A Drake University student filed a lawsuit this month alleging that an unidentified men’s basketball coach at the school told a player who shot him in the head to lie to responding police officers, according to the Des Moines Register.

Drake forward Tremell Murphy accidentally shot Nathaniel Miller Jr. in the head during a party at his home near campus on Aug. 31, 2019. The gun was Murphy’s, which he had legally obtained.

After the shooting but before officers arrived, per the report, a Drake basketball coach allegedly showed up at the house. The coach then allegedly told Murphy to deny any involvement. Murphy then told officers that Miller had fallen on a wet floor and hit his head.

He was charged with making false reports to the police and discharging a firearm within city limits, both misdemeanors in Iowa. Murphy pled guilty to both accounts, according to the Des Moines Register, and was fined, placed on probation and given a suspended 30-day jail sentence. 

Miller is suing the university, Murphy and the investment group that manages the property where the shooting took place. He alleged that proper medical care was delayed because of the initial false report. He had to undergo surgery, and now struggles with gait and eyesight as a result, per the lawsuit. 

The university denied the allegations in the lawsuit. Drake head coach Darian DeVries did not respond to the Des Moines Register for comment, though he is not named in the lawsuit. 

“It is not true as claimed by the plaintiff that a Drake men’s basketball coach told Mr. Murphy to deny involvement in Mr. Miller’s injuries,” the school said in a statement, via the Des Moines Register. “Additionally, the residence in which the shooting incident took place is a private residence and is not owned or otherwise affiliated with the university.”

Murphy played in just five games for the Bulldogs last year after suffering a season-ending knee injury in their game against Southeast Missouri State on Dec. 7. He averaged 10.4 points and 6.2 rebounds while starting all but one contest in his freshman season.

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A local adult league hockey player is suing a former opponent, league brass and even the City of Kelowna in relation to injuries he sustained while on the ice in 2018.

Ryan Bachmeier, a Kelowna physiotherapist, filed a notice of civil claim in Kelowna court on April 22, alleging Greg Hopf injured him while playing in a ‘careless, reckless and negligent manner’, during a ‘no contact’ Pacific Adult Hockey League game on October 16, 2018.

“During the game, the plaintiff was in the defensive corner without the puck when the defendant Hopf violently and negligently charged at the plaintiff and attacked the plaintiff from behind, pulling him backwards with the defendant Hopf landing on top of him, while repeatedly striking him in the face as he was still laying on the ice, causing injuries, loss and damage,” claimed Bachmeier in the suit.

Bachmeier claimed he suffered a dislocated and fractured right ankle, as well as torn ligaments among other injuries. The suit contests this suffering has followed him since the incident, causing pain, discomfort, loss of enjoyment of life, permanent physical disability and loss of earnings, both past and prospective.

According to the suit, the league itself is also at fault, naming league co-ordinator Larry Lenarduzzi. He is accused of letting Hopf continue to play even though he ‘knew or ought to have known that he played hockey in a careless, reckless and negligent manner’.

The suit also mentioned Hopf’s penalty minutes, stating Lenarduzzi failed to assess the penalties from season to season. Bachmeier claimed this as evidence of both the league’s negligence and Hopf’s propensity to play hockey in a violent manner.

The City of Kelowna is accused of failing to manage the Pacific Adult Hockey League when it knew or ought to have known rules and the code of conduct was not being enforced.

Bachmeier is seeking damages related to his health care costs and loss of income, as well as punitive and aggravated damages.

None of the claims have been proven in court and none of the defendants have responded to the notice of claim. Parties have 21 days to submit a response.

READ MORE: Kelowna man arrested in Chilliwack for allegedly stealing vehicle

READ MORE: Feds give up fight against 15-day hard cap on solitary confinement

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A former Penn State football player has filed a federal lawsuit alleging he was harassed and hazed by other team members and subjected to retaliation by the coaching staff after reporting the conduct.

Attorney Steven Marino filed the lawsuit on Monday in U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania on behalf of former Nittany Lion defensive back Isaiah Humphries against the university, coach James Franklin and defensive tackle Damion Barber. Marino also represents former Penn State team doctor Scott Lynch in a separate lawsuit against Franklin and the university.

