Were Teen Athletes Off on Rampage or Just Being Active Kids?

Even by summer standards, the party next to Michaela Murphy’s house in Leucadia was loud for a weeknight, so at 9 p.m. she called the Sheriff’s Department to ask that the teen-aged party-goers be told to quiet down.

Deputies arrived, issued a warning and left. But about two hours later, an emergency call was made to the sheriff as the party-goers allegedly began beating and kicking Murphy’s husband and three grown sons in the driveway of their home.

One son was attacked while he was trying to crawl back to the house on his hands and knees, and another had a pitcher of beer poured on his head and was spit on, Murphy says.

“I started down the driveway where Tom and Mike and Jason were on the ground helpless, being kicked,” Murphy recalls. “Then I heard someone yell ‘Get that bitch,’ and I thought: My God, they’re killing my family!”

Murphy ran back to the house and brought out a shotgun, which she says was unloaded.

“That’s the only thing that ended it, that shotgun. They were coming up the driveway to the house to get the rest of us, I’m sure of it.”

Deputies arrived and dispersed the crowd. Father and sons ended up in the emergency ward with cuts and bruises. One son had 15 stitches, and Tom Gabel, Murphy’s husband, had two teeth chipped and one loosened.

Later, the San Dieguito High School yearbook, The Hoofprint, was used as a mug book for the victims to pick out their assailants.

Four athletes at San Dieguito--three football players and a baseball player-wrestler--now face felony charges in Juvenile Court. For three of them, the charges include assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly kicking family members repeatedly in the head while they were down.

The June 25 incident at the Gabel home, and the family’s insistence that it be fully investigated, led authorities to reopen investigations into two other allegedly unprovoked attacks by the same group of clean-cut, short-haired teen-agers.

Topic for Debate

A total of six athletes from San Dieguito High now have been charged in the three incidents, including one athlete who has been charged in all three. Charges are likely to be filed against one more football player, possibly two.

The criminal case has brought the specter of ganglike violence to the suburbs and dominated talk this summer at the video stores, shopping centers, exercise classes and beach parties, which are part of the off-hours life style of these comfortable beach communities.

The debate has centered on several key questions: Is fighting a normal part of growing up for young males, even in an affluent, sun-drenched suburb? How much control do parents have over their children?

Has the high school, in its zeal to produce a winning football team, unleashed a violent force on the public? Has the Sheriff’s Department been slow to recognize the menace posed by violent teens? Or are the charges overblown and exaggerated?

All of the defendants have pleaded innocent, contending that the victims are lying and that the charges are exaggerated. They deny any kicking and say the alleged victims were actually the aggressors.

In the first incident, a college student and his girlfriend were allegedly roughed up April 26 in a shopping center parking lot in La Costa. The student, who says he was kicked repeatedly, has incurred an estimated $2,000 in medical bills.

In the second incident, three young people were allegedly assaulted without warning at a party in Olivenhain on May 30. One, 18-year-old Chuck El-Ghoroury, had his face bloodied and his jaw dislocated and needed stitches in his lip.

“The conduct alleged is no different than your everyday gang violence in other areas, like a drive-by shooting by the Crips (a black youth gang),” said Deputy Dist. Atty. John Davidson, who is prosecuting the case.

“We’ve alleged that the defendants, when they’re out on the streets, feel a group power,” Davidson added. “They want people out of their way.”

Problem Called Serious

The victims say school authorities and the Sheriff’s Department have been slow to recognize a serious problem. They feel there are other incidents that have gone undetected because of fear or apathy on the part of victims.

“I think nobody has been taking seriously what these boys have been doing,” said Gloria El-Ghoroury, mother of victim Chuck El-Ghoroury. “They build up their bodies so they can bang and knock down people on the playing field.

“When they come off (the playing field), most realize to leave it there, but some don’t. They transfer the violence from the field to other places.”

Nonsense, says San Dieguito football coach Ed Burke, who stands to lose three starters from his squad if they are not allowed back in school by the courts. He says he does not tolerate fighting on the field, let alone off the field.

