Wrestler in Assault Off the Team : Witness Was Influenced on Campus, School Says

A star athlete at San Dieguito High School, who was charged with intimidating a witness before later pleading guilty to assault with a deadly weapon, will not be allowed on the wrestling team, the acting principal announced Friday.

Ken James, the acting principal, said that an investigation by school officials established that “contact did occur on our campus and we feel that there was definitely an attempt to influence the witness.” He added that School Supt. William Berrier was involved in the decision involving the 17-year-old senior.

“The message to our students should be clear: We will not tolerate any kind of intimidation, whether it’s physical or verbal,” James said.

The youth pleaded guilty Nov. 30 to assaulting a Leucadia man June 26 in his driveway.

As part of a plea bargain, witness intimidation charges will not be prosecuted but will be considered by the Juvenile Court at the Jan. 8 sentencing. Assault charges filed in an April 27 attack on a Palomar College student will also be considered.

The youth was arrested Nov. 5 on campus for allegedly threatening a fellow student. He was held in Juvenile Hall until Nov. 30, when Judge William C. Pate released him to return to school.

‘Other Priorities Now’

“I’m disappointed, but I have other priorities now,” the youth said Friday from his home in La Costa. “I want to get big and keep lifting and get ready for college.”

Last year, he was the Palomar League’s top wrestler in the 175-pound weight class and went to the state championship meet. He was also an all-league football lineman, a designation he did not repeat this season after missing the final three games because he was in Juvenile Hall.

He said his Juvenile Hall experience was unpleasant and “taught me a lesson: Stay out of trouble.”

In all, five current or former athletes from San Dieguito High have pleaded guilty to assault charges stemming from a string of North County beatings.

A sixth athlete was convicted in Vista Municipal Court and sentenced to 15 days in jail, a sentence that has been stayed pending his appeal. A seventh athlete awaits trial in three beating cases.

‘Few Words Shouted’

School officials have insisted that they cannot punish the students because the beatings occurred off-campus. The witness intimidation, however, allegedly occurred on campus with the youth thrusting a copy of a police report in the face of another student and demanding that he change his story.

At the Nov. 30 hearing, the youth’s attorney, Lloyd Charton, said the intimidation was nothing more than “a few words shouted in a locker room.”

But prosecutors noted that the witness, a former football player, sought protection from the Sheriff’s Department after the incident and has since transferred to another school.

The beating cases have provoked debate about the proper role of the school in punishing students for off-campus violence. The San Dieguito Union High School District board of education is set to discuss the issue a third time Thursday.