Five men were arrested Thursday morning, one at his home and four at Niles High School, the result of a six week investigation by the Niles City Police Department.

Four of those arrested are 18 years old, according to Captain James Millin of the Niles City Police Department, the fifth is 17, which is considered an adult in the state of Michigan.

Each are expected to be arraigned this afternoon at the Berrien County Courthouse in Niles.

Millin said each of the five taken into custody are expected to face at least one charge of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree.

“Some have, I think, multiple, there are other charges of extortion and of possession of or manufacturing child sexually abusive material,” he said.

“What we want to stress is this has absolutely nothing to do with the high school, nothing happened at the school,” Millin said. “The high school was the one place where we could get all the boys at one time … it just made it a little easier.”

The arrests came at the end of a six week investigation, which include four victims, the first of which, Millin said made the initial report to police. Three others were interviewed and the matter was turned over to the prosecutor’s office.

At the time of the arrests, Superintendent Richard Weigel and Niles High School principal Jim Knoll both said they were not informed of the charges pending against those arrested. Though police did have arrest warrants with them Thursday morning, Knoll said he was not able to read them.

“Some students that are high school students did something — not at the high school,” said Superintendent Richard Weigel. “We don’t know what. And the police came by to pick them up.”

Knoll said he’d been given a call sometime prior to the events on Thursday that police were looking for the specific individuals.

“I didn’t know exactly when they were going to come,” he said. “I can tell you they were looking for five (individuals) and they took four from the school. (The students) were very cooperative, too.”

Both Weigel and Knoll reiterated whatever the students were taken into custody for did not take place on school grounds and said for that reason the school would likely not have much more involvement in the situation.

“We tried to do this very low key,” Millin said, in regard to arresting the students at school. “Obviously they’re friends, they’re acquaintances, they know each other …
because of age and any fear they might have of this investigation and its outcome we didn’t want that to happen and boys try to run or hide …”

The names of those arrested are expected to be released following their arraignment later today.