By Michael Sangiacomo, The Cleveland Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- While most of the top high school seniors in the country signed their letter of intent Wednesday to play college football, Ohio State recruit Chris Carter sat in a jail cell in Cleveland.
The highly-touted John F. Kennedy High School offensive lineman was arrested Tuesday and suspected of fondling as many as eight girls while pretending to measure them for JROTC uniforms.
Cleveland Police said a 15-year-old girl told officers that Carter, 18, took her out of her classroom and into a room behind the JFK auditorium and told her he needed to measure her for the uniform.
"Once inside the room, (Carter) asked the victim to take off her sweatshirt and shirt so he could take her measurements," the police report said. "He cut off the lights. . . and stated 'I need you to take your bra off.' The arrested male than put his arms under her arms from behind and attempted to pull her bra up."
The girl told police she refused to cooperate and left the room. The girl reported the incident to school officials.
Police said Carter admitted that he had used the same ruse on other girls. Police asked him to give them the book that he used to record the measurements, and he turned it over.
"The book revealed more victims," the report said, noting there was measurement information for eight girls in the book.
Another victim told police that Carter stopped her in the hallway and asked her to come into a room where he "asked her to take her clothes off. The victim took off everything except her panties" and then he measured her, police said in the report.
Carter is a member of the high school's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corp, his lawyer Harvey Brunner said.
Carter was taken to the police station on suspicion of misdemeanor sexual imposition. He was held overnight but released Wednesday pending further investigation.
The 6-5, 350-pound offensive lineman, has received an athletic scholarship offer from Ohio State University and gave the school his commitment after touring the campus. Neither Kennedy High nor Ohio State officials could be reached to comment on the status of the scholarship offer.
Last year, Carter described his commitment to Ohio State as the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
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