Humphries, who enrolled at Penn State in January 2018 on a football scholarship, alleges that Barber, along with teammates Micah Parsons, Jesse Luketa and Yetur Gross-Matos led “a campaign to harass and haze lower classmen members of the Penn State football team,” as a form of initiation. Parsons, Luketa and Gross-Matos are not named as defendants.

They would wrestle teammates to the ground, Humphries claims, and simulate sexual acts, as well as place their genitals on or near the alleged victims. The incidents occurred in the Lasch Football Building locker room and showers, campus dorms and other locations, according to the lawsuit.

They also allegedly stated that they intended to make lower classmen “their bitch because this is prison,” and threatened “I am going to Sandusky you,” a reference to former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who was convicted of child sexual abuse.

Police received a report last spring of indecent assaults by a student in the Lasch Building. In December, WJAC-TV reported that a lengthy investigation resulted from one former player’s claim of being hazed by other players. Numerous team members denied the allegations and police and the Centre County District Attorney’s Office did not file charges. One player took and passed a lie detector test according to WJAC. 

Humphries, who left the program at the end of his freshman season in 2018, claims that members of the coaching staff observed the alleged conduct on multiple occasions. He also says he reported it to the coaching staff and that his father, former Penn State player Leonard Humphries, reported it directly to Franklin, who did not take any action.

Instead, the lawsuit claims, Franklin and the coaching staff retaliated against Humphries, who says he “was scorned and punished.”

Humphries alleges he was required to participate in athletic drills designed to ensure he would fail, and that performance was used to deny him playing opportunities. He also says the team’s academic advisor subjected him “to irrational and inappropriate censure.”

The lawsuit claims Humphries was denied medical accommodations for diagnosed anxiety and narcolepsy and that the coaching staff tried to get him to leave the team by offering a medical retirement option.

When he decided to transfer, Humphries says, the staff provided negative reviews to other college programs. He ultimately transferred to the University of California.

Before leaving though, he claims he was ostracized and shunned by other players in retaliation for reporting the alleged hazing, and that Luketa threatened him with physical harm.

Last spring, Penn State’s Office of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response received an anonymous complaint of harassment and hazing by football team members. After a formal investigation, Barber was charged with violating the student code of conduct and sanctioned by the Office of Student Conduct, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims negligence in violation of Pennsylvania’s anti-hazing law and infliction of emotional distress by each defendant. It also includes counts of assault and battery and civil conspiracy against Barber.

Humphries is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. 

Barber, Parsons and Luketa are current members of the Penn State football team. Gross-Matos declared for the NFL Draft following the 2019 season.

A Penn State spokesperson has not yet responded to request for comment.

Second due process lawsuit against UNM in less than two weeks

Joseph Caldwell, a University of New Mexico student, has been kicked out of campus housing, stopped from registering for spring classes, and banned from playing on the basketball team.

His crime? He has only been accused of one at this point: battery. Caldwell “has not been arrested or charged, much less proven guilty in a court of law,” according to a federal lawsuit filed against the public university earlier this month.

It’s not clear that UNM even has authority to investigate the allegation, the suit claims: The accuser is not a student and may not live in the state.

The taxpayer-funded university has not followed its own procedure to determine whether Caldwell (above) violated its code of conduct, the suit alleges. He was deprived a hearing where witnesses and evidence against him could be heard and challenged, as well as the opportunity to appeal.

MORE: Title IX investigation clears MSU basketball players of rape

Caldwell is suing the Board of Regents, the university-owned housing nonprofit Lobo Development Corporation and Dean of Students Nasha Torrez for violating his due process rights.

He also claims that board and Lobo breached their contracts with him. In return for Caldwell agreeing to play basketball for the university, “UNM has contracted to provide Plaintiff with access to its undergraduate degree programs.”

By preventing him from being able to continue his education, the university is not following up on its side of the bargain, the complaint argues. Lobo also “failed to honor its obligation of good faith and fair dealing” by breaking his lease.