“We’re not talking juvenile delinquents or criminals,” Burke said. “These are normal, healthy youth. If you go out and get in a fight, that’s not good. We should find some way to stop it. If you’re talking about 16- and 17-year-olds, two or three fights a semester is too many, but it’s not like an epidemic.”

Interviews with many teen-agers, some involved in the incidents and some not, show that the off-campus life style of many teens includes many unsupervised parties, as well as racing up and down El Camino Real, Encinitas Boulevard, Leucadia Boulevard and Old Highway 101 in search of fun.

Juvenile detectives estimate that 90% of teen parties involve drugs and alcohol. Since the arrests, the Sheriff’s Department has distributed a brochure pleading with parents not to allow unsupervised parties.

“When you’re talking about adolescents, idle time, money and cars can often cause problems, and kids in this area have all three things in abundance,” said William Berrier, superintendent of the San Dieguito high school district.

Meeting a Challenge

Apparently, a common feature of the teen quest for fun is the issuance of challenges that turn to fighting.

“I’ve been in a lot of fights, but just in self-defense,” said a 17-year-old varsity running back and La Costa resident now charged in the Gabel and El-Ghoroury incidents.

“I don’t look for fights, but once a guy says he’s going to kick your ass, you use your fists. If the other guy is a jerk.”

A star linebacker, also 17 and a La Costa resident facing charges in all three incidents, said: “On Friday and Saturday nights we don’t even start (fights) with people. But when we’re together it starts . . . Most of my friends like to fight.”

Said the running back’s father: “(My son) and the other boys may say they’ve been in fights and don’t back down, but that’s almost normal operating procedure for kids these days, not just him, but all kids.”

Part of the debate has been whether the Sheriff’s Department, which patrols the San Dieguito area, has been aggressive enough in following complaints or whether it has taken a boys-will-be-boys attitude even as the violence has escalated.

Gloria El-Ghoroury says she was told by a deputy that “he didn’t feel any purpose would be served by a follow-up” to her initial report of her son’s incident.

“He said the district attorney would not take the case because it was merely one boy’s word against another,” she said. “After the Gabel incident, I got very mad. I felt that if they had done something--if the police or school or football coach had done something--maybe the Gabel attack would never have occurred.”

The Sheriff’s Department disputes her version of events and says that any slowness was due to an initial reluctance of her son to press charges.

Indeed, along with the fighting often comes a code of silence, on all sides.

Chuck El-Ghoroury, an Eagle Scout and yearbook editor who plans to attend UC Riverside in the fall to study business, merely took himself to the emergency ward for stitches and went home to bed, without waking his parents. He admits being “hassled” now that charges have been filed.

“I’ve had a rough time,” he said. “I’ve been called a wimp, flipped off, and had food thrown at my windshield.”

The victims in all three alleged attacks tell similar stories: the attacks were unprovoked, unrelenting and done by a group, with fists and feet.

In the first incident, Craig Beveridge, 20, a San Dieguito graduate now attending Palomar Community College, was driving north on El Camino Real the night of April 26. His girlfriend was in a separate car.

Suddenly a group of guys drove alongside in a silver Honda, driven by wrestling team captain Erik Heipt; the two sides exchanged obscene gestures. All three cars swerved into the parking lot of Von’s in La Costa.

“When they got within 50 feet of me,” Beveridge said, “I knew I was in trouble. I said, ‘What’s the problem?’ They said, ‘You’re the f------ problem.’ I said, ‘OK, one at a time.’ (The linebacker) said, ‘No way, you f----- with us, and now we’re going to kick your ass.’ ”

The linebacker and a 17-year-old wrestler and baseball player now face misdemeanor battery charges in Juvenile Court.

Heipt, 19, from La Costa, and Jeff Penacho, 18, also a wrestler, from Leucadia, face similar charges as adults in Vista Superior Court. Both graduated in June.

“They’re used to this stuff. They like it,” Beveridge said.

