So news came out last Friday how two UCLA freshmen football players, Jess Ward (DT) and John Hale (LB) were involved in an off campus fight back in February. The Daily News had more details over the week. The Daily Bruin had more yesterday:
According to Annemarie Pace, deputy district attorney in San Bernardino, the alleged victim had recently provided the district attorney's office with detailed information of that February evening.
"It was based on an in-depth interview with the victim," Pace told the Daily News. "It was just about involvement of the two UCLA students. It was a more detailed account."
Casey Coniglio, a former teammate of Ward's at Rim of the World High School in Lake Arrowhead, and Franco Serrato were arrested on Feb. 20 for their involvement in the incident.
According to court records, the complaint to the police was filed by Nicholas Mierau. Pace told the Daily News that Mierau was taken to the hospital after the incident and diagnosed with a non-displaced fracture of the nasal bone.
If Hale and Ward are cleared of the felony charges, both players could still face civil lawsuits from the alleged victim, sources told the Daily News.
Hale and Ward have their next court date on May 17.
We had a spirited discussion here on whether or not Dorrell should have suspended these two players on an interim basic back in February when he first heard about, but we were pretty much unanimous in agreeing that Dorrell should put these kids on interim suspension now, pending outcome in their legal proceedings."It was based on an in-depth interview with the victim," Pace told the Daily News. "It was just about involvement of the two UCLA students. It was a more detailed account."
Casey Coniglio, a former teammate of Ward's at Rim of the World High School in Lake Arrowhead, and Franco Serrato were arrested on Feb. 20 for their involvement in the incident.
According to court records, the complaint to the police was filed by Nicholas Mierau. Pace told the Daily News that Mierau was taken to the hospital after the incident and diagnosed with a non-displaced fracture of the nasal bone.
If Hale and Ward are cleared of the felony charges, both players could still face civil lawsuits from the alleged victim, sources told the Daily News.
Hale and Ward have their next court date on May 17.
As of today we still have not heard anything yet from Dorrell. Nothing. Meanwhile, UCLA football's image is taking a beating in the elite blogs in the national college football blogosphere. The M Zone lampooned Dorrell's program, as did the boys over at EDSBS. And we deserve this ridicule. Unlike the USC football blogs, which are basically mouthpieces of the Heritage Hall PR machine, we are not going to make excuses for these stories coming out of the UCLA football program.
We'd like to see KD taking swift and decisive action sending a strong message that he will not tolerate even the hint of off-campus shenanigans from the UCLA football program. So the question is will Dorrell seek accountability and impose discipline in his football program or take the easy way out acting like Pom Pom (Phillip Fulmer of the West Coast) making excuses for his players in the football program? We will find out this week whether Dorrell can impose his will as a strong and decisive leader of this program off the field, which he has (to date) failed to display on the field:
Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images
Dorrell should put these two freshmen on interim suspension soon.
We are going to be watching this very closely.
GO BRUINS.