The altercation took place on September 20th. From AP-
New Mexico Lobos head coach Mike Locksley has been reprimanded for a fight involving an assistant coach, who told police Locksley struck him and split his lip.
Athletic director Paul Krebs said at a news conference Monday that Locksley was issued “a verbal reprimand” with a follow-up letter placed in his personnel file after the Sept. 20 altercation.
According to a police report, receivers coach J.B. Gerald said the fight occurred during a “heated” coaches meeting.
Locksley became angry, grabbed Gerald by the collar and punched him as other coaches tried to intervene.
Krebs downplayed the incident, saying it’s not unusual in college football for coaches to have “heated discussions.” He also expressed steadfast support for Locksley, whom he hired after last season.
No charges were filed. I do think Locksley could be in a great of trouble at this moment. He is being been accused of sexual harassment and the Lobos aren’t having much success on the field(0-4 in 2009). It wouldn’t at all surprise me if Locksley’s tenure in Albuquerque is a very short one.
Two male students have already pled guilty to charges arising from hazings that took place in August 2008. From the Las Vegas Optic-
Charges have been dropped against school officials and coaches accused of not reporting a series of attacks at a football camp last year — and at least one victim’s parents, as well as the prosecutor who initially filed the charges, aren’t a bit happy about it.
Superintendent Rick Romero, Athletic Director Michael Yara, former head football coach Ray Woods and former assistant coach Adam Alvarez were each facing a misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect. Eighth Judicial District Attorney Donald Gallegos said he dropped the charges after determining that the case would not likely hold up on appeal, even if he could get a conviction.
“The duty-to-report statute did not fit this particular aspect of this crime,†Gallegos said Friday.
The legal sticking point was in the state’s definition of an abused child, Gallegos said. In the Children’s Code, a person is required to report suspected abuse, but it goes on to define such abuse as coming from a “parent, guardian or custodian†— not another child.
Gallegos added that legislative intent may have been to require reporting child abuse regardless of the age of the person doing the abuse, but the law doesn’t state this.
At least one of these animals men facilitated rape(One assistant coach walked into a cabin while the sodomizing of a student took place and took no action other than to tell the boys to stop it.) and they will face no criminal punishment? This is just outrageous.
I am not the only one holding that viewpoint.
The parents went further in suggesting the ramifications to such a decision:
“What District Attorney Donald Gallegos and Prosecutor Leslie Fernandez are saying is that if a teacher knows that a female student is forcibly held down by several male students and sodomized, then they have no legal responsibility to report the crime because it was not committed by adults.
“We allege that the only reason this is different is because these are sexual assaults committed by boys against boys,†the parents said. “It is an unpleasant topic that nobody obviously wants to deal with, (but) deal with it! We are!â€
If it had been a case of a girl being raped and a school official had turned a blind eye to it, the outrage would have resounded a lot further than New Mexico and it would have increased in volume when the prosecutor dropped the charges. The boys who were being sodomized were allowed to remain in the company of their tormentors. How about charging at least one of these people as being an accessory? What a spineless jellyfish of a criminal prosecutor Donald Gallegos is.
William Del Biaggio III defrauded investors and banks in part in order to buy the team. From AP-
A federal judge has sentenced a Silicon Valley financier to more than 8 years in prison for bilking banks and investors out of millions of dollars in an attempt to buy a pro hockey team and finance a lavish lifestyle.
William “Boots” Del Biaggio III was sentenced Tuesday in San Francisco. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to a felony charge of forging financial documents to obtain $110 million in loans from several banks and two NHL owners.
He used the money to buy an interest in the NHL’s Nashville Predators and to pay personal expenses that included $4 million in gambling debts.
The judge also ordered him to pay more than $67.4 million in restitution. His interest in the hockey team will be sold and the proceeds distributed to his victims.
Are the Predators worth 67 million? They have been a mediocre NHL franchise at best that has been rumored in the not too distant past to be moving out of Tennessee. Yes, they’re probably worth enough to make restitution for Mr. Del Biaggio but now NHL owners are probably getting migraines as they face yet another franchise with ownership problems. The mess in Phoenix is still ongoing.
Getting one’s self arrested isn’t a good way to build job security in the NFL for a rookie. From AP-
Denver Broncos rookie tight end Richard Quinn was required to spend the night in jail after being arrested on harassment and domestic violence charges.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Department said Quinn was arrested early Monday afternoon after a woman called 911. The woman told deputies that her live-in boyfriend, Quinn, grabbed and shook her to the ground during an argument and grabbed the phone from her while she was trying to dial 911.
The 22-year-old woman told deputies that Quinn also grabbed her cell phone. She says she ran to another house in the suburban Denver neighborhood to call police.
Deputies say Quinn told them he grabbed the woman only after she started hitting him in the face, but had no visible marks on his face.
Quinn was ordered held overnight in jail without bond per Colorado law in domestic dispute cases. He was due in court Tuesday morning.
After his selection in the 2009 NFL Draft, Denver’s head coach touted Quinn as the type of football player he wanted playing for the Broncos. OTB Sports commenters feel free to be snarky.
Merriman didn’t play in the 2008 NFL season due to knee surgery. From AP-
Authorities say San Diego Chargers star linebacker Shawne Merriman has been arrested on suspicion of choking and restraining his girlfriend, a reality TV star, as she tried to leave his Southern California home.
San Diego County Sheriff’s Lt. Gary Steadman says 27-year-old Tila Tequila signed a citizen’s arrest warrant early Sunday, charging Merriman with battery and false imprisonment.
Tequila was taken to a hospital. Her condition was not immediately available.
Merriman, 25, was taken into custody by deputies who responded to a distress call at his home in Poway, north of San Diego.