It’s the second due process lawsuit filed against the university for a disciplinary investigation in less than two weeks. Prof. Nick Flor filed suit Dec. 31 after the university blamed him for a student’s attempted blackmail and suspended him for a year.

Due process lawsuit accuses University of New Mexico of illicit investigation into non-student’s claims by The College Fix on Scribd

Evicted for ‘unlawful action’ (without being charged with a crime)

On Dec. 19, Caldwell received an email from UNM notifying him that he was “hereby interim banned” from campus except to seek medical care and take his “in-person courses for Spring 2020 semester.”

The problem? At this point, Caldwell has registered for only one class, and this ban prevented him from signing up for any more that meet on campus.

The Albuquerque Police Department took a report on battery allegations against Caldwell three days earlier. The email stated that the allegations were “under the jurisdiction of the Office of Equal Opportunity” of the university, and that Caldwell would be unable to contact the dean of students’ office during the Dec. 21-Jan. 1 holiday break.

He met with the Office of Equal Opportunity briefly and denied the charges against him. Afterwards, Dean of Students Torrez “reiterated that he was suspended and that she would make the decision whether or not to continue his indefinite suspension at some unknown later date.”

The same day he was banned from campus, Caldwell received an eviction notice from Lobo requiring him to remove all of his belongings from his university-affiliated apartment within three days.

MORE: B-ball player says Yale ignored rules, evidence to judge him a rapist

This scenario should sound familiar to anyone who has been following the case of @UNM’s egregious treatment of @ProfessorF, in which a lack of due process and inexcusable delays have also left Prof. Flor in an untenable position.

— Samantha Harris (@samk_harris) January 3, 2020

It claimed that his “unlawful action causing serious physical harm to another person” violated the terms of his lease. According to his complaint, Caldwell has not been charged with a crime.

Four days after it served the eviction notice, Lobo forced Caldwell out of his apartment, even though he had been told he would not be evicted until after Jan. 3. The university would be open on that date, and presumably he could properly address the charges against him at that time.

The suit says Caldwell has not received a written complaint of detailed allegations from the university, any evidence or discovery regarding allegations, the identity or statements of adverse witnesses, or an opportunity to address the allegations with “confrontation rights.”

All are required by UNM’s own procedure before findings can be submitted to the dean of students.

Caldwell says that he “has had no opportunity to appeal any such findings, as there are none to appeal.”

MORE: Professor sues UNM for suspending him after student blackmails him

IMAGE: KOB4 screenshot

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Latest on a lawsuit filed against Milwaukee and the city’s police department by NBA player Sterling Brown alleging excessive force (all times local):
 

11:15 a.m.

The attorney for Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown says police officers violated his client’s constitutional rights when they “set up, circled and then attacked” him outside a Walgreens store in January.

Attorney Mark Thomsen spoke at a news conference Tuesday morning outside City Hall, shortly after filing a federal lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee and its police department. Thomsen urged city leaders to acknowledge that Brown’s constitutional rights were violated and approve their claim.

Brown was accused of a parking violation outside the drug store. Police videos show Brown remained calm and did not resist, yet the situation escalated, officers surrounded him and one used a stun gun on him. Thomsen says the city’s policies don’t prevent such conduct by police who arrested Brown that day.

Brown was not charged following his arrest. The police chief has apologized for his officers’ actions.

   ——

10:55 a.m.

 A federal lawsuit against Milwaukee police alleges officers tried to reframe what happened when they used a stun gun during the arrest of Bucks’ player Sterling Brown after a parking violation in January.

The lawsuit Brown filed Tuesday says a group of officers instructed a colleague writing an incident report to describe the basketball player as resisting and obstructing them. Videos released by police and obtained by WISN-TV show Brown never threatened the officers and appeared calm while he waited for a parking citation.

One officer involved in the arrest later sent a tweet mocking Brown, saying, “Nice meeting Sterling Brown of the Milwaukee Bucks at work this morning!”

Brown wasn’t charged with anything.

The lawsuit naming the city, police chief, and eight officers alleges excessive force and unlawful arrest.

 ——

10:12 a.m.

Milwaukee Bucks guard Sterling Brown is suing the city and its police department because officers used a stun gun on him during his arrest for a parking violation in January.

