An inquiry that cleared UC Berkeley football coaches and trainers of employing abusive, punitive and medically reckless practice drills was conducted by two investigators with personal ties to Cal athletics staff and relied heavily on interviews with players hand-picked by athletic program administrators, The Chronicle has learned.

The 2014 inquiry followed two serious events: the death of defensive lineman Ted Agu after a highly strenuous workout and a teammate’s locker-room attack on freshman running back Fabiano Hale that knocked him unconscious and sent him to the emergency room with a concussion. Yet the incidents are barely mentioned in the brief report by two outside investigators.

Berkeley officials point to the findings as evidence that they have sufficiently addressed concerns about the safety and health of student athletes.

But critics say the positive review has allowed Damon Harrington, the team’s head strength and conditioning coach, to remain on the job even though he devised the drill that led to the death of Agu, an athlete with a known medical condition, and has been accused by several players and faculty of inciting the attack on Hale.

In April, the university settled a lawsuit by Agu’s parents for nearly $5 million, after admitting negligence in his death.

‘Incomprehensible’

“It’s unimaginable that (Harrington) still is on the payroll or on campus,” said Michael O’Hare, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. “It’s incomprehensible that none of the people in the whole chain of command has done anything — especially given the press recently on sexual harassment.”

O’Hare compares Harrington’s continued employment to the sex-harassment scandals that have bedeviled UC Berkeley in the last year, as campus officials handed out minor punishments to high-profile employees until their violations became public. Computer science Professor Brian Barsky, long a critic of campus athletic operations, accuses Harrington of “power harassment.”

Harrington, whose $150,000 annual contract has been renewed twice and is up for renewal again Friday, did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did head football coach Sonny Dykes, who brought Harrington with him to Cal from Louisiana Tech in spring 2013.

But campus officials said Harrington has not violated any University of California policy and that his training practices were thoroughly assessed by the three-day review in 2014.

No analysis of facts

That review, however, did not examine Harrington’s role in the two key incidents and contained no analysis of facts, said John Cummins, a former chief of staff to four Berkeley chancellors who oversaw Cal athletics in the mid-2000s, and Mike Smith, who served 36 years as UC Berkeley’s top attorney until 2009.

“An investigation into potentially serious employment misconduct would typically involve interviews of the parties and witnesses, an analysis of the evidence, findings and recommendations, and be carried out by a trained impartial campus investigator,” Smith said. The review’s report “doesn’t contain any analysis or conclusions about what occurred.”

Critics also question the integrity of the investigation because the investigators — John Murray, a private strength and conditioning coach, and Jeffrey Tanji, medical director for sports at UC Davis — had personal ties with Cal staff. Murray disclosed in the report that he was a “friend and colleague” of Mike Blasquez, who oversees all of Cal’s strength and conditioning programs. And Tanji said he had trained Casey Batten, the football team physician. Both said in the report those relationships did not influence their findings.

‘Conflict of interest’

“Obviously, there is a conflict of interest there, or at least an appearance of a conflict,” Cummins said. “The death of a football player, and a player-on-player assault that led to one player being hospitalized with a major concussion — these are very serious matters. You need an independent body or individual to look very carefully at this.”

UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks told The Chronicle he is satisfied with campus efforts following safety improvements made to the football training program. Although the 2014 inquiry found no flaws with the program, the settlement reached with Agu’s parents required increased oversight.

“My understanding is that Cal Athletics has taken important steps in support of continued compliance with regulations, policies and best practices related to strength and conditioning training,” Dirks said through a spokesman. “They have also added new layers of oversight for the football team’s strength and conditioning programs that go above and beyond what is required.”

Protege of Dykes

Harrington, 38, is a protege of Dykes, who was hired in December 2012 to revitalize the football program. In Dykes’ first season, Cal football finished last in the Pac-12 with one of the worst records in school history. The team has since improved, posting an 8-5 record and winning a bowl game last season.

Barsky believes Cal is protecting Harrington, just as others say the campus has appeared to do with other high-profile faculty and staff found to have violated sexual-harassment policies. He said he checked the coach’s contract in April and was shocked to see that Cal had renewed it twice after Agu’s death.

Two former football players told The Chronicle they believe Harrington incited the Nov. 1, 2013, locker-room attack on Hale, in which a teammate knocked him unconscious. After Agu’s death Feb. 7, 2014, another athlete brought similar concerns about the coach to four UC Berkeley officials: two athletic directors, a vice chancellor and a professor. Other players also have spoken with campus officials about the coach.

