Six players charged in off-campus fight Associated Press STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - Six Penn State football players, including stars Anthony Scirrotto and Justin King, turned themselves in to police on Friday to face charges following an off-campus apartment fight. Scirrotto and Christopher Baker face the most serious counts, including burglary, felony trespassing, harassment and simple assault. King and three other players face charges of criminal trespassing, harassment and disorderly conduct. State College police chief Thomas R. King and Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira held a news conference Friday to announce the charges. Police said Scirrotto got into an altercation with a female friend on a street in State College and followed three men to an apartment. Scirrotto, who was also charged with criminal solicitation, called a football player and met up with a group of players who also arrived at the party, police said. A group of about 10 men, including all six players, rushed into the apartment and a melee ensued, police said. Some of the victims were punched, one was hit in the head with a beer bottle and knocked unconscious, and another was punched and kicked in the face, authorities said. The other players charged Friday were Jerome Hayes, Lydell Sargeant and Tyrell Sales. Two other non-athletes were charged with less serious offenses, police said. Scirrotto was the Big Ten's leader last year in interceptions and King was one of coach Joe Paterno's top recruits in 2005. Not picking on PSU as similar 'problems' have happened here, but losing King would be a huge loss for PSU.
One thing we know, Paterno will take care of this. I remember a few years ago a really good player got himself in trouble, Paterno cut him and said he will not tolerate trouble.
Come on Scirrotto, you were supposed to be the next great, well-disciplined white boy to come out of Penn State. And King too? We're going to have to try hard to defend the damn pass this year...
6 Penn State football players charged Posted by Bob Flounders/The Patriot-News April 27, 2007 17:01PM Categories: Breaking News, Sports .STATE COLLEGE — Six prominent members of the Penn State football team, including starting safety Anthony Scirrotto and starting cornerback Justin King, were charged in connection with an April 1 assault in State College, authorities said. This morning, the State College police department filed criminal charges against Scirrotto, King, defensive lineman Chris Baker, linebackers Jerome Hayes and Tyrell Sales and cornerback Lydell Sargeant. The most serious charges were filed against Scirrotto and Baker, who each were charged with one felony count of burglary. Scirrotto was also charged with criminal trespass, two counts of criminal solicitation, simple assault and harassment. PSU defensive lineman Chris BakerBaker was also charged with criminal trespass, simple assault, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and harassment. King, Hayes, Sargeant and Sales were all charged with single counts of criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and harassment. The charges were announced at a press conference in which Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira and State College Police Chief Tom King spoke about the investigation. All six players, according to the State College police, were arraigned this morning before Magisterial District Judge Carmine Prestia. A court date is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday, May 4. Penn State football coach Joe Paterno said yesterday he will take appropriate action once the legal process and any possible University investigation conclude. PSU linebacker Jerome Hayes"Speaking for our football staff, we are very concerned with the accusations made today and will determine the appropriate consequence for each player's status on the team when due process has transpired,'' Paterno said in a statement prepared by PSU's sports information office. "Until such time, we will have no further comment regarding the situation." Madeira outlined the maximum and minimum penalties that typically go with a burglary conviction. Madeira said a maximum penalty is 20 years and a minimum penalty is between 1 and 2 years. Penn State assistant athletic director Jeff Nelson said the athletic department is aware of the charges against the football players, and he said the athletic department will comment later this afternoon. PSU linebacker Tyrell SalesTom King said Scirrotto and a female friend were involved in a street altercation with three males on April 1 and that led to an assault later that night at an apartment on East College Avenue. State College police also charged Bernd Imle with harassment and Thomas Skalamera with criminal mischief in the street altercation with Scirrotto and his friend. During the apartment assault, State College police said, two males were attacked and suffered injuries. They were treated at Mount Nittany Medical Center and released. Tom King said his department would be in contact with the University's Office of Judicial Affairs. Late yesterday afternoon, PSU spokesman Bill Mahon said the University will review the incident. "The University's Office of Judicial Affairs will review the information collected during the ... police investigation and determine if there were violations of the University's Code of Conduct,'' Mahon said in an email. He added: "In some cases, the Judicial Affairs' process is completed before criminal court proceedings, but it is not possible to predict the timing.'' http://blog.pennlive.com/patriotnews/2007/04/six_penn_state_football_player.html
