coach called him to report that some items were stolen from the locker room. Brown said he, Bailey and Mroueh reviewed the surveillance video and saw three current East Chicago High School students entering the locker room and exiting while stuffing items in their pants, according to the affidavits.
Bailey called the Hanover Central coach to ask what items were taken, and one of the football players provided a screenshot of the location of his AirPods. Bailey told police the apartment was on Baring Avenue and that he and Mroueh recognized the apartment building because they’ve dropped off students there in the past, according to the affidavits.
Brown told police that Bailey said “Man, we better go get this stuff, because if not they going to go sell it,” according to the affidavits.
When the three arrived at the home, Brown said someone knocked on the door, after which it opened on its own. When the door opened, Brown said there were stairs leading upstairs and the administrators anticipated another door but the student opened the door to the apartment, according to the affidavits.
Brown told police that Mroueh told the mother why they came to the home when she came out of her bedroom, according to the affidavits. The administrators took the items, Brown said, and returned them to the Hanover Central coach Oct. 28.
The three administrators provided conflicting accounts of who entered the apartment, according to the affidavits.
When asked, all three administrators said police weren’t contacted the evening the items were stolen. Brown stated they decided to handle the situation internally since it occurred on campus, according to the affidavits.
