Archive for the ‘Crimes’ Category

O’Leary mum - barred players from speaking with Sentinel

Monday, July 21st, 2008
Orlando Sentinel
|Sentinel Staff Writer

What gives with this guy and this school?  A player dies and the head coach pouts about errors in the reporting but refuses to identify the errors?  Sounds like a smokescreen to me.  There is too much that does not add up.

Vacation over for blog - new felony arrest at UCF

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

Kyle Hightower, the esteemed reporter at the Orlando Sentinel features a story on his blog on the most recent felony acts available.

Hightower reports that sophomore UCF football player Ricky Kay was suspended from the team after he was charged with a felony and a misdemeanor for an incident that occurred on campus and caused over $5,000 in damage.

Kay, 19, was charged with preventing or hindering firefighter equipment (a third degree felony) and misdemeanor damage of property. He was arrested Saturday night. He posted $1,100 bond and was released from the Orange County jail.

Read all the sordid details at OrlandoSentinel.com.

It just doesn’t seem to end over there at Mickey Mouse U.

Is it just me, or is anyone else wondering

Monday, May 5th, 2008

which end of the bat Jay Berman was allegedly attempting to cram up the chute of the equipment manager. Yes, call me demented. Call me sordid. Call me anything. My mission is to report on the yahoos to the east at UCF.

What would possess a guy his age to allegedly engage in bat rape? That’s just queer.

A couple years ago he allegedly tried to choke a kid in the dugout, now he allegedly wants bat-sex? Damn right. I’d fire him too.

So what’s next?  O’Leary allegedly shoving a football somewhere inappropriate?

Too much.

Now that was too easy…get home after a full tilt at Friday’s

Monday, May 5th, 2008

and do just one search to find

UCF knights

Former UCF Football Star Sentenced To 5 Years For Armed Robbery

Charles Lee was stone-faced Thursday as he pled no contest to the robbery charge as part of a negotiated settlement with the state.

Lee was arrested December 5, 2007, a week after he held up two students at Pegasus Landing, an off-campus student housing complex near UCF. Lee stole more than $11,000 in cash from his victims at gunpoint.

Blah, blah, blah…read more on the UCF football player by visiting WFTV.com

Okay, so according to media reports, Bergman attempted to rape an equipment manager with a bat?

Monday, May 5th, 2008

This is too sick EVEN for our staff.

I hope you UCF people find the right vehicle for repentance.

Disgusting.

13 News: UCF Fires Head Baseball Coach

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Friday, May 02, 2008 12:21:45 AM

ORLANDO — News 13 has learned the University of Central Florida fired baseball coach Jay Bergman because of allegegations of harassment.

Bergman has been coaching the Knights for more than 25 years.

The school said he’s being fired because of a personnel issue. But sources close to the school told News 13 it was due to allegations of harassment from a fellow worker in the athletic department.

Bergman did not accompany the team to New Orleans for its most recent round of games.

The school only released a short statement saying a national search will begin for his replacement.

The Knights have 10 games left during this year’s regular season.

Link to story at 13 News


Man, it just keep getting funnier over there at UCF. Scandal karma killin’ you guys.

More UCF Former Athletes Representing

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

In our break from the Plancher cover-up we continue our look at shining examples of the UCF football program. This time it’s poster boy for the UCF Home Invasion Task Force, Charles Lee.

From the archives (December 6, 2007):

Former UCF Football Star Charged In Home Invasion

From running to the end zone to running from the law, a man considered one of the University of Central Florida’s greatest football players was arrested at his alma mater Wednesday night. Charles Lee, Jr. also played for the Orlando Predators and earned a Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Bucs.

Lee was a standout wide receiver. Now he’s in jail accused of stealing $11,000 in a home invasion robbery.The Pegasus Landing Apartments near UCF is just one of the student apartment complexes plagued by robberies and burglaries this semester. Word that a former student and star athlete may be behind some of the crime is both a shock and a relief.There were many touchdowns during the glory days of college for Charles Lee, but Thursday a very different kind of notoriety became part of Lee’s resume. A judge denied bond to the former receiver after his arrest for a home invasion at the Pegasus Landing Apartments.Students are shocked.”To have such a resume like that. You just downgraded yourself. So I wouldn’t be surprised. I think the police did what they had to do,” said student BJ Johnson.Just a few years ago, Lee was a media star, even earning a Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just four years ago.

Now, UCF police are trying to figure out how many crimes Lee is connected to.

“One guy was holding me down with his foot, gun to the back of my head. The other guy was going through my drawers and my closet and if I didn’t tell him where my valuables were he would kill me,” robbery victim Nicholas Rind told Eyewitness News in November.Now police will are trying to solve more crimes with Lee behind bars. More charges and arrests may be to come.”It’s a good thing that they caught him, definitely,” said student Mike Willey.

Before his arrest Wednesday night, things seemed to be going downhill for Lee. He’d lost his spot with the Orlando Predators in April and been convicted and sentenced for robbery in June. He also auctioned off his Super Bowl ring just three years after he earned it.Eyewitness News requested an interview with Lee on Thursday. Jail officials said he declined with some very colorful language.

View the entire story at WFTV.com

UCF Controversy Over Plancher Death Overtaking UCFScandal.com

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

Yes, it’s been too much on the readers, I see the complaints. We need to cover more than just current scandals and controversies. While I take this Plancher situation very seriously, we can take a respite from it and look at other great moments in UCF history. Without further ado, we knock the dust off the archives and hopefully lighten the mood around here a bit:

From the archives (12/10/05):

Charges filed against former UCF quarterback Culpepper

Jeff Baenen

MINNEAPOLIS - Quarterback Daunte Culpepper and three Minnesota Vikings teammates were charged Thursday with indecent, lewd and disorderly conduct for participating in a bawdy boat party that drew national attention.

