E-mail Story
Print Friendly
Send E-mail
Reprint story
Thursday, November 05, 2009
UNM Admits Bungling Locksley Matter
By Martin Salazar
Journal Staff Writer
Handwritten notes of the initial witness interviews regarding the altercation between University of New Mexico football coach Mike Locksley and assistant J.B. Gerald have been destroyed, just one of the mistakes top UNM officials acknowledged Wednesday.
"We've dug a big hole for ourselves. There's absolutely no question about it," Vice President for Athletics Paul Krebs said in an interview with Journal reporters and editors Wednesday morning. "The leadership of coach Locksley has been called into question. ... My leadership has been called into question, and we've got to win back our fans. We've got to have a concerted effort, a plan to win back the trust of our fan base."
President David Schmidly, who said UNM had "bungled" its handling of the matter, insisted there was no cover-up but said he understood how people could think there had been.
The meeting, followed by a packed news conference on campus, was the beginning of what UNM officials said was their campaign to restore faith in the program. They said Locksley still had their backing — but that he was on thin ice going forward. And they backed away from stronger words of support earlier.
"It's clear to me that some mistakes were made, and we're going to be very forthright in admitting those mistakes," Schmidly said in the meeting in regard to the school's handling of the altercation. "Those mistakes relate to how we handled the process as it relates to our policies."
He was even harsher in his assessment during the news conference, where he used the term "bungled."
Wrong investigator
Under UNM's no-violence policy, the Athletics Department should never have investigated allegations that Locksley punched Gerald in the mouth. The policy states that the department in which an incident occurs cannot do the investigation. Krebs said he was responsible for that decision.
Once UNM realized its mistake, it scrapped the original Athletics Department investigation and Kreb's decision to reprimand Locksley. Human Resources was called in to conduct its own probe.
That investigation did not start until two weeks after the incident and eventually led to a 10-day, unpaid suspension of Locksley.
But that didn't end the controversy.
Days after Locksley returned to work, ESPN aired a half-hour program with interviews from Locksley and Gerald. The report revealed the handwritten notes taken by an Athletics Department employee who interviewed the assistant coaches present during the altercation. They revealed for the first time that the coaches said Locksley choked and swung at Gerald.
And the ESPN report revealed other instances involving Locksley's temper.
The report sparked new outrage over Locksley's behavior and UNM's handling of the matter.
And the handwritten notes raised questions of cover-up since none of that had been revealed earlier.
The university said copies should have been turned over to local news media in response to public records requests, as well as to ESPN. The fact they were not was another of the mistakes Schmidly acknowledged Wednesday.
Even so, parts of the copies provided to the media are unreadable, and they appear to be missing the margins of the originals. When the Journal asked for the original notes, UNM discovered they had been destroyed.
Schmidly, who called the destruction of the original notes "disturbing," said he and other UNM officials learned about their destruction Tuesday night.
'Personal notes'
Shannon Garbiso, the Athletics Department employee who conducted the interviews, destroyed them around Oct. 5 after she had turned over copies to Human Resources Vice President Helen Gonzales.
"She has destroyed her original notes," Schmidly said Wednesday. "She made that decision herself."
Gonzales said it never occurred to her that she needed to ask Garbiso to preserve the original notes. Gonzales said Garbiso never thought she was part of the official investigation.
"It never occurred to her that those were official documents," she said. "... I spoke with her last night on the phone. I said, 'Why did you destroy those?' She said, 'Helen, those were just my personal notes, my recollections as I talked to (the witnesses).' "
Garbiso had turned over copies of her notes to Gonzales at Gonzales' request.
Gonzales also insisted Garbiso's notes are only a piece of the puzzle. She said she conducted another set of interviews with the witnesses, but she declined to release the notes from those interviews citing pending litigation.
She attacked the credibility of Garbiso's notes, saying that Garbiso isn't a trained investigator, that she had merely written down her recollection of her conversation with the witnesses after the interviews, and that no notes or tape recordings were taken during the meetings.
The notes, however, contain lengthy and specific descriptions of the altercation, and in some instances were written in first person.
Gonzales acknowledged that she never put those statements in front of the witnesses to ascertain whether they reflected what they told Garbiso.
Asked why the witnesses were never read what appeared to be their earlier statements, she said that her process was "an investigation, not an interrogation."
After interviewing witnesses herself, Gonzales said she came to several conclusions.
"It was a dark room. They were watching film. It happened very quickly over the course of probably five to 10 seconds," she said. "I heard six different stories about what happened. I had some differences between what I read in (Garbiso's) notes and what I heard."
Gonzales said none of the witnesses — all hired directly by Locksley and who had been with him daily since the incident — confirmed Locksley punched Gerald in the mouth. She does believe Locksley grabbed Gerald by the collar, and witnesses differed on whether Locksley choked Gerald.
Krebs said that based on what he knew, he didn't believe a punch was thrown. But he said there's no question in his mind that Locksley grabbed Gerald and that Locksley's actions were inappropriate and cannot be repeated.
Asked to explain his reasoning for originally issuing a reprimand — and not a suspension or more serious discipline — Krebs said, "What was going through my mind at that time was what was in the best interest of our football program, our football team and the 95 guys on the team getting ready for the next game."
He also said he intended the reprimand to be severe, with possible financial penalties and strict behavior expectations.
Backing away
The day before announcing Locksley's suspension, the Athletics Department issued a news release on the resolution of an unrelated harassment complaint against Locksley.
Schmidly and Krebs issued a joint statement: "We stand behind Coach Locksley and know that he has performed and continues to perform his job in a professional and respectable manner and will do so in the future."
When read that quote on Wednesday, Schmidly asked to be reminded of when that statement was made. After a long pause, both he and Krebs said they continue to support Locksley, but they backed away from the words they used in their quote.
"We don't condone what the coach did," Schmidly said referring to the altercation. "I believed at that point in time and still do believe that this coach overall still has the capability of leading our football program, and that we wanted to issue a statement in effect that we had not totally lost faith in him. People aren't perfect. Mistakes happen."
Krebs said, "I would say today that we stand behind coach Locksley. We have concerns about this incident that's occurred. It can never happen again. He's made mistakes, but he's our football coach."
Krebs said a background check was done on Locksley before he was hired, and no red flags emerged. He said that as part of Locksley's punishment he will have to go through conflict resolution training.
No repeats
Looking forward, Schmidly said UNM plans to take steps to prevent a recurrence:
â– Moving the Athletics Department's human resource function — the role Garbiso plays — under UNM's main Human Resources Division.
n Providing better training related to human resources policies.
n Improving the process of how the university handles open records requests.
Both Schmidly and Krebs were clear on one point.
Krebs said that Locksley's behavior was unacceptable, and if there is any type of repeat, he will be fired.
"I second that," Schmidly added.
You also can send comments via our comment form
|
|