The Chronicle also learned from ex-players that coaches, including Harrington and Dykes, who are white, called a training group of largely black players the “Noose Group,” a name some on the team considered racist.

Wesley Mallette, a spokesman for Cal athletics, denied the allegations that Harrington incited the assault on Hale. He said the “noose” term applied only to a drill and catching technique, and that coaches stopped using it after a player complained.

Berkeley is ‘so soft’

Agu’s death and the locker-room incident prompted Joey Mahalic, a Cal quarterback at the time, to seek out top campus officials, who referred him to UC Berkeley police.

Mahalic could not be reached for comment. But in a transcript of his March 2014 interview with police, obtained by The Chronicle, he said Harrington emphasized toughness over strength and punishment over fairness.

“As soon as Harrington got to Cal, it was all about, ‘this area is so soft.’ He would say that we’re at a disadvantage being in Berkeley because of the kind of people that are around us,” Mahalic told detectives.

He said Harrington required “toughness workouts” for some players on Friday mornings that turned into “torture workouts” at least twice after some arrived late or missed practice.

“Making people puke, making people scream,” Mahalic said. “One kid came, you know, two minutes late to that workout and Damon would be singling him out. He’d be like, these are for (that kid). Thank (that kid) for these. And people are, you know, screaming at (that kid). Just calling him out, saying all this stuff to him. ... It was pretty serious.”

On the day he was attacked, Hale, then 18, missed the morning workout. “That was by far the worst one,” Mahalic told police. He said Harrington ordered the players present to roll over and over for 100 yards, then do 50 “up-downs” — running in place, dropping to the ground and jumping back up — then roll 100 yards again. It was a workout, he said, where “you’re going to get unbelievably dizzy and sick. ... It was just to punish us.”

Afterward, Harrington told players he would not punish Hale, Mahalic said. Instead, he told them: “This is your problem. You need to fix this. By any means necessary,” and slammed his fist into his palm, Mahalic said.

‘Y’all need to handle it’

When Hale arrived at the team locker room that evening, a teammate knocked him out, campus officials said. Despite repeated requests from The Chronicle, university police have not released their report of the incident.

Two former players, cornerback Trey Cheek and defensive tackle Gabe King, corroborated Mahalic’s account of Harrington’s actions.

“We had a couple guys who were late, and one guy who didn’t show up,” Cheek told The Chronicle. Harrington “said, ‘Y’all need to handle it. He’s making you suffer for this and that.’ A lot of guys felt like they had to go in there and put their hands on someone.”

King said: “It stemmed from, ‘You guys need to take this team into your own hands’ — almost frontier vigilantism.”

The player who attacked Hale was suspended, sent to counseling and told to perform 25 hours of community service. The Chronicle is not naming him because Alameda County prosecutors declined to file charges. Both he and Hale returned to the team and remain on the squad.

King, who was in the so-called “Noose Group,” said he felt deeply uncomfortable with the coaches’ label. When he told Dykes it was racist, he said the head coach told him the label was inspired by a Texas coach who “noosed” cows. Other ex-players confirmed King’s account.

In the case of Agu, Harrington created a drill in which players holding a heavy rope together had to sprint repeatedly up and down a steep hill. Agu was on his 10th lap when he dropped to the ground, and then collapsed soon after. He died after being taken to the hospital.

Harrington and team doctors knew Agu, 21, had sickle cell trait, a blood abnormality that can lead to death under extreme exertion. In their lawsuit, Agu’s parents singled out Harrington, who admitted to lawyers that he devised the workout without advice from trainers or doctors. He also told them that he knew of no special measures required for athletes with sickle cell trait.

$4.75 million settlement

“There’s no reason to change what the sickling athlete does,” Harrington said in a deposition. “I don’t think there are any precautions.”

UC admitted negligence and settled the case for $4.75 million.

Dr. Randy Eichner, an expert in sickle cell trait and sports medicine hired by Agu’s family, called Harrington “dangerously uninformed.” Although the Tanji-Murray review found that the staff’s monitoring of the player was appropriate, Eichner said the workout violated eight out of 12 NCAA guidelines for athletes with the medical condition.

Coaches are supposed to let such players set their own pace, keep them from performing all-out exertion for more than several minutes, and seek immediate medical care if they exhibit distress, Eichner said.

