Harvard Soccer Player Arrested

A former Harvard-Westlake High soccer player was arrested Monday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon--his foot--for kicking an opponent in the head during a match last month.

Police said Harvard-Westlake’s Dwight Angelini kicked Notre Dame player Ryan Herrera in the head during a Feb. 3 soccer match.

The event was captured on videotape by a parent of one of Herrera’s teammates and was the key piece of evidence that prompted the North Hollywood Division of the Los Angeles Police Department to recommend that charges be filed by the L.A. County District Attorney’s office, police said.

Angelini, 17, was released Monday to his parents and formal charges have not been filed by the District Attorney’s office, Sylmar juvenile division.

The case will be considered by the probation department and then by the district attorney’s office, Assistant Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Damon said. A decision about formal charges will be made in three to five weeks.

Angelini was ejected from the match--his fourth ejection of the season and third in three matches--and dismissed from the team immediately after the incident and suspended from school for two days.

His coach, Barclay Mackinnon, was suspended from coaching for a week.

“I meant to kick him, but not to hurt him,” Angelini, a senior and two-time All-Southern Section selection, said two weeks ago.

“Of course, I feel bad for what happened. The way I am on the field does not reflect my personality off the field. I’m not a violent person off the field.”

Angelini was not available for comment Monday.

Herrera said in an interview three weeks after the incident that he was knocked unconscious by the kick. When he regained consciousness, he couldn’t see and experienced numbness in his hands and arms, he said. He lay on the Harvard-Westlake field for 45 minutes, gagging and groggy and unable to respond to questions.

He was taken by ambulance to the Medical Center of North Hollywood and was treated for a concussion and released that night.

Herrera, a junior, did not play again for the remainder of the season because of his physical condition.

He blacked out twice in later weeks and still suffers intense headaches and neck pain, according to his family.

When Herrera continued to suffer the effects of the kick, his family filed a police report Feb. 8, and gave the police a copy of the videotape.

“If this stops my son from leading the life that he wants--and it has so far--I really want something done,” his father Fred said. “I almost lost my son.”

The incident underscores the rarity of athletes being charged for alleged criminal behavior for actions during an athletic event.

“The circumstances are unique,” Detective Burt Gutierrez said.

“It’s not often that we proceed with criminal filings for something that happens in a school-sanctioned sporting event. But if you have viewed the video, the kicking was pretty egregious.”

Angelini is one of the top players in the area and is being recruited by Stanford, California, Yale, Clemson, North Carolina State, Georgetown, Penn, Dartmouth and Washington.

Angelini went to a Notre Dame practice the day after the incident and apologized to the team.

He blamed his action on the pressure and frustration caused by the violent treatment he said he suffered through during the season.

“Every game you get hit and spit on,” he said two weeks after the incident. “Every time I go into a game, I get scared. I don’t know if I’m going to walk coming off the field.”

Herrera and his family have been shaken by the ordeal. “My feelings are that as angry or as mad as I got, I could never bring myself to do something like that,” Herrera said. “I’m still very upset, especially after watching the tape.”

Said Herrera’s mother, Gloria: “I do feel badly for what’s happening to (Angelini), but I feel worse for what’s happened to my son.”