I expect Merriman to face some disciplinary action from the NFL. How severe it will be is anyone’s guess at present.
The game was decided 19-8 on the field in favor of the Broncos. What happened after the game is gaining the most attention
The Pac-10 later Friday will review tape of Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount’s dropping Boise State linebacker Byron Hout with a postgame punch to the jaw to determine whether Blount will be disciplined, spokesman Jim Muldoon said.
Immediately following Oregon’s 19-8 loss at Boise State on Thursday night, an ESPN replay of the incident showed Hout taunting Blount as the teams converged onto the field. As a Broncos assistant coach moved to separate Hout from Blount, the Oregon senior threw a right cross that connected with Hout’s right jaw. Hout went down and popped right back up.
First-year Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott is flying in from Boise, where he witnessed the incident first-hand. While Muldoon said Oregon could take action, he believes the ultimate punishment to be a conference matter.
Oregon athletic director Mike Bellotti said after the game he would consult with the Pac-10 office before taking any disciplinary action.
Here’s the video of the incident and an interview of Blount.
Blount was provoked, so his behavior is somewhat understandable. What could cause his biggest problem is what happened as Blount was escorted from the field.
Boise State replayed Blount slugging Hout several times on the giant screen in the north end zone of Bronco Stadium. Amid jeers from the crowd, Blount, who was being escorted from the field by Oregon assistant coach Scott Frost, got into another confrontation with fans.
His sucker-punch at the end of Thursday’s loss at Boise State will sink out-of-shape Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount’s chances of an NFL career, Todd McShay writes. Blog Insider
According to Blount, one fan brandished a chair at him and another punched him. Two police officers and Frost nearly carried Blount to the Boise State athletic building, where the visiting team dresses.
Getting into fisticuffs with fans might be the real reason Blount gets punished in the Pac-10 takes any action at all and I’m betting they do. One pro scout thinks this will doom any chance of Blount being selected in the NFL draft. If the guy has legitimate 2nd or 3rd round talent, that seems to be an overreaction. Feel free to share your own opinions.
Update- Oregon has suspended Blount for the rest of the season.
College football season is under way. There was however one blogger who failed to get the memo.
He also won a gold medal at the 1979 Pan American Games. RIP.
Police say former Olympic shot putter Dave Laut has been shot to death outside his Southern California home.
Police officials said the 1984 Olympic bronze medalist and Hueneme High School athletic director was shot multiple times around midnight Thursday.
Sgt. Ron Whitney said the 52-year-old was at home when he and his wife heard noises in the backyard and he went outside to investigate. Shots were fired moments later, and Laut died at the scene.
Justice is swift in upstate New York. The original incident took place less than a month ago. From the Buffalo News-
Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick T. Kane and his cousin James M. Kane pleaded guilty today to a non-criminal charge of disorderly conduct for an early-morning fee incident with a Buffalo taxicab driver Aug. 9.
Chief City Judge Thomas P. Amodeo granted them both conditional discharges and ordered them to make a written apologies to the cabbie and pay $125 each in court fees. Amodeo stressed that he was imposing the same type of sentence he would impose on similar defendants with no prior criminal record in similar situations.
$125 in court fees and most likely a couple of thousand to an attorney to clean up his mess. All because of he didn’t want to part with twenty cents. I hope Kane shows better money management skills with all the earnings he makes from playing in the NHL.
If your employees cheat and snort cocaine at your establishment, you can expect to take a double whammy for it in the Sunshine State. From the Miami Herald-
The state has fined Gulfstream Park $800,000 for security failures that allowed employees to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from slot machines by using free-play cards.
In an order filed Friday, the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation said the Hallandale Beach casino was lax in overseeing the use of the cards allowing employees to load the cards with much more money than authorized.
According to the department’s complaint: “The unauthorized issuance and use of test cards with excessive amounts of money loaded onto them was largely, if not completely, unchecked — there were no facility procedures or regulations governing the issuance or check out of test cards, nor receipts issued when test cards were turned in.”
The department fined Gulfstream $800,000 — $100,000 for each count.
The owner of Gulfstream Park is in bankruptcy. So the fine may not even be paid. The track also already owes $144,000 in back taxes. If they can’t pay those taxes, why should the State of Florida be hopeful will Magna Entertainment will pay the new fines?
The penalty follows a two-year inquiry by the state — and a criminal investigation that resulted in the conviction of one employee for cheating and organized fraud. Other employees were fired or suspended but not charged.
In September 2007, employees at Gulfstream caught a patron playing slots — for free — by using a card that was only meant to test the machines.
Investigators found that a slots technician had given the man the test cards and shared the money he won.
A subsequent investigation found that many cards that were normally worth about $5 of play had instead been loaded with hundreds of dollars.
According to the complaint, the test cards were not tracked — no unique serial numbers, sign-out requirements or system for logging them.
One employee is convicted, others are allowed to return to their jobs but the track is fined. The rules are certainly different in Florida.
Former New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress pleaded guilty Thursday to a weapons charge and agreed to a two-year prison term for accidentally shooting himself at a Manhattan nightclub.
Burress pleaded guilty to one count of attempted criminal possession of a weapon, a lesser charge than he initially faced. Under a plea agreement, he agreed to a two-year prison sentence and two years of supervised release.
Burress was indicted earlier this month on two counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of reckless endangerment. He faced a minimum sentence of 3½ years if convicted at a trial.
Burress, who caught the winning touchdown for the Giants against the New England Patriots in the final minute of the 2008 Super Bowl, also faces disciplinary action by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
That should not need being stated. Just look at Goodell’s decisions in regards to Michael Vick and Duante Stallworth. A NFL player after getting out of jail doesn’t just get a free pass back into the league nor should he. What a waste
