Sweeney Denies Trying to Insult Investigators

Football Coach Jim Sweeney of Fresno State said Tuesday that he didn’t mean to imply that “contrived evidence” was used to show that one of his players was drunk, had used marijuana and was carrying a pistol at the time he was murdered.

Sweeney was criticized for the remarks he made at Saturday’s funeral of guard Melvin Johnson.

Sweeney said he was merely trying to soothe the feelings of Johnson’s parents when he said:

“Regardless of what newspapers might say . . . regardless of contrived evidence, whatever, we’re going to remember good things about him.”

That remark drew strong reactions from police, who said they had found a pistol in Johnson’s pocket, and from toxicologists, whose tests disclosed that Johnson had a .16 blood-alcohol level--twice the level that is considered drunk in California--and that he had used marijuana a day or two before he was killed.

“I’m troubled by his denial, his inability to cope with conclusive evidence,” said Ernest Lykissa, director of California Toxicology Services, which performed the autopsy tests.

Lykissa added that had a fellow toxicologist made such a comment, “then I would be mad, but he’s just a football coach.”

Coroner David Hadden, who had revealed Johnson’s drug and alcohol levels to the public, said Sweeney occasionally is “a loose cannon,” a charge the coach has faced before during his 15 years at Fresno State.

“I think it was a wild comment that sounded good at the time,” Hadden said.

Sweeney said that he didn’t intend for his remark to be published, although reporters were covering the funeral.

“I didn’t think it would leave the room,” Sweeney said. “I was trying to alleviate the stress of the family and got caught up in the emotion of recent events.”

Sweeney said he used the phrase contrived evidence to raise the possibility that the killer planted the pistol in Johnson’s pocket. The coach said he didn’t intend to imply that any investigators had falsified evidence.