By contrast, Harrington’s workout required all players to keep pace with everyone else holding the rope. One player likened it to “taping your hands to a car and having the car go. ... You can’t let go.”

“Ted should never have been in (the workout) in the first place. It had nothing to do with sound physiologic training to play the game of football,” Eichner told The Chronicle. He called the drill “reckless endangerment.”

UC police assure coach

Both Agu’s death and the attack on Hale were investigated by police. No charges resulted.

In an interview with Harrington during the Agu investigation, UC Police Detective Harry Bennigson assured the coach that “there is nothing suspicious about it,” according to transcripts obtained by The Chronicle. Bennigson added, “By no means are we trying to put a blame on anything,” and said, “To me, it looks like it’s going to be some kind of a natural cause. So, you know, it’s just unfortunate and it happens.

“I hate to see a death, but this is going to bring everybody (on the team) closer,” Bennigson told the coach. “It’s going to make them probably play even tougher.”

His superior, Lt. Marc DeCoulode, later joined Bennigson in a second interview with Harrington to go over Agu’s medical history and the workout.

In his interview with UC police, Mahalic, the former quarterback, said he first became concerned about Harrington after the locker-room incident. He said he already had taken his concerns to Sandy Barbour, then the athletics director; her deputy, Solly Fulp; John Wilton, then a vice chancellor; and Bob Jacobsen, a physics professor and faculty athletics representative.

Jacobsen said he spoke with at least seven players who had similar misgivings about Harrington or wanted answers about the circumstances of Agu’s death. He referred them to UC police.

“What they told me needed to be investigated,” Jacobsen said.

Fulp said: “We quickly engaged the appropriate campus resources to investigate this matter and followed all protocols and procedures.”

That was when Wilton enlisted Tanji and Murray to review Cal football’s training practices, asking them to determine if any practices endangered players’ safety; if any drills were used for punishment; if abusive language or actions were used toward players; and if players were adequately medically monitored.

The pair interviewed coaches, trainers, the team doctor and 13 of the 100 or so team members. Seven players were chosen by the athletics staff; six were randomly selected by a computer, according to their report. Fifteen players tapped to participate declined or ignored the invitation. Cal athletics staff knew the identity of them all.

Death report amended

“Nearly every athlete interviewed appreciated and understood the highly competitive nature of the strength and conditioning program as led by head strength coach Damon Harrington,” Tanji and Murray concluded.

Tanji also found no wrongdoing in the medical monitoring of Agu, but relied on the coroner’s incorrect initial assessment that Agu had died of a heart condition. The cause of death was later changed to complications from sickle cell trait. The amended report noted he also had an enlarged heart.

Regarding Hale, who was knocked unconscious, they wrote: “One member of the football team punched another member.” They added: “The sentiment was that this athlete ‘sent a message from the rest of the team’ to the athlete who missed the workout. The other athletes not directly involved in the incident felt that this was not encouraged” by staff.

Critics say the fact that athletics officials knew which athletes were interviewed raises doubt about the report’s conclusions.

“Coaches exert enormous power over athletes,” said Cummins, the former chief of staff. “If these players are intent on professional careers, the last thing they’ll do is criticize a coach.”

Tanji said he and Murray interviewed the students individually and never disclosed what each said. He said he believed the athletes spoke honestly. “I didn't sense a cover-up or a whitewash, or programmed answers,” Tanji said. Murray declined to comment.

Football training reforms

While their review called for no changes to the football training program, the settlement with the Agu family required several reforms.

Harrington’s direct supervisor must now review plans for football workouts and observe all but the most routine team workouts, said Mallette, the Cal athletics spokesman. Workouts also get at least one review for safety, and some are reviewed by medical staff.

In their lawsuit against UC, Agu’s parents accused Cal of negligence in hiring Harrington and former head football trainer Robert Jackson, who both testified that they had known of Agu’s sickle cell trait since he joined the team.

Jackson resigned during the litigation. Harrington has remained.

“Why is he still here?” Professor Barsky asked on a faculty listserv in April after the settlement with the Agu family was announced. In an interview, he expressed frustration that Harrington’s contract has been renewed and could be extended again Friday.

“They did it with full knowledge that these incidents have occurred,” Barsky said. “It’s so immoral.” We’re talking about terrible, immoral things.”

Nanette Asimov and Kimberly Veklerov are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com, kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov, @KVeklerov