Bay Area athlete, 15, charged with felony over broken nose

Legal experts said the case could be a wake-up call for athletes, coaches and schools in an age when so much is captured on video. Legal experts said the case could be a wake-up call for athletes, coaches and schools in an age when so much is captured on video. Photo: Westend61, Getty Images Photo: Westend61, Getty Images Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Bay Area athlete, 15, charged with felony over broken nose 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

A 15-year-old Lafayette boy is facing felony assault and battery charges for allegedly striking an opponent and breaking his nose during a high school water polo game, an almost unprecedented case of bringing sports violence into the courts.

Contra Costa County prosecutors filed the charges after concluding the underwater blow to the boy’s face — captured on video from the stands and later handed over to police — was purposeful and crossed the line into criminal behavior.

Their decision prompted shock and outrage in Lafayette, where some community members say a high school sophomore with no history of trouble is being treated more harshly than adults who do far worse in professional sports. Legal experts called the case extremely rare, even though violence is relatively common in many sports.

The alleged attack occurred during a Sept. 19 junior varsity match between Acalanes High of Lafayette and Bellarmine College Preparatory of San Jose. Both teens were competing in a tournament at Las Lomas High in Walnut Creek.

Exactly what happened between the boys is disputed. But people who have seen the video told The Chronicle it shows the Acalanes boy delivering what appears to be a purposeful blow with his leg or knee to the Bellarmine boy’s face in front of the Bellarmine goal. Both boys were playing the 2-meter position, which tends to be particularly physical.

Nose required surgery

The Bellarmine boy immediately grabbed his nose; he had to leave the game and needed surgery before returning to his team, said the sources, who insisted on anonymity to discuss a case involving juveniles. Neither boy had the ball at the time of the encounter, but the person who captured the video kept the camera focused on the pair.

The alleged attack was reported to Walnut Creek police, who opened an investigation. The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office later reviewed the case and filed felony charges of assault and battery this month. The case is pending in county juvenile court.

Russ Stryker, the head coach of the Acalanes junior varsity team, said Tuesday that the situation was unfortunate and would be a “teaching moment,” he hoped. But he said he was dismayed by the criminal charges. He said his player is an “outstanding kid,” a sophomore who gets straight A’s and has no history of trouble.

“No kid deserves a broken nose. It’s unfortunate, and I’m sure he’s a great kid,” he said. “We feel terrible about this, and the Acalanes boy feels awful. He’s probably going to quit the sport because of this.”

Stryker said referees apparently didn’t see what happened, because no foul was called. But, after the video was shown to officials, the Acalanes player was suspended from the final game of the tournament. He was then suspended from school for a day, and Stryker suspended him from the team for 18 days, or roughly eight games.

Rough sport

“It’s probably the most physical sport you can play,” Stryker, 45, said of water polo. “I’ve been involved in the game a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of brutal stuff, but I’ve never seen anything go to the courts.”

Sports violence — even willful cheap shots — is typically either tolerated or handled with fouls or suspensions. Baseball players charge the mound to confront pitchers who throw at them. Basketball players get angry and throw elbows and punches. Hockey players lose teeth during bloody brawls.

Yet rarely has such behavior resulted in criminal prosecution, said Michael McCann, a law professor who directs the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire.

“It’s unusual, but maybe it shouldn’t be unusual,” he said. If something like this occurred in class or on the street, he noted, “no question the police would get involved.”

But Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said an incident that merits criminal charges “has to go way beyond unsportsmanlike conduct. We wouldn’t want to have the criminal justice system handling all these cases. It wouldn’t have time to do anything else.”

Violence for all to see

Legal experts said the Lafayette boy’s case could be a wake-up call for athletes, coaches and schools in an age when so much is captured on video. Such footage means judges and juries can more easily sort out what happened amid competing accounts.

“There must be 50 videos of every Little League game,” said Eldon Ham, an adjunct professor of sports law at Chicago-Kent College of Law. He noted that the Bay Area case likely features another element not present in many high-profile instances of violence in professional sports: the cooperation of the victim.

Word of the criminal case spread over the weekend when two members of the Acalanes community, Buck Worthing and John Schnugg, distributed an e-mail asking supporters to write letters of outrage to the district attorney’s office. The e-mail said the Bellarmine player’s nose was “inadvertently broken,” an assertion discounted by people who have seen the video.

Inappropriate for courts?

“Simply put, the criminal justice system is not the place to control and address issues as described above in any sport, which happen hundreds of times per year, when there is appropriate officiating and ruling infrastructure in place at the league and school levels,” the letter stated. “Not to mention, the dangerous precedent it would set for high school sports in general.”

Ham, though, said there is a distinction between legal behavior on the field of play and potentially criminal conduct.

“Nobody is liable for things that happen during the game if there is sheer negligence,” Ham said. “But there’s an exception to that, which is if it is willful, wanton or intentional.”

Ham cited a 1999 high school hockey incident that he said spurred one of the first prosecutions for game conduct. A player cross-checked an opponent with a hockey stick moments after the game ended, delivering a blow that paralyzed the boy from the waist down. The accused player was charged with felony counts of aggravated battery and eventually pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts.

Contra Costa County District Attorney Mark Peterson did not respond to requests for comment. Walnut Creek police would not discuss details of the case, nor would Bellarmine officials. Attempts to reach the families of the players were unsuccessful.

Dan O’Malley, a Walnut Creek attorney representing the Acalanes boy, also would not discuss the case. But he said that, in general, it was “inappropriate to have a criminal justice system involved in any on-field activities, intentional or unintentional.”

Referring to baseball pitchers who throw at batters, football players who make late hits and hockey players who throw punches, he said: “Every day there could be hundreds if not thousands of cases that could be occurring.”

Jill Tucker and Demian Bulwa are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: j tucker @ sfchronicle.com, d bulwa @sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker @demianbulwa

Violence in sports

Over the years, some famous incidents of violence in professional and amateur sports have fueled the debate over how they should be handled. They include:

Baseball, 1965: Dodgers catcher John Roseboro, reportedly seeking to retaliate against Giants pitcher Juan Marichal during a game at Candlestick Park, whistled the ball past Marichal’s head during an at-bat. Marichal hit him over the head with his bat, causing a wound that needed stitches. Marichal was suspended for eight games and fined $1,750.

Basketball, 1977: As an on-court fight broke out, Los Angeles Lakers forward Kermit Washington punched Houston Rockets player Rudy Tomjanovich, who nearly died from head injuries. Washington was suspended 60 days and fined $10,000.

Hockey, 2000: Boston Bruins player Marty McSorley hit Vancouver Canuck Donald Brashear in the head with his stick, causing him to fall, hit his head on the ice and suffer a concussion. McSorley was suspended for the rest of the season, and was convicted in Canada of assault and given probation.

Football, 2006: Tennessee Titans tackle Albert Haynesworth stomped on Dallas Cowboys center Andre Gurode’s head, requiring 30 stitches to his face. Haynesworth was suspended for five games without pay.

Chronicle research