PENN STATE FOOTBALL The larger threat to the players' status could come from the school's own judicial body. The university is not bound by any court and may deem it fit either to suspend for a year or permanently expel the players from school. Police report gives fans reason to be optimistic Saturday, April 28, 2007 If you're a fan of any col lege team with a player involved in a criminal case, the first item to look for is felony charges and what kind and degree they are. In that respect, Penn State football fans who would have no other reason to care about the case of sophomore safety Anthony Scirrotto and freshman defensive tackle Chris Baker should feel a degree of guarded optimism based on yesterday's release of the police report. The larger threat to the players' status could come from the school's own judicial body. The university is not bound by any court and may deem it fit either to suspend for a year or permanently expel the players from school. I'll go at this from a purely clinical approach for two reasons: First, we don't know exactly what happened in the Meridian Apartments on the early morning of April 1 and never will. Only the participants know that and even their heads could be clouded with the emotion of the moment and the passage of time. The most systematic criminal trials don't uncover truths, only differing versions of it -- in the best case. Justice is merely an ideal. Second, the only reason anyone but the participants and their families care about an incident that basically duplicates hundreds every year on college campuses across the country is that it involves Penn State football players and could affect the team that's put on the field in the fall. You quickly note from the report that no one was seriously hurt. Both victims of the alleged assaults were treated and released at local hospitals, including the one transported by ambulance. That immediately separates this case from more serious ones. No matter the moral component of an assault or any lingering psychological effect of victims, lasting physical disfigurement or trauma of those assaulted puts the case in a whole other realm -- the possibility of a first-degree felony (F1) assault charge. This case does not include that quality. It does, however, include a different type of F1 -- for burglary. Forcing oneself into the dwelling of another is classified as a serious offense on the books and holds the possibility of serious punishment. But considering the context of this burglary charge -- an alleged revenge assault during a campus party -- it's questionable whether jail time would come of it. Two main factors enter in here: 1. Do Baker and Scirrotto have prior felony records? State College police declined to address whether either does. A nationwide records check by The Patriot-News revealed no criminal charges against any Anthony Scirrotto or Christopher Baker fitting their profiles. 2. Should the case come to trial, is either player found to have started the altercation? That point is clearly in contention, based on the police report. If neither is clearly found to be an instigator, then a plea agreement could enter in and the felony charges could easily be dropped. If the answer to both of the above is no, then probation appears to be the likely outcome from a criminal standpoint -- even should the two be tried and found guilty. Anything can happen if the case should go before a jury. And we're not nearly that far yet. But for those curious about worst cases: Judges have guidelines they are asked to follow for sentencing called "offense gravity scores." For a conviction of a first-degree burglary, the recommendation is 12 to 24 months in jail even without a prior conviction. But the practical reality is the context of this alleged break-in would be considered. So, all of the above is for the courts and lawyers to decide. As for the findings of Penn State's Office of Judicial Affairs, that's entirely another matter -- in terms of both procedure and result. Given that Judicial Affairs has exhibited a somewhat acrimonious relationship with Joe Paterno's football program in recent years -- they really butted heads over the Dan Connor phone harassment case two years ago -- either option is in play. In sum, you'd guess the criminal court proceedings of this case likely will be a lot less compelling than those in-house with PSU Judicial Affairs. http://www.pennlive.com/columns/pat...mnists/1177723550231030.xml&coll=1&thispage=1
Taking out the trash. You are THE man JoePa! :beer: I knew he wasn't going to take this lightly. By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports May 22, 2007 http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;...YcB?slug=dw-paterno052207&prov=yhoo&type=lgns This spring, six Penn State football players were arrested and charged for crimes stemming from an off-campus fight in which at least 15 Nittany Lions were present. The charged included a couple of star players, although what apparently bothered coach Joe Paterno the most was how many of his kids were willing to be involved. And so Paterno, 80 now but no less tough, no less disciplined, hatched a plan to set things right within his program. He'll let the local legal and student judicial process play out, but regardless he decided that to keep people from thinking his team was trash, it'll spend the fall cleaning it up. According to Paterno, the Penn State football team will clean Beaver Stadium after each home football game this fall. It'll gather garbage, sweep stairs and maybe even hose parts down. It'll be Notre Dame on Saturday, nacho spills on Sunday. It's a job that usually goes to members of club sports on campus ? say, rugby or crew ? which do it to raise money so they can compete. Paterno said the clubs still will get the $5,000 for the job, but his guys, fresh off playing 60 minutes of major college football the day before, will do all the work starting Sunday morning. "We're all going to do it, everybody," Paterno told the Harrisburg Patriot-News after a banquet in suburban Philadelphia. "Not just the kids that were involved. 