Brown’s attorney Mark Thomsen filed the lawsuit in federal court Tuesday alleging excessive force and unlawful arrest.

Brown had been talking with officers while waiting for a citation for illegally parking in a disabled spot outside a Walgreens. Officers swarmed Brown and took him down because he didn’t immediately remove his hands from his pockets as ordered.

Police Chief Alfonso Morales apologized to Brown last month when body-camera video of the arrest was released. Brown wasn’t charged and three officers were disciplined, with suspensions ranging from two to 15 days.

Eight other officers are undergoing remedial training in professional communications.
 

To read the full lawsuit complaint, click here.

ELIZABETH, N.J. — A former NFL linebacker’s career was cut short after authorities in New Jersey fabricated evidence linking him to a gun used in a shooting, the player alleged in a lawsuit filed this week.

The Elizabeth Police Department and Union County Prosecutor’s Office “willfully ignored and were deliberately indifferent to overwhelming evidence” that Khaseem Greene hadn’t provided the weapon used in a shooting outside a nightclub in Elizabeth in December 2016.

The Kansas City Chiefs released Greene in May of last year, the day charges against him were reported.

Two months later, a gun charge against Greene was dropped after an audio recording surfaced of the accused shooter telling detectives he lied about Greene’s involvement in the shooting.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses the police and prosecutor’s office of “simultaneously manufacturing and fabricating false evidence in order to charge Plaintiff with a crime he did not commit.”

A spokesman for the county prosecutor’s office declined comment Thursday. A message left at the Elizabeth Police Department wasn’t immediately returned.

Greene, 29, is an Elizabeth native who was a Big East defensive player of the year while at Rutgers. He appeared in a total of 25 games for the Chicago Bears during the 2013 and 2014 seasons, starting six games at linebacker.

The lawsuit charges numerous counts including civil rights violations, false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, negligence and defamation. It seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages, including for past and future economic loss.

It also seeks the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the Elizabeth Police Department.

According to the lawsuit, the man charged with the shooting, a career criminal with more than 20 prior arrests and six felony convictions, admitted he lied about getting the gun from Greene during an interview with police after his arrest in late December 2016.

Nevertheless, authorities went ahead and charged Greene, citing surveillance video that allegedly showed Greene handing the gun to the man, Jason Sanders. No such video existed, the lawsuit alleges.

Greene last August said the legal trouble has been “probably the toughest time of my life” and has been “very hard emotionally and mentally.”

“People started looking at me differently and accusing me of being this thug, this monster, and all of it was false,” he said by phone.

The suit names the Elizabeth Police Department and the Union County Prosecutor’s Office as well as individuals in both offices.

Suit against WSU, coach, admin claims they did not afford player due process

IAN SMAY, Evergreen reporter
March 19, 2018

Former WSU football player Zaire Webb sued Head Coach Mike Leach, the university and three administrators over his dismissal from the team in October of last year.

Webb filed the lawsuit March 2 with the Whitman County Superior Court. The suit names WSU, Leach, Senior Financial Aid Adviser Andrew Lehr, Associate Dean of Students Karen Fischer and Assistant Admissions Director Kelly Myott-Baker as defendants in the case.

Webb named four causes of action in the lawsuit, which included a violation of his 14th Amendment rights, contractual interference, negligence and breaches of his contract. The suit alleges all parties except WSU violated Webb’s constitutional rights, Leach interfered with his scholarship contract, defendants did not conduct a fair hearing and the university failed to uphold its end of the contract.

Leach dismissed Webb and teammate Anthony White Jr. following their involvement in a theft at Walmart on Oct. 4. Police issued the pair with misdemeanor citations for third degree theft. The next day, Webb lost his financial aid effective at the end of the 2017 fall semester following his dismissal the same day, according to court documents.

Webb cited prior inconsistencies in the implementation of team rules as well as problems with the conduct review process.

The lawsuit mentions three players who were named in separate court cases for violent crimes. Leach reinstated the three to the team, even though each broke one of the four rules warranting dismissal that he referenced in a letter to the appeals committee that heard Webb’s case. These rules include drug use, theft, violence against women and anything that could hurt the team, according to the letter.

