CIF to Clear Referee Who Was Hit : Prep sports: One-month investigation into alleged use of racial slurs by Ken Smotrys does not confirm allegations.

The California Interscholastic Federation will announce today that a month-long investigation did not confirm that referee Ken Smotrys uttered racial epithets at football players from Compton Centennial High during a game at Beverly Hills on Oct. 20, The Times has learned.

The findings were confirmed Tuesday night by a CIF source, who said Smotrys was cleared of any wrongdoing and will be able to resume refereeing next season.

Smotrys said he spoke with CIF officials earlier in the day and that they assured him the report was positive.

“They told me I came out squeaky clean,” he said. “They told me that the investigators talked to other officials that I worked with and coaches whose games I worked and that they never heard me use racial epithets.”

The investigation, handled by the R.J. Frasco Agency in Burbank, was initiated shortly after Smotrys was punched by Centennial player Kumasi Simmons during the second half of the Oct. 20 game against Beverly Hills. Leo Terrell, Simmons’ attorney, said his client was provoked when Smotrys uttered a racial epithet.

While Simmons was being questioned by police, another Centennial player, Vincent Brooks, accused Smotrys of pushing him down and voicing a racial epithet at him during the same game.

Simmons and Smotrys were both arrested and charged with simple battery. Charges were later dropped against Smotrys, 34. Simmons, 16, is still under review and his case will be forwarded to the juvenile probation department in Santa Monica later this week, according to Lt. Frank Salcido of the Beverly Hills Police Dept.

The CIF Southern Section, which governs high school sports in much of Southern California, suspended Smotrys from refereeing while the matter was being reviewed.

In the 75-page report the CIF received from the private investigators, there are interviews from many of the players from both teams. Simmons, Brooks and Centennial Coach Omar Bradley, who is also the mayor of Compton, reportedly did not participate.

“There’s just nothing substantial to confirm Smotrys said anything,” the CIF source said.

Said Smotrys: “I didn’t expect them to find anything, but it still feels good to be cleared.”

Simmons could not be reached for comment.

Simmons, a senior, was suspended from school the Monday after the game. A week later, he was terminated from the Compton Unified School District because district officials said he had been improperly enrolled. He returned to Ayala High in Chino Hills, where he had been a student the previous three years.

Under CIF rules, however, Simmons has lost all athletic eligibility because he hit an official.