Was it a high school prank or a deliberate act of sexual abuse?

The legal debate centering around an October 2003 menacing incident involving members of a North Bend High School junior varsity football team opened Tuesday morning in a Coos County Circuit courtroom.

North Bend junior varsity players Jordan Akins and 15-year-old Bradley Kellerhals were suspended from the school on Oct. 21, after school officials heard reports of menacing incidents occurring during the junior varsity football team's trip to Sutherlin five days prior. One of the alleged incidents was believed to have happened on the minibus ride home; the other in North Bend's locker room.

The attorney in the case against Akins made opening statements and then spent the majority of the day questioning the alleged victims, two freshmen boys. The trial was sparsely attended. Only a few family members of the victims and Akins were in attendance.

Judge Richard Barron will decide whether the 17-year-old Akins is guilty of committing numerous crimes, including first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree unlawful sexual penetration, Measure 11 offenses. The charges carry mandatory sentences that range from 100 months to six years, three months in prison.

The Coos County District Attorney's Office later dismissed similar charges against Kellerhals in exchange for pleading guilty to other charges.

Barron also granted a motion made by the victims not to allow the proceedings to be videotaped or captured by still photography by the media.

"This is a case about sexual abuse," said Deputy District Attorney Karen Herzog in her opening statement.

Herzog said that is exactly what happened on Oct. 16, alleging Akins took his hand and put it between the fully-clothed butt cheeks of two of his teammates and penetrated their anuses with his fingers.

The deputy district attorney outlined the events of that day, saying that Akins and one of the victims, a 14-year-old, were joking around and teasing each other on the bus ride to Sutherlin. But the atmosphere changed on the return trip, she said.

After the team stopped for dinner and reboarded the bus, those players on the bus driven by football coach Nunzio Lagattuta started acting out. Players were shouting and punching each other. Teammates were throwing pop bottles and ice around the bus - even hitting their coach while he was driving. Herzog said it was amid all the commotion the two team members were assaulted.

"This wasn't a 'three-finger wiggle,'" Herzog concluded. "This was abuse."

Akin's defense attorney, Robert McCrea, said that his client is facing 12 different counts and the evidence will not support the charges. Anal penetration did not occur, he added.

"There was never any intention on Mr. Akins part" to penetrate the alleged victims' anuses, McCrea said.

Sexual abuse is the touching of someone's private area, done with specific intent to gratify the sexual desire of either party. That isn't the case here, he said.

For good or bad, McCrea said there exists a game called the "three-finger wiggle" among the North Bend football players. A "three-finger wiggle" consists of a player placing three of his fingers between the fully-clothed butt cheeks of another and wiggling their fingers. No penetration occurs, he said.

"There exists this game ... prior to anything happening with Akins and it had for a year before," McCrea said. " ... This conduct takes on a life of it's own. The evidence will show it was going on since the school year of 2002."

The purpose of this game is one-upmanship and the point is to do it to someone and avoid having it done to you, the defense attorney said. "At no time was there any homosexual tendencies or sexual overtures made," he added.

Herzog's first witness was one of the alleged victims, a 15-year-old freshman. In a green polo shirt and denim jeans, the boy told Barron and those in the courtroom about playing football for North Bend this season. He then started talking about the trip to Sutherlin.

The teenager said Akins and the other alleged victim were joking and horsing around on the drive over.

Akins even successfully dared the 14-year-old to call Akins' mother on a cell phone and tell her how "hot" she was.

On the drive home, the 15-year-old said most of his teammates were rowdy on the bus, including himself. At one point, Akins sat down in the seat next to the 15-year-old and started teasing him.

"He kept trying to get under (my butt). I wouldn't let him," the 15-year-old said.

The boy said Akins tried a couple of more times to give him a "three-finger wiggle" but was unsuccessful. A few minutes later the victim was joking around with another teammate in the seat in front of him and got his hands trapped while leaning forward. The 15-year-old said that's when he was assaulted by Akins, who poked his fingers into the boy's anus over the fabric of his shorts.

"I yelled out," the 15-year-old added.

But he didn't tell anyone about the incident because, he said, he was embarrassed.

The other victim, the 14-year-old wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, recounted a similar story of how the assaults occurred. He said he was touched a few times by Akins that day, once on the bus and again in the school's locker room.

The 14-year-old said he was upset by what happened.

"It made me feel mad," he said. Later he added, "I was disgusted."

Throughout the day, Akins sat quietly at the defendant's table next to his attorneys, McCrea and his daughter and partner, Shaun McCrea.

Akins' trial continues today with the prosecutor expected to call more witnesses to the stand to testify.