The first player mentioned was Logan Tago, who was arrested in 2016 and charged with felony robbery and misdemeanor assault, according to court documents. Tago accepted a plea bargain for the third-degree assault charge and WSU lists him as a player on the 2018 spring football roster.

Webb then mentions former player Daquon Brown, who pled guilty to fourth-degree assault following an incident at a dance where he punched a male and a female, knocking the latter unconscious. Leach then allowed Brown to rejoin the team, and Brown led the Cougars in tackles during the 2014 season, according to court documents.

Webb also claimed that then-Athletic Director Bill Moos implied he did not know why Leach reinstated Brown because Moos was not involved in the discipline process. The documents quote Moos as saying, “You’re going to have to talk to Mike about that one. It’s hard for me to believe that he just opened the door for him.”

WSU requires athletic director involvement in disciplinary action stemming from a criminal charge, according to the Student-Athlete Handbook’s Athletics Code of Conduct and Discipline Policy.

Lastly, Webb references current player Grant Porter, who was arrested on Nov. 14 of last year for domestic violence without traumatic injury following an altercation with his girlfriend. Porter was only suspended, not dismissed, and WSU listed him on its 2018 spring roster despite the battery charge still pending in Latah County, Idaho, according to court documents.

Leach wrote a letter to the appeals committee, which consisted of defendants Lehr, Fischer and Myott-Baker, explaining why he dismissed Webb, but didn’t appear before the committee, making his statements unsworn. However, Webb alleges the committee still considered Leach’s statements in their decision-making process.

Due to these measures taken by the appeals committee, Webb claims the defendants acted with the intent to uphold Leach’s decisions instead of giving Webb a fair process, according to court documents. Webb seeks damages in an amount that would be determined during trial.

The lawsuit states the defendants must respond within 20 days of the filing date or a default judgment could be entered against them, meaning Webb would be entitled to the damages he claimed.

A former Wheaton College football player is suing the school and seven ex-teammates, alleging campus officials knew about the team’s hazing tradition and did nothing to prevent an attack in which the player said he was kidnapped, beaten and left half-naked on a baseball field.

The lawsuit, filed early Friday in DuPage County, has been expected since September, when five football players were charged criminally in connection with the March 19, 2016, incident at the small Christian liberal arts college. The charges are still pending, and the defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The injured player, Charles Nagy, 21, of Indiana, said in the 37-page complaint that the coaching staff, including head coach Mike Swider, and the college administration turned a blind eye to a violent and pervasive tradition against freshmen players by creating a “sham hazing policy that it never intended to or actually did enforce in any meaningful way.”

Hazing was “an open secret at Wheaton College, a practice well-established and long-standing within the Wheaton College football program, handed down from class to class while the head coach and other adults, aware of the practice, looked the other way in disregard of the health and safety of players,” attorney Terry Ekl, who filed the suit on behalf of Nagy, said in a statement Friday.

Wheaton College allowed the hazing practice as a “means of building character and a perceived unity within the team,” Ekl said.

A Wheaton College spokeswoman could not immediately comment because school officials have not seen the lawsuit.

Ekl said he is seeking more than $1 million in damages from the college. The suit also seeks at least $50,000 from each of the named seven players. Four of them — James Cooksey, Kyler Kregel, Benjamin Pettway, and Samuel TeBos — are facing criminal charges. They are all 22 and live out of state.

The fifth charged player, Noah Spielman, 21, was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Ekl said his client has ongoing settlement discussions with Spielman and both sides agreed to a 30-day extension to Monday’s one-year statute of limitations for litigation.

The suit also names three other Wheaton College football players who prosecutors did not charge criminally but who Ekl said conspired with their teammates in the alleged attack.

The Tribune sought comment early Friday from the players’ lawyers.

“This incident is overblown and sensationalized,” said attorney Paul DeLuca, who represents Kregel in the criminal case. “It’s sad. These are good young men who have been portrayed as thugs by virtue of this lawsuit. We expect and believe the evidence in the criminal case will contradict a number of the allegations.”

