Ex-San Dieguito High Athlete Sentenced to 15-Day Jail Term for Battery

In a move that the prosecutor hopes will serve as a warning that “rich, white kids” are not above the law, a former star athlete at San Dieguito High School was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in jail over Christmas vacation for misdemeanor battery.

Municipal Judge Michael B. Harris rejected a Probation Department recommendation that Erik Heipt be sentenced to 100 hours of community service rather than jail time.

Harris, saying the 19-year-old Heipt had committed a “serious and vicious attack,” ordered that he begin his jail term Dec. 15 when he returns home to La Costa from the fall semester at the University of Colorado.

Heipt, who was not present at the sentencing, was also put on three years’ probation and ordered to pay a $250 fine and $1,000 in restitution to cover his victim’s medical bills.

One of Nine Charged

Heipt, the son of John Dennis Heipt, a vice president of Science Applications International Corp., a San Diego defense contractor, was one of nine current or former San Dieguito High athletes charged in three gang-like beatings in North County. Three have pleaded guilty in Juvenile Court and are awaiting sentencing.

A Municipal Court jury on Aug. 27 convicted Heipt of joining five friends in beating and kicking Craig Beveridge, 20, a Palomar College student, in a fight that began shortly after midnight April 26 in the parking lot of a Vons supermarket in La Costa.

The sentencing given to Heipt may be an indication that judges will take a more hard-line approach toward the beating cases than the Probation Department.

In one of the juvenile cases, the Probation Department has also recommended community service and a fine, but Superior Court Judge Sheridan Reed this week delayed sentencing until a psychological evaluation is done on the youth, a 16-year-old junior and defensive lineman on the football team.

The district attorney’s office had sought a 30-day jail sentence for Heipt, a former star wrestler. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Tim Casserly said he hopes the 15-day sentence will show the “rich, white kids” of North County that violence will not be tolerated.

‘An Aggressive Approach’

“The system tends to treat these kids with kid gloves, but we’ve taken an aggressive approach to prosecuting all these incidents because we want them stopped,” Casserly said.

“For some people, 15 days in jail is no big deal; they could do it standing on their head,” he said. “But for others, like these kids, the idea of 15 days in jail should be quite a deterrent.”

Prosecutors have asserted that the brutality and pack-like behavior of the defendants is no different than classic gang tactics usually found in poor neighborhoods.

Heipt’s attorney, Thomas Warwick, said he thought a jail sentence was too severe and that his client and his family have already suffered. He added that Heipt feels remorse over the incident.

Warwick submitted several letters asking the judge to show leniency--including letters from a Catholic nun, Heipt’s former wrestling coach, a vice president of a major San Diego management firm, and prominent San Diego attorney Ed McIntyre.

Coach Ed Wiley wrote that Heipt “demonstrated over and over again the character of an exemplary young man, not only as an athlete but as a student and citizen . . . He has shown over and over again that he is a person who can be depended on and one who plays by the rules of fair play.”

Before passing sentence, Judge Harris rejected a motion for a new trial based on jury misconduct. Heipt, a June graduate of San Dieguito High in Encinitas, also faces felony charges in Vista Superior Court stemming from an alleged attack at a party May 30 in Olivenhain.

For the Beveridge attack, Heipt could have been sentenced to a maximum six months in jail. Although he was sentenced to 15 days, Heipt will probably serve only 10, under a rule allowing reduction of a sentence by one-third for good behavior while in custody.

Probation Officer Randy Jones wrote that he is “hard-pressed to understand why this case attracted so much media attention” and that he agrees with Heipt that “the level of media coverage has undoubtedly had negative ramifications on both the defendant and his family.”