District Attorney Joins UC Berkeley Police in Refusing to Explain Follow-Up to Witness Statement on Football Strength Coach Damon Harrington’s ‘Code Red’ in Player Assault
May 9, 2016Resetting the Cover-Up of Cal Football’s ‘Code Red,’ Death-Defying Strength and Conditioning Coach Damon Harrington — In Five Tweets
May 10, 2016
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/?p=10996
https://concussioninc.net/?p=11014
by Irvin Muchnick
The Alameda County district attorney’s office took exception to our coverage earlier today of the failure of authorities to follow up on the information in a March 2014 statement to Berkeley campus police by a Cal football player. In the statement, the player offered information on the role of strength coach Damon Harrington in the November 2013 assault by J.D. Hinnant of teammate Fabiano Hale.
“We do not have, nor have we seen, the statement you refer to,” D.A. spokesperson Teresa Drenick emailed. And “no such information [on Harrington] was in our possession.”
Of course, Concussion Inc. did not report that the D.A. had the police statement. However, its existence and essential content are clear in extensive quotations, from the “Ted Agu Papers,” of a deposition by the same player who made the police statement. The deposition was part of the testimony gathered in what ultimately became the Agu family’s $4.75 million settlement of a wrongful-death lawsuit against the University of California.
I offered to send the D.A. this player’s full deposition. (It will be published, along with other heretofore secret official papers, in the near future in an ebook benefit for sickle cell research.)
But more importantly, I proceeded to ask spokesperson Drenick if the D.A. will seek the police report from Cal.
I also asked campus police chief Margo Bennett to confirm that her force had never forwarded the player’s statement to the D.A. — part of what prosecutors insist is still an open investigation. (Drenick rebuked me for writing that the Hinnant chargers were “dropped.” Technically, they were only “deferred,” and could be reconsidered at any point prior to the November 2, 2016, expiration of the criminal statute of limitations.) If the Cal cops didn’t share any info on Harrington vis-a-vis the Hinnant-Hale incident, then … why not? And what are they and the D.A. going to do about it moving forward?
More on all this tomorrow. Also, more on why Lieutenant Marc DeCoulode of the Cal police patrol division calls the case “over and done with,” while the D.A. gets mad about my use of the word “dropped” for the Hinnant charges.