'Cause we're all in it together. This is a team embarrassment. I wouldn't call it anything much other than that." This is easily the greatest punishment in recent collegiate history, an absolutely diabolical, telling, high-impact bit of discipline that should remind one and all that what Paterno has been doing out in State College, Pa., all these years is more than just win 363 football games, including 20 the past two seasons. In a coaching business so full of phonies who talk character only to bend the rules, who consider the definition of discipline a player's weight-room attendance, who wouldn't dare pull something like this because it might hurt recruiting, here's Joe Pa, four decades on the job and not giving a damn. Except about what's right. The incident was as simple as it was ugly. One player, Anthony Scirrotto, and his girlfriend were insulted and Scirrotto punched passers-by on the street, according to the police. Ultimately, Scirrotto called some teammates, they rushed an off-campus party where the passers-by were and a brawl ensued. More players showed up later. "He got a little irate, called up a couple of his buddies and said, 'Hey, come on down,' " Paterno said. "They went over there and they got in a fight." Who was right and who was wrong still is being sorted out by the judicial system. Not by Paterno, of course. The details don't seem to matter to him. Rather than figure out which individuals did what, who arrived when, he decided to hammer the entire team, if for nothing less than lacking the leadership to stop the incident from getting out of hand. On college campuses where football stars often are treated to a lower standard, Paterno is going, once again, for a higher one. "I just thought that, hey, we had 14, 15 kids ? I don't even know how many ? that were involved in something embarrassing, and I think that we need to prove to people that we're not a bunch of hoodlums," he said. The entire team also will have to build a house for Habitat for Humanity and volunteer for the Special Olympics this summer. But the worst punishment no doubt will be cleaning up Penn State's mammoth 107,282-seat stadium. A job usually left for others now will be done by Penn State's multimillion-dollar football team. Paterno can't see how this is any different. All the kids on campus are the same, so if the rugby team can find the energy to clean the stadium, so can his guys. "I don't condone (the fight)," Paterno said. "Our kids were wrong." And across the nation college football coaches faint. Most coaches have spent their offseason complaining about not being able to text butt-kissing messages to recruits. They no sooner would wear out their players on an off-day with garbage picking than give up their country club memberships. At too many places in college football, the kids never are wrong. Punishments often are things that actually help the team: more running, early-morning weightlifting. It is rarely public, rarely embarrassing and never, at least to my knowledge, a blanket shot across the entire team, a true call for leadership and shared values. But this is why Joe Paterno is Joe Paterno He isn't worried about hurt feelings. He isn't worried about potential recruits. He isn't worried about guys sacking garbage on Sunday morning. He's worried about the reputation of his players, his program and his school. He's worried about cleaning things up immediately, starting with the stadium.
That is why I went to PSU. I love this. Old school discipline and accountability. You will NEVER here of a school like Miami disciplining its own players in a way that builds team unity like this. I hope JoePa lives forever.
It is true, if this happened at Miami there would be no consequences. I respect PSU and its for reasons like this.
Players suspended or even have been asked to leave the program at Miami for much less than what the Penn St. players did.
Ryan Moore was suspended for just about a whole season for being a malcontent and being involved in that issue with LSU after the Peach Bowl. James Bryant was asked to leave the program for the same reason. Willie Williams is obvious. Hell, starting RB Tyrone Moss was suspended for the Florida St. game last year along with Moore, Bryant, and Rashaun Jones for missing a study hall.
I think you're missing the point here thou. JoePa is punishing the whole team. That way it causes the ones that got in trouble to also have to answer to their peers. Old school discipline. If I was on the team, I know my ass wouldn't be very happy about it and I would make damn sure the ones that caused this to pay dearly. I'm hoping the trouble makers will get the shittiest jobs.
Not missing anything, I'm just saying that it's ignorant to just throw Miami under the bus when there are teams FAR, FAR more guilty of not punishing athletes that get in trouble. And as tough as this old school discipline might be, it will still get a whatever from me unless the players that are found to be responsible miss games.
10 Football Players Disciplined by Penn State over Off-Campus Fight Tuesday June 26, 2007 7:16am http://www.abc27.com/news/stories/0607/434299.html University Park (AP) - Ten Penn State football players have been disciplined by the university for their roles in an off-campus fight in which at least two people were hurt. The university confirms that four players were temporarily expelled from July 1st through the end of the summer semester in mid-August for their roles in the April 1st fight. The university did not release the players' names due to federal confidentiality laws, but defense attorneys have identified the four as safety Anthony Scirrotto, defensive lineman Chris Baker, linebacker Jerome Hayes and cornerback Lydell Sargeant. They said their clients would be eligible to play when the regular season begins September 1st against Florida International.
i'm sure JoePa must be so proud at the way his program has become he should just resign, or become Head Coach in Name Only
You've got to be kidding! What else was he supposed to do, coddle them like other schools do their "stars"? Bah never mind. I'm too much of a JoePa homey to be unbiased. :wink: I'm out...........
