Nic Athlete Focus Of Beating Probe Wrestling Team Has Been Involved In A Series Of Run-Ins

One of three North Idaho College wrestlers involved in an altercation this week is being investigated for battery after breaking another man’s arm and knocking him unconscious, police said.

Police did not identify the athlete but said Wednesday the 25-year-old wrestler is the focus of an investigation into Tuesday’s beating.

Coeur d’Alene police Capt. Carl Bergh added that the case is far from being resolved because witnesses and participants gave conflicting accounts.

“The person that’s listed as a suspect in this case indicated that the victim actually started the altercation,” Bergh said.

Dean Stevens, the 26-year-old Coeur d’Alene man who was injured in the fight, underwent surgery Wednesday at Kootenai Medical Center and was listed in fair condition, said Mike Regan, hospital spokesman.

The fight, the second involving NIC wrestlers in six months, comes at a time when the team is trying to polish an image tarnished in recent years.

Four NIC wrestlers were charged with misdemeanor battery in April for their role in a fight at a Post Falls home. Another was kicked off the team after a drunken-driving incident last winter.

In 1994, a wrestler died in an alcohol-related incident at a party.

NIC wrestling coach Pat Whitcomb, who took over the team in March, did not return a call to his office.

A verbal exchange between two of the wrestlers and a 15-year-old Lake City High School student touched off the fight about 8 p.m. Tuesday outside Zip’s Drive-In on East Sherman, according to police reports.

Witnesses told police the high school student became angry with the wrestlers - who were pointing, laughing and making comments about her - and began yelling at them.

Both wrestlers left the parking lot but returned five minutes later with a third man. All three got out of the car and confronted the girl. One of the wrestlers demanded an apology.

Stevens, a friend of the girl, stepped into the dispute moments later. He argued briefly with one of the wrestlers, and a fight broke out. Statements given by the wrestlers and witnesses offer conflicting accounts of what happened next.

The wrestler told police that Stevens challenged him to a fight and punched him in the left eye, according to a police report. He responded by knocking Stevens’ legs out from under him, punching him and kicking him.

“He never touched (Stevens) until he was hit,” according the statement the wrestler gave police.

Several witnesses said the wrestler, listed on the police report as 6 feet 1 inches tall and 190 pounds, started the fight by slamming Stevens to the ground. He then kicked Stevens in the head and torso, punched him in the face and knocked him unconscious.

Stevens told police at the hospital that he did not remember what had happened.

All three wrestlers fled the parking lot, driving over the curb when another car pulled in at the same time. They called police from their home a few minutes later, according to police reports.

Detectives will spend the next few days interviewing witnesses and forward their findings to the city prosecutor’s office, Bergh said.

, DataTimes