Orange County Sports / The Colleges : Fan Files Complaint Over Fight : Fullerton Heckler Is Seeking Charges Against Brown Coach

Bill Harvey, the longtime Cal State Fullerton heckler who was involved in a scuffle with Brown University Coach Mike Cingiser during a basketball game Wednesday night, has filed a complaint against Cingiser, Cal State Fullerton University police said Thursday.

Harvey is seeking an assault-and-battery charge against Cingiser, though university police and the district attorney’s office must determine whether charges will be filed. University police said that the incident is under investigation and that they will not comment further until Monday.

Harvey, 34, a teacher at the McFadden Intermediate School in Santa Ana, holds two degrees from Cal State Fullerton and has been a visible and vocal regular at Titan games for more than 10 years.

He had been taunting Brown players Wednesday night when Cingiser walked from the bench around the end of the court to the opposite side, where Harvey was standing and yelling. In a moment, the two were involved in a brawl that cleared the Brown bench and involved numerous fans.

“I turned around, and there was this huge man lunging at me. I was knocked to the ground,” Harvey said.

Cingiser said Thursday: “I think I came over and said, ‘Why don’t you leave the kids alone?’ Someone on the other side of the court said the initial contact happened because he (Harvey) turned, and I was right there. I don’t know exactly what did occur.”

Cingiser said he had not been informed of any disciplinary action that Brown may be considering. Athletic Director John Parry, who was at the game Wednesday, said afterward that he had not decided whether Cingiser would be disciplined but that “what he did was wrong.” Parry was not available Thursday.

After the incident, Harvey and his brother, Roger, 30, were taken from the gym by university police and detained, Sgt. Jess A. Lopez said. A third man involved in the scuffle, Michael Bader, 30, of Orange, also was detained.

University police said no arrests were made.

Harvey said he has bruises and a case of whiplash requiring him to wear a neck brace and that his watch was broken.

After calm was restored, Cingiser was assessed a technical foul, a penalty that may be assigned for leaving the coaching box. Fullerton, which led by a large margin when the incident occurred with 4:45 remaining in the first half, won easily, 106-60.

Harvey, who stands on the sidelines leading cheers and taunting opposing players and coaches, has been escorted from Titan games several times in the past. At least one Fullerton athletic director, former AD Mike Mullally, has conferred with him in an effort to persuade him to tone it down.

But Harvey calls his past ejections “theatrics” and says security personnel would sometimes allow him to return to the building and watch from the upper level.

“It’s always been a down-home operation,” he said. “This time was different. . . . I have to question whether or not I will ever return to Titan Gym. . . . I did not feel I got the support I deserved from the (university athletic) administration.”

Ed Carroll, Fullerton athletic director, said Thursday: “We’re going to deal with the situation further once we get a full report. We’re going to look at our crowd control to see if there are any changes we need to make to make sure there is no repeat of that type of incident. It was potentially quite dangerous.”

Harvey and Bader both said they were angered that Cingiser was not penalized further.

“How can I, a verbal heckler at 34, how in the world can I end up in the back seat of a Fullerton police car while the coach continues to coach?” Harvey said. “I think there’s a principle here.”

Cingiser, a standout player for Brown from 1959-62, was drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1962 but instead chose to teach and coach. This is his seventh season as the Bruin coach.

Cingiser had a mild altercation with a fan last season when he threw a cup of water at a person who had been heckling the team during a game against Cornell, according to the Providence Journal-Bulletin.