DeBolt drama is black mark on police, not Irish

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A shuttle bus driver, making small talk about South Bend here Monday, mentions "the kid from Notre Dame who got beat up,'' even before asking for the $20.50 it takes to ride.

A perky face on TV with perfect hair promises, with a smile, complete updates at 5, 6 and 11 on the two big stories of the day down here: Tom Coughlin getting fired and "the Chad DeBolt investigation."

A front-page story on the Gator Bowl in the local Florida Times-Union sports section includes the name of only one Notre Dame player; DeBolt's.

Seldom has a special-teams player with one tackle in 11 games so gripped a bowl game's attention.

Four days have passed since DeBolt was arrested at a Jacksonville Beach nightclub, subdued by prison guards with pepper spray at the Duval County Jail, and beaten beyond recognition for reasons that still don't pass the smell test. Four days that have been full of Gator Bowl conversation revolving around the use of excessive force, and nobody's referring to the Notre Dame defense.

It's not a stretch to say that Chad DeBolt was the most talked about athlete in this city over the weekend and will be up to Wednesday's 12:30 p.m. kickoff.

"I can answer no question regarding Chad DeBolt,'' Coach Tyrone Willingham repeated Monday after Irish practice at the University of North Florida.

OK, so what about the other man who coached DeBolt, lacrosse coach Kevin Corrigan? He recruited DeBolt out of Waterloo, N.Y., and knows him as well as anybody at Notre Dame. He also knows nobody else under the Dome is praising DeBolt publicly, and wanted to weigh his words carefully.

"I've been coaching 20 years,'' Corrigan said Monday night when reached on the phone back in South Bend, "and Chad's one of the greatest kids I've ever been around. I'm not blowing smoke. He's the kind of role model Notre Dame wants.''

But beyond Corrigan's cautious praise, so far mum's the word for the university that clearly has been lawyered up. No official has commented publicly or privately, on or off the record. Such prolonged silence, to many, has begun to leave the impression that DeBolt's role in the beating was not something to be proud of. And it wasn't.

Drunk and alone in an unfamiliar nightclub in a strange city at 2 a.m. six days before kickoff, as one witness described DeBolt? Mouthing off to men in uniform, as is alleged?

It might be different if DeBolt were carousing at an off-campus block party in April, but this close before his team's must-win bowl game is no time for a college football player to be offered the right to remain silent.

Still, 22-year-old college kids make mistakes in the name of social gratification, and Chad DeBolt won't be the first or the last college football to go boozing the week of a big game. Still, no matter how poor judgment DeBolt used, no way he deserved to look like Buster Douglas after 15 rounds with Lennox Lewis as the result of a trespassing charge.

A trespassing charge -- that's what the Jacksonville Beach police have on Chad DeBolt. If that's the way the uniformed henchmen around here treat trespassers, imagine what the purse snatchers and drug dealers must look like after booking. The point is, if trespassing is all DeBolt did in the eyes of the prosecutor, a case of police brutality looks open and shut. If DeBolt did something to instigate an altercation with prison guards between the time he left the nightclub and the time he was booked, then the charges against him should reflect that. They don't.

So an internal investigation will reveal exactly what happened, promised Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Internal Affairs Lt. Tom Hackney, inspiring as much confidence as if Barney Fife had made the vow. Perhaps the probe will be thorough and legitimate, but just in case, why doesn't Notre Dame throw all its general counsel's considerable wherewithal into defending the civil rights of an otherwise model student-athlete?

Where's the army of lawyers threatening the Jacksonville Beach police department by asking some tough questions or, at the very least, supporting publicly a good kid who made a bad decision?

The absence of a defense for DeBolt has been as surprising as anything in this sad, bizarre saga. It's painful but necessary to acknowledge that if the Notre Dame player who had been beaten by the hand of a law enforcer were black, Jesse Jackson might be sticking his nose into this, not just Matt Drudge. That the implications might disturb America more than they currently do.

