Chancellor Dirks Says Police Found That Football Strength Coach Damon Harrington Did ‘Nothing Wrong.’ Whom Did They Interview and When Did They Interview Them?
July 12, 2016Scandal of Canadian Olympic Chieftain John Furlong’s Abuse of Missionary School Students Explodes As Native Groups Mobilize
July 15, 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/?=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.”