Raiders Fan Penalized 10 Days on Road Crew, Banned From Games

Justice came swiftly Monday for a rowdy fan arrested at Sunday’s Los Angeles Raiders-Chicago Bears football game.

The offense: disturbing the peace.

The sentence: 10 days labor cleaning up Southland freeways and one year of banishment from Raiders games.

Howard Keel, 29, of Inglewood was the first of a group of boisterous fans to be sentenced in a crackdown on spectator violence at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Attempts to reach Keel for comment Monday were unsuccessful.

City Atty. James K. Hahn issued a statement announcing victory in the case. “The time for tolerance of rowdy spectators is over,” Hahn said.

City and Coliseum officials announced a new get-tough policy last week after a Pittsburgh Steelers fan was kicked in the head and beaten during the game the previous Sunday.

Coliseum officials rejected a request by City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky that they ban the sale of alcohol during all Raiders games.

No information was available Monday on whether Keel had been drinking at the game. He was among 31 fans ejected from the stadium and arrested. Most were charged with disorderly conduct, booked at the scene and given court dates.

Keel and another man, Noel Johnson, 23, of Long Beach, were held overnight because of outstanding arrest warrants stemming from traffic cases, according to Mike Qualls, a spokesman for Hahn.

Keel pleaded guilty Monday to one count of disturbing the peace. Municipal Court Commissioner David Stephens sentenced him to 10 days on a Caltrans work crew.

Stephens also placed Keel on probation for one year with the condition that he stay away from Raiders games during that period.

Keel was arrested Sunday after he became abusive and refused to leave the Coliseum when Los Angeles police officers tried to eject him, Hahn’s office said in a statement.

Johnson was charged with battery and remained in custody Monday. He allegedly threw a half-full can of beer and hit an off-duty Compton police officer sitting in front of him in the stands, the statement said. The Compton officer summoned Los Angeles police, who were patrolling the stands.

Johnson also was held because he was on parole stemming from a felony conviction for narcotics sale, Hahn’s office said.

Johnson could not be reached for comment.

Yaroslavsky, who attended the game on Sunday, termed the fans’ behavior in the fourth quarter a “near-riot” and renewed his request Monday that alcohol sales be banned at the Coliseum.

In a letter to N. Matthew Grossman, president of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, Yaroslavsky urged that the commission experiment with a “no-beer” policy during the next home game, an Oct. 14 contest with the Seattle Seahawks.

A comparison of crowd behavior between that game and Sunday’s game would offer “meaningful guidance” on the effect of the sale of liquor, Yaroslavsky said.

In his first statement on the matter since returning from a trip to Europe, Mayor Tom Bradley said Monday that he opposed the liquor ban proposal, saying it “misses the point altogether.”

“That’s not going to stop people from bringing alcohol into the Coliseum,” Bradley said. “It never has. It never will.”

RELATED STORY: C1