Referee Prepares to Counterattack in Assault Case : Prep football: Planned lawsuit targets school district and Palmdale coach for lack of control in game against Saugus.

A high school football referee said that he will sue a school district and a football coach for what he claims is negligent supervision of the player who attacked him during a game between Palmdale and Saugus highs last fall.

Referee Brad Woolley, who sustained minor injuries when he was knocked to the ground by Palmdale High player Darius Wilson, said he will file the suit in mid-April against Palmdale Coach Kent Bothwell and the Antelope Valley Union High School District.

Wilson, who already has pleaded no contest to misdemeanor-battery charges and received 400 hours of community service work, also will be named in the suit. According to Woolley, the inclusion of Bothwell and the school district will be to determine who is ultimately accountable for the behavior of players.

Woolley says that National Federation of State High School Assns. guidelines clearly state that “ ‘the responsibility for the conduct of players is attributable to the head coach.’It’s as simple as that.”

The Oct. 13 incident at College of the Canyons occurred in the fourth quarter. Woolley, along with two other officials, was attacked by Palmdale players after three consecutive penalties against Palmdale. Woolley had flagged Wilson for unnecessary roughness on a punt, then called two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties when Bothwell “cursed me,” Woolley says. “Then all hell broke loose.”

Aside from the violence, a disturbing aspect of the incident was a charge of racism by Palmdale players. Not only were they taunted by racial slurs from the Saugus sideline, the players claim, but the referees also made derogatory remarks.

But at a hearing before the 10-member Southern Section Executive Committee on Wednesday, all five of the referees who worked the game were cleared of any misconduct. Palmdale High will not be able to appeal Wednesday’s decision at the state level but might go to court, according to school Principal Linda Janzen.

“I was disappointed in the results of the hearing,” she said. “All along, I said there were more people responsible than just my players. I still believe that. I don’t believe they made up the things they’re saying.”

The Executive Committee voted unanimously to exonerate the referees. “It wasn’t a matter of not believing one over the other,” said committee president Tom Jacobson, principal at Corona del Mar High. “We had to look at the whole picture in this very messy, unfortunate incident. Was there enough there to make a determination? My personal feeling: The evidence was inconclusive.”

Woolley believes accusations of racism on the part of referees were “smoke screens to draw attention away from the incident.” The referees claim they did not hear any racist remarks by Saugus players, although independent sources say that Saugus players were directing slurs at Palmdale players. In a Jan. 10 hearing, a Palmdale player testified that Bothwell was apprised of the slurs and didn’t do anything about it.

“Had the officials been aware of the situation,” Woolley said, referring to the slurs, “we would have stopped the contest and fixed it. But the Palmdale players did not complain to us.”

Bothwell is culpable, Woolley said, because he ignored his players’ complaints and because of his behavior before the incident. From the beginning of the game, Woolley said, Bothwell was “complaining about everything, including the coin toss.” During the game, “he verbally abused the officials. He was not in control.”

The attacks on the officials happened, Woolley said, because “once verbal abuse is accepted, it turns into physical abuse. The players just follow the example of their coach.”

Bothwell would not comment on the charges.

On March 1, Woolley’s attorney, David Rosenberg, set the stages for the lawsuit by filing a claim with the school district, a state requirement for suing a government agency. The lawsuit will be filed in Lancaster Superior Court. Rosenberg won’t say how much he’s asking in damages, but the minimum amount in Superior Court is $25,000.

“We want to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen to other sports officials,” Rosenberg said. “It has to be shown that this is not the way high school sports should be run.”

Woolley, employed in the wardrobe department at Walt Disney Studios, didn’t miss work or any officiating assignments because of his injuries. A high school referee since 1975, Woolley has been working football games for only four years. The Palmdale incident, he said, “got me to the core of my being.”