Culpepper, a former star quarterback at UCF who is currently on injured reserve, Bryant McKinnie, Fred Smoot and Moe Williams each were charged with three misdemeanors for their behavior aboard a boat on Lake Minnetonka, according to court papers.

If convicted, each player faces up to a maximum of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine for each count.

“The night of the incident, there was no shortage of inappropriate behavior on both boats,” Hennepin County Sheriff Pat McGowan said.

Prosecutor Steve Tallen charged the players based on an investigation by McGowan’s office, which reviewed allegations of lewd and drunken behavior aboard two craft chartered for the outing on Oct. 6.

Crew members complained that some people took off their clothes and engaged in public sex acts during the cruise, according to Stephen Doyle, an attorney representing the boats’ owners, Al & Alma’s Supper Club and Charter Cruises in Mound, Minn.

…Read the entire account at the Central Florida Future.

Media Recaps Brandon Marshall Trouble Again (get used to it)

Friday, March 28th, 2008

After a suspicious encounter with a TV in which the infamous UCF star injured himself, Brandon Marshall has since lied regarding the circumstance surrounding the injury. Now lying should come as no surprise to UCF players and fans as it occurs at the very top of the UCF football program, but the Denver Post does a good job sorting through the latest Marshall incident.

UCF Knights

Excerpt from full story linked here

“I understand I’ve had my problems, but what people are saying, they’re trying to twist this thing around to make me sound like some kind of bad guy,” Marshall said Monday.

Marshall has been some kind of bad guy in part because he has had lots of problems and isn’t always forthcoming.

While he was a student-athlete at the University of Central Florida in 2004, Marshall was arrested in Orlando (where the recent “accident” occurred) on charges of assault on a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct and resisting an officer. According to The Orlando Sentinel, Marshall’s friends were arguing outside with others at a Denny’s, and police were called. As the result of a shouting match, Marshall was arrested and handcuffed. Charges against Marshall were dropped, but he was suspended for one game. In another incident, he was charged with driving with a suspended license. There have been other unkind descriptions about Marshall’s stay at UCF.

Those occurrences can be dismissed as college foolishness and irresponsibility.

However, 2007, off the field, was particularly ugly for Marshall, and can’t be dismissed so readily.

Shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day, Broncos teammate Darrent Williams was murdered. Another Denver wide receiver, Javon Walker (released recently), and Williams’ friends told HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” that trouble began when two men got into an argument with Marshall and his cousin at a nightclub in downtown Denver. Media reports stated that Marshall sprayed champagne on the men, and they flashed gang signs. The dispute later was continued outside, and Walker said he pulled Williams away and into a limousine as Marshall and his cousin left in another car. Soon after a shot was fired into the limo Walker and Williams jumped in, and Williams was killed.

Marshall has declined to talk publicly (but, no doubt, to investigators) about events that night leading up to the tragedy.

In March of last year, Marshall was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence and false imprisonment. Marshall attempted to prevent a taxi, which picked up his girlfriend, from leaving his property in suburban Denver. Marshall said he was trying to retrieve his cellphone. Chargers were dropped when Marshall completed an anger management course.

Marshall was charged with DUI in October after being stopped in LoDo, but pleaded not guilty, and his attorney is challenging the Breathalyzer test result.

With the Broncos, at training camp last year, Marshall sat out the first two weeks with a quadriceps injury. Coach Mike Shanahan then ordered Marshall to practice.

After the Broncos’ 41-3 loss to San Diego at home on Oct. 7, Marshall ripped the spectators, most of whom departed long before the humiliating game ended. “If you’re going to be a Broncos fan, be a Broncos fan. Don’t boo us when we’re down. When we start winning, then what?”

In December Marshall got into a brief shouting match in a receivers meeting with assistant coach Jeremy Bates, but denied rumors that he told Bates to cut him from the team.

UCF Athletic Association under scrutiny for diverting funds

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Financial issues coming home to roost for UCF Athletics as audit report uncovers millions in audit findings. Most peculiar are the loans to the UCF Athletic Association with no stipulated payback schedule or requirement and nearly $50 million in student-athletic fees diverted:

UCF Student Newspaper, Central Florida Future - March 17, 2008:

  • UCF mishandled several million dollars in funds and is spending more money than it should, according to a recent state audit.
  • Several findings involved the university assessing fees and transferring funds without having legal authority for its actions. According to the audit, the university loaned $7.4 million to the UCF Athletics Association Inc. in violation of Florida statutes. There is not yet a plan as to how that money will be paid back.
  • The university also transferred about $15 million to the association and the University of Central Florida Foundation, the audit states.

The Chronicle of Higher Education - March 17, 2008:

  • A routine review by a state auditor has found that the University of Central Florida may have inappropriately lent its independent intercollegiate-athletics association more than $7.4-million, a practice the university has discontinued, and provided more than $49-million in student fees to the athletics association without proper oversight.

The Orlando Sentinel - March 26, 2008

  • State auditors criticized UCF for its unusual practice of lending money to the UCF Athletics Association, a 4-year-old organization that does not fall under the requirements of Florida’s sweeping open-records law. Auditors found the university had no repayment plan for the loans, which amounted to $9.5 million.
  • Auditors also took the school to task for diverting athletics fees, which students are required to pay, directly to the association without having an adequate way to monitor how the money was spent. Students at UCF pay an athletics fee of $11.72 per credit hour.
  • Those payments amounted to about $14 million last year, or nearly half of UCF’s entire budget for athletics. UCF gave the association about $49 million in student-athletics fees between the 2003-04 and 2006-07 fiscal years, according to the audit.

Sneaky.