Attorney: “Hazed ATU student sustained injuries during football practice”
An attorney representing three of the four men charged with battery in a suspected hazing incident of an Arkansas Tech University student who spent three weeks hospitalized said the student was injured during a football scrimmage rather than at the hands of the defendants.
Little Rock-based attorney Marion Humphrey submitted to The Courier on Wednesday a letter he sent to Colonel J.R. Howard, director of the Arkansas State Police (ASP), that asks for the review of an investigation into the incident conducted by ASP Special Agent Joe Carter.
Affidavits for the arrests of Cliffalvion Deonte Bradley, 22, Stephen Bender, 25, Calvin Williams, 26, and Klyantel Summons, 22, based upon Carter’s investigation, state Deshawn Scoggins, 23, was admitted to the hospital on April 22, a day after he was allegedly victim to a severe beating as part of a hazing incident by members of the Greek fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi. The documents state Bradley drove Scoggins to the residence where the beating took place, while the other three attacked him with wooden canes and paddles.
Bradley was arrested last Aug. 22 and issued a $20,000 bond Wednesday. Williams and Bender were later placed under custody and issued $10,000 bonds. Summons, the only of the four suspects Humphrey does not represent, has yet to appear in a Pope County court for the battery charges.
“My clients attended a meeting with Mr. Scoggins and other fraternity members both undergraduate and graduate, including chapter advisors from around the state, on April 17, 2012 — not April 21, 2012,” Humphrey stated in his later to Howard. “Mr. Scoggins left the meeting with Mr. Bradley and another fraternity brother and went to Waffle House to eat. On the next day, April 18, 2012, Mr. Scoggins attended regular classes and a scrimmage with the football team. He was hit hard on one tackle, after which he did not return to the scrimmage.”
Humphrey wrote in his letter Scoggins was then admitted to the hospital on April 19, “thus, there is no way Mr. Scoggins could have been injured at the hands of my clients on April 21, 2012, as erroneously misstated in the affidavit and criminal information.”
Bradley, who returned to Arkansas Tech University this fall, was suspended from the football team after being arrested. While the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) forbid a university from discussing whether or not Bradley was later expelled from the university as a result of the charges he faces, university officials did confirm he is no longer a student at Arkansas Tech.
“I am uncomfortable with the behavior of certain officials of Arkansas Tech University in rushing to expel Mr. Bradley, despite my request that he be afforded all disciplinary hearings to which he is entitled,” Humphrey wrote. “It is as though University officials do not want it uncovered that Mr. Scoggins was injured at the football practice on April 18, 2012.”
Tech Director of University Relations Sam Strasner said that video footage of April 18’s football practice was reviewed by athletics officials and showed no indication that Scoggins was injured.
“The recording of the football practice on April 18, 2012, has been reviewed by the Arkansas Tech director of athletics, Steve Mullins,” Strasner said. “The record showed that of the seven football plays that Deshawn Scoggins was involved in on that day, he was only touched one time. Further, it was determined that the one play where Mr. Scoggins had contact on April 18, 2012, he was not injured in any way.”
Bender and Williams are both Spring 2012 graduates of the University of Central Arkansas.
