Same Expected for 3 Others in North County Case : Student in Assault Trial Gets OK for Football

A judge Thursday cleared the way for one high school student, and probably three others, to play football while standing trial on felony assault charges stemming from allegedly brutal, gang-like attacks in North County.

Superior Court Judge Norbert Ehrenfreund, sitting in Juvenile Court, ruled that a 17-year-old youth facing three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two of felony battery with great bodily injury, and two counts of misdemeanor battery can play football for Grossmont High School in La Mesa if he abides by several “house arrest” conditions.

Strict Supervision Ordered

Ehrenfreund said the youth must be accompanied by an adult to and from practice and games, must not drink alcohol, must not contact his alleged victims, and cannot otherwise leave his home except to go to work or school.

The order applies only to the one defendant, who recently transferred to Grossmont from San Dieguito High School in Encinitas.

But lawyers for three other football players, all potential starters at San Dieguito High and all facing charges in the same alleged attacks, are expected to seek similar rulings from Ehrenfreund.

The students had been prohibited from practicing with the squad under an order that released them from Juvenile Hall.

The victims in the attacks pleaded with Ehrenfreund to keep the defendants from playing football.

“Football is an aggressive sport, and these children have a lot of aggression that was vented on us,” said Michaela Murphy, whose husband and sons were attacked June 25 in the driveway of their Leucadia home.

“The fact that they could go on playing football trivializes what happened to us,” said the 44-year-old librarian at the Rancho Bernardo branch library.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Davidson said the ban on football was appropriate because of the seriousness of the allegations and and also to ensure that no further attacks take place.

Sports Is Common Link

“The common thread among all the defendants is that they play football, or other athletics, and the team is the main congregating point between them,” Davidson said. “The community has a right to be protected.”

Grossmont football Coach Judd Hulbert assured Ehrenfreund that the defendant will be supervised during Foothillers’ football practice, including by an assistant coach who is a juvenile probation officer.

“While I have sympathy for the alleged victims,” Ehrenfreund said, “I’m not inclined to punish the minor involved in light of the fact that he has not had a trial. (But) I do have a concern in protecting the community from any further acts of violence.”

Any violation of the court orders will probably mean a trip to Juvenile Hall, Ehrenfreund lectured the defendant. Did he understand that?

“Yes sir,” he said in a barely audible voice.

The defendant was a wrestler and baseball player at San Dieguito High. But since he moved in June from Encinitas to Santee, and transferred to Grossmont High, he has decided to play football, probably as a defensive lineman.

He is charged both in the attack on Murphy’s family and an attack April 26 on a college student in a supermarket parking lot in La Costa.

In all, seven former or current athletes from San Dieguito High are charged in the June 25 and April 26 incidents, and an attack May 30 against three students at a party in Olivenhain.

The assault with a deadly weapon charges allege that the victims were kicked in the head while down on the ground and helpless.

Two of the seven defendants who have been charged graduated in June.

All five of the juvenile defendants are football players, but one is ineligible because of low grades. Three--a star linebacker, a running back and a defensive tackle--are prospective starters for the San Dieguito Mustangs, who were 9-3 last season.

Decision Pleases Coach

Mustangs’ Coach Ed Burke, interviewed at his office next to the weight training room, was pleased by the judge’s decision and the possibility that his players, too, will be free to join the team. He has already pledged to supervise them closely.

“That’s outstanding news,” Burke said. “I expected it, but it’s like going into a game. You think you’re going to win, but you never know what will happen until you play it. This is the first ray of hope we’ve had in this whole mess.”

A pretrial hearing for the juvenile cases is set for Sept. 14. Trials are expected to begin two to three weeks later, in the middle of the season. The order banning football had been issued when lawyers on both sides assumed the case would be decided by the opening of school.

If convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, a juvenile could be sent to a youth camp or a California Youth Authority facility until age 24.

Part of the controversy surrounding the three attacks has concerned whether football at San Dieguito breeds violence--an allegation rejected by Burke.

“I observed my family being assaulted,” Murphy’s husband, Tom Gabel, told the judge. “I know he (the defendant) was there. I have to ask myself whether there is something about the fact they are all athletes.

“They call themselves ‘The Jocks,’ that’s what the other kids call them, too,” said Gabel, 46, a nuclear medicine equipment salesman. “They build themselves up in a very muscular way. They overpowered us very quickly. The body building and gang tackling I saw that night came from somewhere.”

Before opposing attorneys made their arguments, Ehrenfreund said he was allowing a public hearing in the normally closed Juvenile Court under a state law that permits opening hearings in cases that include certain serious charges, including assault with a deadly weapon.