Olivenhain Party

In the second incident, at a party in Olivenhain on May 30, Chuck El-Ghoroury said he was hit while he wasn’t looking and then kicked while on the ground.

“I went in the next morning to get Chuck up for church, and I was shocked,” said his mother. “His face was all swollen, black and blue. And his lip was stitched.”

El-Ghoroury said he knew some of his attackers from school, though he runs with a different crowd.

“When they’re separate, they’re OK,” he said. “But when they’re together, they feel unstoppable. If one starts a fight, everyone backs him up.”

Because of the alleged kicking at the Olivenhain party, the running back and linebacker have been charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon, in Juvenile Court. A 17-year-old wide receiver is scheduled to be charged on the same counts.

In the most violent and sustained of the three incidents, Tom Gabel, 46, a salesman in the nuclear medicine field, remembers being kicked while the crowd laughed outside his Leucadia home. The brawl began when his son Mike, 19, pulled into the family driveway.

The party next door, where the parents were away on vacation, had spilled onto the street and the Gabel lawn.

Mike Gabel was knocked to the ground, dropping a bag of groceries. Soon the fight involved Tom Gabel and his three sons.

“I felt the kicks to my chin and head and then a couple of more kicks,” said Tom Gabel. “My front tooth was loosened and two back teeth were chipped. Luckily, they were wearing tennis shoes. If they were wearing boots or work shoes, I’d probably be dead.”

Under the law, any use of an object, including a finger or a fist or a foot, in a manner that could cause death, can be labeled as assault with a deadly weapon.

“They were laughing and having a great time during the attack,” Tom Gabel added.

The running back, the linebacker, the wrestler-baseball player, and a 16-year-old defensive tackle and shotput-discus thrower from La Costa are charged in the Gabel incident. The defensive tackle is charged with battery, the others with assault with a deadly weapon and battery.

DEFENDANTS AND FAMILIES

The athletes and their parents, uniformly, say the charges are overblown and any idea of a youth gang is ludicrous. In all cases, either the athlete or a parent talked to a reporter, though in one case the parent spoke only long enough to curse and hang up.

The Gabel incident, they said, began not with an unprovoked attack but with Mike Gabel nearly hitting two girls standing in the street with his car and then making menacing gestures. Gabel and his sons, they noted, are all over 6 feet tall.

In the Von’s parking lot incident, it was Craig Beveridge who struck first, knocking down a smaller person, and any fighting at the Olivenhain party was strictly one-on-one, the defendants and their parents said.

The running back’s father, who has hired a private investigator, says he has witnesses who will prove his son touched no one at the Olivenhain party. Erik Heipt’s father, an attorney, says he has witnesses who will prove Beveridge charged after his son’s friends.

The star linebacker’s father says his son was hit in the throat for no reason by Tom Gabel.

While maintaining their sons’ innocence, several of the parents argue that fisticuffs are a part of growing up.

“I never taught my kids to back down or be afraid,” said the linebacker’s father, a bricklayer. “Maybe I should have. They keep talking about a plan by these thugs to wipe out a family. That’s kind of absurd.”

He added: “The Gabel thing isn’t about one side being attacked. It’s about winners and losers. If the kids had lost the fight, then the sheriff would probably be arresting the other side for beating them up.”

Bad Judgment

The running back’s father, a national sales manager for a major corporation, said that bad judgment, not criminality, may be a factor.

“I don’t think any of these boys run or turn their backs on a fight,” he said. “These are 16- and 17-year-olds. They’ve got tremendous peer pressure behind them. Raising kids these days is not easy, regardless of what side of the tracks you live on.”

My son “is not Mother Teresa, but he’s not a bad kid,” the father said. “There is no gang roaming North County beating up people.”

As the teen-agers tell it, athletes are targeted for abuse by other students.

“People figure athletes have bad reputations,” said the 16-year-old charged in the Gabel incident. “They’re always challenging you since you’re on the football team and start saying stuff. It depends on the person--if they feel threatened--things happen, but just in self-defense.”

Acting as party bouncers also can cause problems.

