{"id":2063,"date":"2026-06-20T06:03:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arizonamovinginsider.com\/?p=2063"},"modified":"2026-06-20T06:03:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:03:40","slug":"former-liberty-h-s-wrestlers-allege-hazing-in-lawsuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arizonamovinginsider.com\/?p=2063","title":{"rendered":"Former Liberty H.S. wrestlers allege hazing in lawsuits"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PEORIA, AZ \u2014 Two former wrestlers from Liberty High School have filed lawsuits claiming the Peoria Unified School District and their former coach were negligent in protecting the athletes from sexual contact and assault.<\/p>\n

Read more WATCH: Phoenix nonprofit farm donates 100% of its harvest to fight food insecurity in the Valley<\/a><\/p>\n

Rex and Ryder Fortenberry, who first told their stories to ABC15 last year, detailed instances from 2022 to 2024 in the lawsuits.<\/p>\n

According to the legal claims, teammates inappropriately touched the brothers, and the Fortenberrys’ attorney says the behavior continued openly and undeterred by coaches.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the Peoria Police Department announced it closed its criminal investigation without recommending charges against anyone.<\/p>\n

Liberty High School has one of the top-ranked high school wrestling programs in the state.<\/p>\n

Read more Intersection safety improvements planned near Chandler High School in December<\/a><\/p>\n

When contacted for comment, a school district spokesperson told ABC15 they had not yet been served with the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Peoria Unified School District previously completed its own investigation into the hazing allegations. Liberty’s head wrestling coach, Eric Brenton, had been put on administrative leave, but he was reinstated earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The district also said administrators improved the supervision of wrestlers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You can reach ABC15 Senior Investigator Melissa Blasius by email at\u00a0<\/i><\/b>melissa.blasius@abc15.com<\/u><\/i><\/b>\u00a0or call 602-803-2506. Follow her on\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Instagram<\/i><\/b>, X @<\/i><\/b>MelissaBlasius<\/u><\/i><\/b>,\u00a0<\/u>or\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Facebook<\/u><\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Read more Arizona ESA program tops 100K students, surpasses $1.1 billion annually<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two former wrestlers from Liberty H.S. have filed lawsuits claiming the Peoria Unified School District and their former coach were negligent in protecting the athletes from sexual contact and assault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigations"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer Liberty H.S. wrestlers allege hazing in lawsuits - Arizona Moving Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arizonamovinginsider.com\/?p=2063\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Liberty H.S. wrestlers allege hazing in lawsuits - 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