Tennessee assault cases resolved

Now that the cases have been resolved in court and punishment has been handed down by the university and coach Phillip Fulmer, there are new questions about whether the discipline fits the crimes.

Since February 2004, 13 football players have been cited or charged with crimes ranging from aggravated assault to underage drinking.

Five of those players were charged with assault stemming from three incidents in which another student was injured.

One student suffered four broken bones in his face after he was punched by a football player. Another student’s jaw was broken during a fight at a party. A third student was treated with staples in his head after being hit by two football players.

One player had the charge dismissed and three were placed on judicial diversion, which means they can have their records expunged. The toughest court sentence was supervised probation.

Only two players will have to sit out any games this season.

“He really got off easy,” said Edward Goodrich, who had a metal plate inserted in his face after he was hit by defensive tackle Tony McDaniel during a pickup basketball game.

McDaniel pleaded guilty last week in a deal with prosecutors that reduced the charge to a misdemeanor. He will be on supervised probation until he pays restitution to Goodrich.

Fulmer suspended McDaniel for the first two games of the season, put him under a curfew for the fall semester and ordered him to do community service and go to anger management counseling. McDaniel was suspended since the incident in January and held out of spring practice.

The university suspended McDaniel for the summer term. Goodrich said a suspension for the fall semester would have been more appropriate.

Goodrich was hit in the face in January after McDaniel became frustrated over fouling during a game at a campus recreation center. The victim testified that McDaniel had warned, “The next person who fouls me, I’m going to lay them out.” Goodrich was the next person.

“I didn’t do anything to deserve to be hit. I just thought (the punch) was extreme because it was a basketball game and on the foul it’s not even a hard foul,” Goodrich said Tuesday.

Goodrich, who graduated in May and plans to attend graduate school later, says he and his family plan to file a civil lawsuit against McDaniel.

District Attorney General Randy Nichols personally handled McDaniel’s case, and he believes office treated all the cases fairly and properly.

Every player, except for the one whose charges were dropped, agreed to a plea bargain. The players had not been in legal trouble before.

“I think somebody that’s trying to go to school and trying to do the right thing and is not some common everyday thug, we often times will look for ways to try to keep them on track. There will be some people that don’t like that,” Nichols said.

University administrators declined to comment on the cases, citing student privacy laws.

Athletic director Mike Hamilton said he agreed with the discipline imposed by Fulmer.

“I think the punishment needs to be painful, and for a lot of our student-athletes the most painful thing to them possible is to not participate in the sport they love,” Hamilton said Tuesday. “We have to remember that we are dealing with 18- to 22-year-old kids and we’re in the education business. Part of the education business is learning a lesson.”

Some of the players’ supporters have said people pick fights with athletes just because of their status.

Goodrich said he is friends with some athletes, including former UT basketball star Marcus Haislip, and wouldn’t take a shot at a player.

“There have actually been football players who have come up to me and said what happened, that’s messed up,” Goodrich said.

Redshirt freshmen Robert Ayers and Jerod Mayo were charged with hitting a student at a party where fights broke out between football players and fraternity members.

The charge against Mayo was dismissed on Monday because a key witness for prosecutors would not testify. Ayers, who had already acknowledged his involvement, agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to judicial diversion.

He was suspended for the summer sessions by the university and will miss the first two games of the season.

“I am pleased to have this resolved,” Fulmer said in a statement Monday. “These off-the-field issues have been a distraction for our program and are embarrassing to the many young men in the program that are doing great things.”

In the other case, quarterback Brent Schaeffer and receiver Bret Smith were accused of hitting a student in a dormitory lobby. They had their misdemeanor charge reduced to a lesser count and were sentenced to judicial diversion. Schaeffer left the university, and Smith was reinstated to the team.