“We don’t go out looking for fights,” said the running back. “But because we’re big, we bounce at parties, so if we don’t let somebody in, later he tries to get us at the next party.”

His 21-year-old sister, who graduated two years ago from San Dieguito, insists that off-campus fights are nothing new.

“I think a lot of fights start between jocks and others because people are jealous of jocks,” she said. “Surfers always put down the jocks. When I was in school, it was surfers and Mexicans getting into fights. It’s continual.

“Now because San Dieguito is getting a reputation for sports, it’s the jocks. They’re on a pedestal and people want to knock them off.”

Tight Rein

The athletes’ parents insist that they keep a tight rein on their children but said that too many other parents do not.

“It seems like every one of these parties, where there is a melee or things get out of hand, there was no (parental) supervision,” said one mother. “The kids have no place to go. There is no community center. Many people won’t let them use their houses (when they’re home). So where do they go?”

Her husband added quickly: “They go hang around at the AMC Theatres (in Encinitas) or up and down Encinitas Boulevard and El Camino Real, or they go hunting for parties.”

Gail Penacho, whose son Jeff is charged in the Beveridge case and was also present at the El-Ghoroury party, said she believes in her son’s innocence but also worries about the number of unsupervised parties.

“There are so many parties,” said Penacho, a kindergarten teacher at Paul Ecke Central School in Encinitas. “It’s always: ‘What’s going on, where’s the action?’

“My boys tell me about the parties. Sometimes they say the parties have gotten wild and there have been (fights). At the El-Ghoroury party, there were a lot of fights, but they were all one-on-one.

“Every Friday and Saturday night, for kids in this neighborhood, it’s down to the beach or off to the parties. Kids are drifting with no place to go. They meet at different beaches or parties, usually without parents home.”

THE FUTURE

Erik Heipt and Jeff Penacho have a trial date set for Friday for allegedly committing misdemeanor battery on Craig Beveridge. If convicted, the maximum penalty is six months in jail.

A pretrial hearing, open to the public, is set for Wednesday in Juvenile Court for the other defendants. If convicted, they could be sent to youth camp, put in a California Youth Authority facility or placed on probation under strict supervision until age 24.

On court orders, none of the football players has been allowed to practice with the team. They are under “house supervision” and can only leave the house to attend school or go to work.

Principal Sal Ramirez plans to talk with the student body officers and football coaches when school begins, but he notes that the school is limited in what punishment it can mete out because the incidents were off campus.

If the athletes are allowed back in school, they will most likely be allowed to play sports, barring a specific court order, Ramirez said.

Craig Beveridge and the Gabels are considering civil suits. One of the athletes’ parents is considering a countersuit.

The wrestler-baseball player has moved from Encinitas to Santee and he hopes to play this year for Grossmont High School.

The running back’s sister says that keeping her brother from playing in his senior year “would be awful.”

“To take away this year would be awful,” she said. “This is his ticket. It would be, in a real sense, to punish him for a lifetime.”

Problem of Being Athletes

The fact that the defendants are athletes has left both the local press and the Sheriff’s Department somewhat skittish. Football boosters have complained about the entire team somehow being smeared by the case.

“The fact that these are athletes has been played up, but that’s no part of our investigation,” said Steve Maxin, juvenile detective with the Encinitas station of the Sheriff’s Deartment. “Whether they were Catholic altar boys or drama students or whatever, the case would be handled the same.”

The Del Mel Citizen newspaper, in defending its coverage, said: “The charges again raise the disturbing question of how these youths would have come to act so senselessly and so violently, after they were raised in so supportive a community and with so many advantages.”

Authorities hope the arrests--and stays in Juvenile Hall for three of the football players--have had a sobering effect on coastal teen-agers. Although the summer party season is in full swing, no further incidents have been reported.

“I would not call this a bunch of marauding teens, but I would say that they got into something that got out of hand very quickly,” said detective Maxin. “Hopefully we’ve put a stop to it, but you can’t be sure. This is a very disturbing case.”