UC Davis Promises Decision by July 19 on Release of Additional Records on Dr. Tanji’s 2014 Review of Berkeley Football Assistant Coach Damon Harrington

“Explainer: How ‘Insider’ Access Made San Francisco Chronicle and Berkeley J-School Miss Real Story Behind Death of Cal Football’s Ted Agu,” https://concussioninc.net/?p=10931

Complete headline links to our Ted Agu series:

https://concussioninc.net/?p=10877

Installments to date in THE TED AGU PAPERS:

https://concussioninc.net/?p=10992

https://concussioninc.net/?=10996

https://concussioninc.net/?p=11014

https://concussioninc.net/?p=11087

https://concussioninc.net/?p=11096

https://concussioninc.net/?p=11099

https://concussioninc.net/?p=11120

https://concussioninc.net/?p=11201

by Irvin Muchnick

The public records office at the University of California-Davis yesterday told us that it would respond in full on or before next Tuesday, July 19, to our request for records pertaining to the review of Damon Harrington, strength and conditioning assistant to UC Berkeley head football coach Sonny Dykes, by Dr. Jeffrey Tanji, co-director of sports medicine at Davis.

Cal recently released to the media the June 2014 report, which is tainted by conflict-of-interest questions. In the Harrington review, Tanji acknowledged having mentored Dr. Casey Batten, the football team physician, but asserted that this did not influence the report.

The review itself is superficial and simply dismisses, with little discussion, the “toughness” and “punishment” orientation of the Dykes-Harrington regime. Tanji and co-author John Murray, a Bay Area sports conditioning coach, also do not address in any depth the November 1, 2013, assault by Cal football player J.D. Hinnant of teammate Fabiano Hale — a crime alleged to have been instigated by Harrington, according to a March 2014 statement to campus police by another player, Joey Mahalic.

This reporter had submitted a request under the California Public Records Act for internal documents — from both Berkeley and Davis — reflecting how the Tanji review got set up and then how it got processed. The university’s Berkeley campus has yet to respond clearly to the request; the Davis campus has indicated that such records exist and they are being reviewed prior to a decision on whether to disclose them.

Also yesterday, Teresa Drenick, spokesperson for the Alameda County district attorney, Nancy O’Malley, told us that we were correct in discerning that prior statements by that office concerning whether to enter criminal charges in the Hinnant attack on Hale pertained to the act itself, not to the allegation that the strength and conditioning coach, Harrington, had incited Hinnant.

“I don’t readily have an answer” to Concussion Inc.’s query with respect to the latter, Drenick said, “but will seek to respond as soon as I can.”