Assault Charges Still Face Reporter, WSU Aide Contrary To WSU Statements, Incident Has Led To Oct. 19 Court Dates For Both

FROM SPORTS REPLAY (Saturday October 9, 1999): Replay A story in Friday’s edition incorrectly stated the SeattleTimes was considering not staffing the Washington State University football game today.

As of Thursday, fourth-degree assault charges against Seattle PostIntellegencer sportswriter Angelo Bruscas and Washington State assistant sports information director Jeff Evans had not been dropped.

This news comes despite earlier statements from the university and WSU Police Chief Bill Mercier that the charges had been dropped.

“I talked to him (Mercier) Monday and he told me that the charges against Angelo had been dropped,” said Steve Smith, an attorney for the Post-Intellegencer. “At that time, he said a decision on Jeff (Evans) had not been made yet.”

Evans said he met with Mercier on Tuesday and was under the impression that the matter had been resolved.

But the charges were forwarded Monday to the Whitman County prosecutor’s office and a Oct. 19 court date has been set. Mercier did not return phone calls. Whitman County prosecutor Jim Kaufman confirmed that the charges have not been dropped but said he has yet to see a full report from the WSU police and therefore cannot comment.

Bruscas and Evans were both charged on Saturday night after an incident with a WSU event security guard following the Cougars football game with Cal.

The security guard, who was supposed to have been instructed to allow reporters immediate access to Bohler Addition to interview WSU players, would not allow the media into the building. The security officer, Chris Rudd, claims the pair pushed him while trying to enter the building to do their jobs. Bruscas and Evans deny that charge.

Bruscas, who received apologies from WSU coach Mike Price, athletic director Rick Dickson and sports information director Rod Commons, had put the incident behind him following assurances on Monday that the charges had been dropped.

“I thought this matter was over and I was ready to move on,” said Bruscas. “I’m amazed and incredulous that charges have not been dropped. Now, I may have to consider legal action on my own.”

The cases can still be dropped, but now “it is a matter of jumping through some technical hoops,” said Hugh Imhof, WSU’s senior associate director for news and information.

Three days ago, Imhof believed the hoops had already been jumped through. He had been told the charges would be dropped against both Bruscas and Evans and issued this statement to the news media: “We’re dropping the charges against both of them. We’re just looking at this as a situation that escalated to where it shouldn’t have.”

WSU police did not interview any of the five to 10 media members present at the time of the alleged assault, according to police documents. Instead they relied on information provided by the event security officers.

While conducting his own investigation, Smith, the Post-Intellegencer attorney, did speak with many of the media representatives and concluded that Bruscas did not touch the WSU event security officer while trying to enter the interview room.

Imhof said university officials are doing everything possible to correct what they see as an egregious error and get the charges dropped. He said the security guard would be reassigned.

Dickson assured beat writers from Washington and Idaho news outlets that the problem would not happen again. “It’s unfortunate that the series of events that happened did happen,” he said. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

The Post-Intellegencer is considering not sending a reporter to Saturday’s game. The Seattle Times, the state’s largest paper, also has threatened not to send its reporter.