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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
UNM To 'Vet' Locksley Issue
By Martin Salazar
Journal Staff Writer
The University of New Mexico is hoping to quell once and for all the firestorm that has erupted anew over its handling of allegations that Coach Michael Locksley choked and punched one of his assistants.
UNM president David Schmidly, who is out of town until late today, and athletics vice president Paul Krebs are planning a news conference on Wednesday to "fully vet the issue."
"That is the best scenario," Krebs said. "I think the situation needs to be cleared. The misperception of a cover-up needs to be clarified, and we're going to walk people through that on Wednesday."
Gerald after incident Locksley after incident
Krebs has been trying to put the matter behind him since late September, when news first broke about a physical altercation between Locksley and assistant coach J.B. Gerald at a coaches' meeting.
Two news conferences later, Krebs is still trying to move on, but local and national media have been focusing on the scandal.
Gerald went on national television last week with his story. And UNM last week released handwritten notes from interviews with coaches that describe Locksley as "choking" and "swinging" at Gerald.
Those interviews were conducted just days after the Sept. 20 altercation, which means Krebs had that information when he first announced that Locksley's only punishment would be a written reprimand. Later, after Human Resources investigated, the punishment was changed to a 10-day suspension.
But Krebs has continued to say that no witnesses corroborated Gerald's claim that Locksley had punched him. When asked Monday about his decision to simply reprimand Locksley despite the serious nature of the other coaches' description of the incident, he said he would not go into more detail until Wednesday.
On Sunday, Gerald told the New Mexico Daily Lobo, UNM's student newspaper, that Krebs and the university cared more about damage control than finding out what happened on Sept. 20.
The Journal was unable to reach Gerald for comment.
Gerald is quoted as saying that shortly before the incident was made public, Krebs contacted him and urged him to downplay its severity and encouraged him to return to work.
"He said, 'We need you to give a statement to defuse this thing. Go back to work. Give a statement. Defuse it, so you don't pour gasoline on this thing,'" the Lobo quoted Gerald as saying.
Krebs denies trying to downplay anything.
"What I did was walk him through all the scenarios," Krebs told the Journal. "I left the decisions up to him, but I walked him through and gave him the best advice I could, including I thought we wanted him back on the team, and it was in his best interest to be back there. But in no way did I discourage or try to downplay anything."
Along with witness statements that were released to the Journal in response to a request under the state's open records law, the university released photos of Gerald documenting injuries to his mouth and neck.
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