April 09, 2012

Colorado State Football Players Beat Down Students: Four Colorado State University freshmen are recovering from injuries suffered in a fight with several of the school's football players. J.D. Haley and Danny Gocha say they were leaving a party in Fort Collins with two other people when the athletes drove by and yelled homophobic insults. When Gocha said the same insult back, the SUV stopped. "You could just tell they were looking for a fight,” Haley said. “They just started beating the back of Donny's head in. I covered Donny’s head with my body. We were all scared for his life." Gocha's eyes are swollen shut, his teeth are chipped and he has a shoeprint on his back. Players Nordly Capi, Colton Paulhus and Mike Orakpo -- younger brother of NFL linebacker Brian Orakpo -- were suspended Saturday by the team for unspecified reasons.

posted by rcade to football at 01:11 PM - 6 comments

'unspecified reasons'? were they late for practice too?

posted by kokaku at 04:00 PM on April 09, 2012

Probably all related to this ... the university likely can't specify due to privacy concerns.

posted by jjzucal at 07:52 PM on April 09, 2012

...or due to an ongoing criminal investigation, quite likely. It doesn't surprise me; if they're doing 100% the right thing, I imagine this is how it would play out.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:54 PM on April 09, 2012

If it's established that they were the ones who jumped these kids, kick 'em off the team, kick 'em out of the school. Period. Then let the law deal with them for agg assault.

Orakpo will have to kibosh the Geico neanderthal Scrabble games for awhile and teach his little brother how to be a man, it seems.

posted by evixir at 10:37 PM on April 09, 2012

And in a Facebook post, CSU's vice president for student affairs, Jody Donovan, said that once police finish their investigation, they will forward the report to the university's conflict resolution and student conduct services, which will also conduct an investigation.

"Depending upon the results of this investigation, sanctions will be applied," Donovan wrote in response to Haley's postings about the assaults.

"Students who violate the law or university policies are held accountable for their actions. Colorado State University does not tolerate this behavior."

Fort Collins police on Sunday said the investigation was ongoing but that no arrests had been made.

I'd like to be wrong, but why does this sound like one of those no man's land schemes where it gets swept under the rug by each authority declaring no action and deference to the other authority:
  • School says they're leaving this as a criminal matter
  • Police "investigate", decide it's best left as a matter for the school to handle via the University's "conflict resolution and student conduct services"
  • School declares mild wrist-slap, using the lack of criminal investigation follow-through by the police as a justification
  • Once the media attention is gone, virtually no actual punishment is delivered
I mean, it sounds like we have at least 4 witnesses (and possibly some other bystanders) and positive IDs of the players involved, no?

So the simple question is why have no arrests been made yet? And for that, we can probably look to the end of the linked article: after a 3 page description of the assault, the Coloradan decides the most salient details are the previous athletic careers and accomplishments of some of the players involved in a (possibly) related fight.

posted by hincandenza at 05:29 PM on April 10, 2012

after a 3 page description of the assault, the Coloradan decides the most salient details are the previous athletic careers and accomplishments of some of the players involved in a (possibly) related fight.

Wouldn't the more salient details have been the height and weight of the attackers as compared to the height and weight of the attackees? Y'know. Just in case the players who decided to kick these kids' asses try to phrase what happened as a "fight."

Reminds me of a night on the town I had with a buddy in college who was a champion amature boxer. One of the members of our university's football team who went about 6'2" and 220 decided he was going to pick a "fight" with my buddy, who was about 5'11" and 165. Sadly for the heroic big fella, he had been hit six or seven times before he ever got his hands up. But I digress. Hope these assholes are convicted, expelled, and sued for every penny.

posted by tahoemoj at 06:48 PM on April 10, 2012

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