Hockey Dad Found Guilty of Giving 13 Year Old Player a ‘Swirly’

DuPage County State’s Attorney Joseph E. Birkett announced today that Raymond O’Donnell, 48 (d.o.b. 3/18/56), of 6315 Elm in Burr Ridge was found guilty today of Battery following a bench trial before Judge Peter J. Dockery. The defendant had been charged with holding the cheek of a 13 year old hockey player against a toilet bowl while he flushed the toilet, and splashed water into the face and onto the boy’s head, an act sometimes referred to as a ‘swirly’. The crime was committed on January 5, 2003 following a hockey game that the team had won, and after the boys had returned to the locker room at Seven Bridges Ice Arena in Woodridge where they were celebrating their first victory in six games.

Testimony revealed that prior to the game beginning, the defendant, a minor official with the team according to his own testimony, warned the victim that if he received a penalty during the game that he would receive a ‘swirly’. Following the game, the defendant returned again to the locker room and asked the roomful of young teenage boys whether the victim should receive a ‘swirly’. After an affirmative response from the boys, the defendant dragged the 13 year old boy across the locker room by his collar to the bathroom area and into a stall where the ‘swirly’, a battery, was administered.

Judge Peter Dockery sentenced O’Donnell to one (1) year court supervision, three (3) days in the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program (S.W.A.P.), court costs and ordered him to have no contact with the victim.

"Without adult volunteers, we would not have sports programs," commented State’s Attorney Birkett. "Discipline is one of the lessons we expect adult volunteers and coaches to instill in our youth. But no adult, coach, spectator, or even a parent can cross the line and physically abuse a child. If they do so, they will be prosecuted."

State’s Attorney Birkett praised Assistant State’s Attorneys Diane Garcia and Rick Veenstra for their efforts on behalf of this young boy.