Trent Lehrkamp 'hazing' incident leads to charges against 5

Publish date: 2024-05-04

Georgia law enforcement announced charges Monday against five people in connection with events related to Trent Lehrkamp, who was hospitalized in March and put on a ventilator after a party he attended got out of hand.

Two adults and three minors were slapped with misdemeanour charges, but police say reports of the high school graduate, 19, being violently bullied have been exaggerated and note he attended the two parties on Saint Simons Island voluntarily.

“He was not tortured,” Glynn County District Attorney Keith Higgins told reporters. “On March 21…Trent voluntarily drank alcohol until he blacked out. No one poured alcohol down his throat or forced him to drink. No one pushed a funnel down his throat.”

Lehrkamp was allegedly so intoxicated he needed to be placed on a ventilator after what was initially described by locals as a serious act of vicious bullying at a Georgia house party.

Previous reports described how the teen was hazed during another March spring break party on the island.

He was alleged to have been forced to eat hallucinogenic mushrooms and drink excessive amounts of alcohol before he was supposedly doused in human urine and spray-painted.

Reports described how he was then dropped off and abandoned at a local hospital.

Trent Lehrkamp in an undated image. Family via First Coast News

But Higgins said Monday that a police investigation revealed much of what was said to have happened either did not occur, or happened of Lehrkamp’s own volition.

“No one urinated on Trent Lehrkamp. No one defecated on Trent Lehrkamp either.”

Higgins added that no one choked Lehrkamp, no one beat him and “no one poured acid down his throat.”

Trent Lehrkamp Trenton 'Trent' Lehrkamp/GOFUNDME

“No one tortured him after Trent blacked out from the alcohol that he voluntarily drank,” Higgins went on.

As for images that showed Lehrkamp being hosed off while seated in a white plastic chair, Higgins said the teen “consented to being washed off with a hose” after he voluntarily engaged in an egg fight.

And teens did not just dump Lehrkamp at the hospital, Higgins added.

Instead, the actions of the teenagers, including 17-year-old Edward Rooker Hobby, “quite probably saved his life.”

“After realizing that Trenton needed medical attention, Rooker Hobby drove Trent to the hospital,” Higgins said.

Image shows Trent Lehrhamp being hosed down. Facebook/Glynn County Citizens on Patrol

“Rooker Hobby and the juveniles that accompanied him just didn’t drop him off at the outside. They went inside, got medical personnel to come outside and take him in so that he could get the medical care that he needed. They then left their correct names and telephone numbers before leaving.”

Chilling images posted to social media showed snippets of the incident, which police had reportedly called an assault.

Lehrkamp was stabilized enough to be taken off the ventilator within weeks.

His father allegedly told investigators a group of males had repeatedly targeted his son, but he remained friendly with them despite the bullying “because he has no other friends.”

Hobby, 17, was among five people charged Monday in connection with the investigation into crimes against Lehrkamp.

Trent Lehrkamp is recovering weeks after he was hospitalized following a party on Georgia’s Saint Simons Island. Glynn County Citizens on Patrol/Facebook

But Hobby’s battery charge, which was uncovered in the process of investigating Lehrkamp’s case, is otherwise unrelated to the teenager and involves a different victim, officials said.

Glynn County Police Department interim chief O’Neal Jackson said Monday two of the other individuals arrested were juveniles, whose identities would not be released because they are charged with misdemeanors.

One of the minors was charged with simple battery and criminal trespass, the other was charged with possession and use of drug-related objects.

Two adults were also charged Monday.

Edward Rooker Hobby Glynn County Detention Center
James Carlton Strother Glynn County Jail
Lauren Strother Glynn County Jail

Carlton and Lauren Strother, ages 46 and 56, respectively, were charged with maintaining a disorderly house and contributing to the delinquency or dependency of a minor.

The charges against all individuals were misdemeanors, Higgins said. A spokesperson for the District Attorney’s office told The Post no attorneys were listed for any of the individuals as of Monday afternoon.

Police said the investigation into the incident is ongoing.

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