Ex-college football players charged in homeless man's beating

BOSTON -- Two former college football players who went to high school together were charged Wednesday with beating up a homeless man.

Craig Parsons, a former Boston College tight end, and Anthony Varrichione, an ex-quarterback at Marist College, were accused of kicking and punching 50-year-old Michael Hudson unconscious early Jan. 26 in Boston's Allston neighborhood.

Parsons and Varrichione were charged with assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon -- their shoes. Parsons also was charged with intimidating a witness. The two men pleaded not guilty.

CBS Boston reports that it started as a verbal altercation, and that Hudson was initially told to go away. Then, Parsons and Varrichione allegedly approached the homeless man and began kicking and punching him. Parsons is accused of knocking the victim's head into the sidewalk.

Parsons' attorney, Michael Doolin, said his client was wrongfully identified. "C.J. is a good kid from a good family. We are hopeful that he will be exonerated," he said. Varrichione's lawyer, Tim Flaherty, said the same of his client. Neither attorney would comment further on the allegations.

The charges stem from a grand jury investigation in which several witnesses identified the two men, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney's office.

Hudson was panhandling for money outside a property in Allston when he got into an argument with the two, prosecutors wrote in court documents. When Hudson refused to leave, the men violently attacked him, prosecutors said. Witnesses called police and one woman jumped in to try to help Hudson, who was hospitalized for three days, according to Wark.

According to CBS Boston, Hudson was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in critical condition following the attack. While he is expected to survive, the station reports he has no memory of the assault.

Parsons, 22, of Newton, Mass., is a Boston College senior. He was suspended and barred from campus less than a month before graduation, according to university spokesman Jack Dunn, who referred to the allegations as "disturbing" in a statement Wednesday.

Varrichione, 23, of Medway, Mass., was a quarterback at Marist and graduated from the New York school in the fall.

According to bios on their colleges' websites, each man is over 6 feet tall and weighs more than 200 pounds. They were previously teammates at Xaverian Brothers, a Catholic high school in Westwood, Mass.

They are due back in Suffolk Superior Court on June 4.