We are talking about a 22-year-old honor student who next May will graduate with a degree in engineering and his MBA, whose punishment for the stated crime of trespassing was, if you believe an eyewitness who talked to WTEV here, getting shackled to a restraining chair and hit in the face until his eyes swelled shut. Until that top-notch investigation proves otherwise, DeBolt, with the help of the right lawyer, might have just gotten a head start on his MBA classmates toward his first million.

His parents have consulted with counsel, which is no big surprise, and as of Monday evening DeBolt remained in Jacksonville.

The reason that brought him here, the Gator Bowl matchup against North Carolina State, now seems like a subplot in this far-too-real-life episode of "Law & Order.''

On the bright side for the Irish, questions about DeBolt have kept too many people from asking whether quarterback Carlyle Holiday really can play the position, as well as wondering aloud whether tailback Ryan Grant, running behind a patchwork offensive line, will be able to find a hole if you hand him a shovel.

Irony is, the line judge will have more impact on Wednesday's game than DeBolt would have. Yet now, maybe what happened to DeBolt somehow made his teammates watch their steps a little closer, open their eyes a little wider, zoom their focus a little sharper.

If that's the case, and the Irish arrive at Alltel Stadium better prepared because of this week's drama, then it might be DeBolt's biggest contribution to victory this season.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/123102/met_11353921.shtml

Other agencies, meanwhile, said they have nothing yet to investigate.

"No one has brought to our attention any evidence of wrongdoing," State Attorney Harry Shorstein said. He said his office will review the report of the internal affairs investigation when it is released, but other than news media reports there is nothing to prompt an investigation right now.

Bill Hurlburt, a spokesman for the FBI's Jacksonville field office, said no complaint has been filed with his agency, either. The FBI investigates reports of civil rights violations, including the use of excessive force or misconduct by law enforcement authorities.

"For us to initiate an investigation, we would in most cases have to have a direct referral from the victim," Hurlburt said.

DeBolt has not complained about his treatment.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/010103/met_11363372.shtml

According to the report, DeBolt was taken to the downtown jail about 3 a.m. and was uncooperative and intoxicated, yelling and cursing. He initially calmed somewhat and officers put him into a holding cell and told him to put on a jail uniform.

"I am not supposed to ... be here," he said at one point.

DeBolt later refused to allow jailers to put an identification armband on him, swore at the officers, and clenched his fists. That's when jail officers started getting more physical, according to the report.

A one-second burst of pepper spray did not appear to have any effect and DeBolt grabbed Stone, according to the report. Stone pulled DeBolt to the floor, bloodying the football player's nose on impact, the report said. DeBolt jumped up and began swinging his arms until a second officer came to Stone's aid, according to the report.

Then they delivered the knee spikes: Officers drove their knees into his thighs to knock him to the floor. But DeBolt, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 193 pounds, continued to kick at officers, the report said.

Two more officers joined them. To handcuff him, officers struck him in the back and upper arm, the report said.

DeBolt's right eye and left cheek were swelling and his nose bleeding when a nurse saw him.

He was placed in a restraining chair, where a mask was placed over his face because he was spitting. Leg, ankle and wrist restraints were used to restrain DeBolt in the chair between 3:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., the report said.

"I had too much to drink and shouldn't have acted that way," DeBolt said in the report.

"I had too much to drink and shouldn't have acted that way," DeBolt said in the report.

This whole thing will die quietly, at the request of Notre Dame and DeBolt.

If this were clear-cut brutality, the lawyers would be all over television, and the FBI would already be on scene.

"I had too much to drink and shouldn't have acted that way," DeBolt said in the report.

He's right about that.

Thanks for the info. Although this is the police's report, it is the most detailed account of the incident I have read. From this, it appears DeBolt deserved what he got. It is curious, though, that he was only charged with trespassing and not with resisting arrest &/or assault on a peace officer.

If this is true, DeBolt should just quietly go home & finish school where he is an honor student who next May will graduate with a degree in engineering and his MBA.

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