Arkansas’ Day Reportedly Suspended

A Little Rock newspaper says University of Arkansas basketball star Todd Day has been suspended from the Razorback team for one year, apparently for participating in a sexual incident in an athletic dorm.

The Arkansas Democrat reported in today’s editions that Day’s stepfather, Ted Anderson, said, “Todd won’t even be able to be eligible for a year.”

In a telephone interview with the newspaper, Anderson, a basketball coach at Hamilton High School in Memphis, Tenn., said the punishment of the four players involved in the Feb. 27 incident was “unfairly consistent.”

On Tuesday, a university student-faculty board took disciplinary action against the four basketball players, but refused to make the action public. University officials said federal law prohibits talking about disciplinary action, even in generalities.

A 34-year-old Springdale woman who said she was sexually assaulted Feb. 27 in the school’s athletic dorm implicated four members of the team. The players admitted having sex with the woman but said she consented. Police said the woman was legally drunk.

Prosecutor Andrew Ziser said the woman decided not to press charges and he said there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute.

Coach Nolan Richardson suspended player Darrell Hawkins for the first three games of next season for having a woman in his room. Richardson refused to say if he disciplined the other players.

Ziser released two statements on Tuesday from men who said they saw the woman the night of the incident. A doorman at a bar recalled the woman dancing with several players and then leaving with Hawkins. And Harvey Bryant said the woman repeatedly invited him to have sex with her.

The woman’s lawyer, Doug Norwood, said the woman didn’t pursue charges because the prosecutor made it clear he wasn’t going to press charges.

“She knew not to beat that dead horse,” Norwood said. He said the woman may file a civil suit against the players, the university and possibly its board of trustees.

The woman told police she thought she consented with one player but didn’t think consent had been granted for the others.

Her original statement said 10 to 26 men were involved, but the only name she was sure of was Hawkins. At another time, according to the police report, she said she had sex with 15 people.

The woman told police she was led downstairs about 4:30 a.m. and thrown out of the dorm.