Todd Pugh, who represents TeBos, said Nagy is likely going after the college because it would have more money than the football players.

“It appears to be the strategy of the plaintiff’s attorney and the plaintiff to reach deeper pockets,” Pugh said. “I don’t disagree with the strategy from a plaintiff’s lawyer’s perspective, but the facts don’t support it.”

Nagy reported to authorities that he was watching the NCAA basketball tournament in a dorm the night of the incident when several teammates entered the room and tackled him, according to the lawsuit and investigative records obtained by the Tribune. Then a 19-year-old freshman, Nagy said he kicked his legs and yelled at them to stop, only to be punched and have his bare legs and wrists wrapped in duct tape.

The players put a pillowcase over Nagy’s head and took him from the residence hall. Nagy was placed in the back seat of a teammate’s vehicle and held down by at least two players while others piled into the vehicle, according to the lawsuit.

After the vehicle began moving, they played Middle Eastern music, and at one point the players suggested to the freshman that he had been kidnapped by Muslims who wanted to fornicate with goats, the lawsuit states. They patted his foot and suggested he would be their “goat” for the evening, according to the complaint.　

The lawsuit states the players restrained him with more duct tape during the drive, pulled down his shorts and underwear, then tried to insert an object into his rectum. After the freshman yelled at them to stop, he was beaten, according to the lawsuit.　

The accused players have denied trying to insert anything into Nagy’s rectum. None of the criminal charges against them allege a sexual offense.

The players drove to a park off campus and carried the teen onto a baseball diamond, the complaint states. Nagy told investigators that players threw dirt on him, took his cellphone and left him half-naked on the field.

Nagy, who went to the hospital and spoke with police officers later that night, suffered two labrum tears that required surgery, authorities said. He withdrew from the school a short time later.

A second player also was targeted that night, but he was not injured and did not file a complaint. He remained on the football team last season.

Five players — Spielman, Cooksey, Kregel, Pettway and TeBos — were charged with aggravated battery, mob action and unlawful restraint. They were suspended from the team’s games and practices following the charges.

Under an intense national spotlight after the Tribune broke the story announcing the criminal charges, college administrators issued a harsh statement that called the incident “entirely unacceptable” and contrary to the school’s religious values and “values we share as human beings.”

Away from public scrutiny, however, the college stood more firmly behind the players after finishing its internal investigation a year ago. College officials, who hired a third-party investigator to review his account, sent the accuser a letter in November 2016 stating they found the players’ account “more credible” than his, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Tribune.

The complaint, however, alleges college officials have long known about the team’s hazing traditions for decades and have done nothing to stop it. The suit accuses the players of battery and false imprisonment. The college is accused of negligence and willful and wanton conduct, according to the lawsuit.

“The complaint seeks to have a public accounting of what happened, not only to compensate our client for the substantial suffering and losses that he has sustained because of the illegal conduct of Wheaton College and the involved players, but also to raise awareness of the significant risks of hazing to deter others from doing it and to encourage school and athletic officials to intervene and halt hazing practices where they occur and before the worst happens,” Ekl said, in his prepared statement.

Washington State football coach Mike Leach has said he has a policy that any player who commits one of three acts will get kicked out of the program: violence against women, illegal drugs, and stealing. One former Cougars player is suing because he says he was unfairly dismissed, and Leach isn’t actually consistent with his rules.

Cornerback Zaire Webb and receiver Anthony White Jr. were dismissed from the team in October, a day after Pullman Police cited them for misdemeanor third-degree theft at a Walmart. A few days later, the school informed Webb that his scholarship would be pulled at the beginning of 2018. He was allowed to appeal but says he wasn’t allowed to attend or participate. In December, the charges against Webb were dismissed due to insufficient evidence.

Webb’s lawsuit, filed March 2 in Whitman County Superior Court, argues that Leach inconsistently applied the rule to him. The suit lists examples of other players who have broken the “three sins” policy and weren’t kicked off the team. Linebacker Logan Tago took a plea deal after he was charged with felony robbery and assault in 2016 for mugging a guy for a six-pack of beer. (The Cougars recently used Tago’s mandated community service as a feel-good story.) He’s still on the roster. Former cornerback Daquawn Brown was charged with felony second-degree assault in March of 2014 after he allegedly punched a man and woman in the faces during a night out. He was allowed to play in the 2014 season and led the team in tackles before Leach dismissed him in December of that year. Receiver Grant Porter was arrested and booked on a domestic-violence charge in November of 2017 for allegedly grabbing his girlfriend’s neck and pushing her to the floor. The lawsuit says he is still on the spring roster. (Washington State has not answered a question as to whether this was accurate, as well as a request for comment on the suit, but Deadspin will update if the school responds.) Update (3:36 p.m. ET): A Washington State spokesperson says Porter is suspended indefinitely, and the school has no comment on the lawsuit. Webb’s complaint argues that these are all examples of Leach’s “firm” policy instead being totally arbitrary. The 18-year-old is asking for unspecified damages suffered.

In Leach’s Oct. 25 letter of dismissal to Webb, the coach wrote the following:

In the months leading up to his dismissal, Zaire was involved in a series of events that called to question his commitment to the football program, as well as came into direct conflict with our team rules. Zaire played as a true freshman on our football team in the first few games of this season and it was not our desire to remove him from our team. His was performing on special teams and we can only assume with time in our program that he would have continued to improve on the field.

A consistent standard needs to be maintained in dealing with the conduct of our players. Every player is held to the same standards here and we have demonstrated that talent, athletic ability, age, or classification have no bearing on whether we keep or remove a player that violates any of our team policies.

The full lawsuit can be read below.

Washington State football coach Mike Leach has said he has a policy that any player who commits one of three acts will get kicked out of the program: violence against women, illegal drugs, and stealing. One former Cougars player is suing because he says he was unfairly dismissed, and Leach isn’t actually consistent with his rules.

Cornerback Zaire Webb and receiver Anthony White Jr. were dismissed from the team in October, a day after Pullman Police cited them for misdemeanor third-degree theft at a Walmart. A few days later, the school informed Webb that his scholarship would be pulled at the beginning of 2018. He was allowed to appeal but says he wasn’t allowed to attend or participate. In December, the charges against Webb were dismissed due to insufficient evidence.

Webb’s lawsuit, filed March 2 in Whitman County Superior Court, argues that Leach inconsistently applied the rule to him. The suit lists examples of other players who have broken the “three sins” policy and weren’t kicked off the team. Linebacker Logan Tago took a plea deal after he was charged with felony robbery and assault in 2016 for mugging a guy for a six-pack of beer. (The Cougars recently used Tago’s mandated community service as a feel-good story.) He’s still on the roster. Former cornerback Daquawn Brown was charged with felony second-degree assault in March of 2014 after he allegedly punched a man and woman in the faces during a night out. He was allowed to play in the 2014 season and led the team in tackles before Leach dismissed him in December of that year. Receiver Grant Porter was arrested and booked on a domestic-violence charge in November of 2017 for allegedly grabbing his girlfriend’s neck and pushing her to the floor. The lawsuit says he is still on the spring roster. (Washington State has not answered a question as to whether this was accurate, as well as a request for comment on the suit, but Deadspin will update if the school responds.) Update (3:36 p.m. ET): A Washington State spokesperson says Porter is suspended indefinitely, and the school has no comment on the lawsuit. Webb’s complaint argues that these are all examples of Leach’s “firm” policy instead being totally arbitrary. The 18-year-old is asking for unspecified damages suffered.

In Leach’s Oct. 25 letter of dismissal to Webb, the coach wrote the following:

In the months leading up to his dismissal, Zaire was involved in a series of events that called to question his commitment to the football program, as well as came into direct conflict with our team rules. Zaire played as a true freshman on our football team in the first few games of this season and it was not our desire to remove him from our team. His was performing on special teams and we can only assume with time in our program that he would have continued to improve on the field.

A consistent standard needs to be maintained in dealing with the conduct of our players. Every player is held to the same standards here and we have demonstrated that talent, athletic ability, age, or classification have no bearing on whether we keep or remove a player that violates any of our team policies.

The full lawsuit can be read below.