Ex-Harvard captain gets probation
A former Harvard football captain charged with assaulting a female student in her campus dorm room has been sentenced to pretrial probation over the prosecution's objection.
Cambridge District Court Judge George R. Sprague delivered the sentence after the 22-year-old victim asked Sprague to dismiss the case against Matthew C. Thomas, an All-Ivy League linebacker who had entered no plea to charges of domestic assault and battery, and malicious destruction of property.
Sprague ordered Thomas, 22, of Mount Airy, Md., to perform 50 hours of community service, complete anger management therapy, and continue an alcohol treatment program. If Thomas satisfies the terms of his pretrial probation through June 5, 2007 -- one year from the date of the incident -- the charges will be dismissed.
Sprague delivered the sentence Wednesday, two days before the case was scheduled for trial.
``We objected based on the facts of the case," said Melissa Sherman, a spokeswoman for Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley. ``We were prepared to go forward with it."
Harvard police had charged that Thomas broke into his former girlfriend's room, where witnesses saw him ``strangling [her] with one hand" before ``he suddenly lifted her and drove his knee into her chest." The woman was taken by ambulance to Mount Auburn Hospital, where she was treated for her injuries, including a welt on her lower back.
The victim later told prosecutors a different story, saying she also was drinking and confronted Thomas about phone calls he had made to another woman. The woman ``indicated that she began yelling at [Thomas] and he started to flail his arms and may have hit her and this may have caused her to fall back on her futon, hitting her back on the bar, but she could not be sure," according to her report to the prosecution.
The woman also denied that Thomas choked her and kneed her in the chest. She said Thomas apologized to her and her family and they had forgiven him.
Thomas was stripped of his football captaincy and dismissed from the team after the incident. His status has not changed since the judge's ruling, according to Chuck Sullivan, communications director for Harvard athletics.
Meanwhile, another banished Harvard player, Keegan Toci, has continued to press an informal grievance since coach Tim Murphy dismissed him for a sketch he performed Sept. 7 on the team's traditional Skit Night. Toci's supporters believe he was unfairly cut for presenting 20 reasons why Harvard's Division 1-AA football program would never rise to Division 1-A.
A witness said some of Toci's reasons were bitingly blunt but rang true to many players. They included his assertion that the team has failed to fully exploit the talent of Rich Irvin, a former quarterback for Division 1-A Tulane who transferred to Harvard after the 2004 season. Irvin has effectively become the Crimson's fourth-string quarterback behind Liam O'Hagan, Chris Pizzotti, and Jeff Witt.
Murphy said he dismissed Toci for ``a mean-spirited attack on the training staff, coaching staff, players, strength coaches, and Harvard University in general."
Toci's supporters said the dismissal was particularly unfair because Murphy issued no discipline to players who performed sketches that some considered more offensive. They included a skit performed by two freshmen suggesting that Harvard's star running back, Clifton Dawson, had performed oral sex on Murphy.
Murphy said the combination of Toci's skit and the other off-color performances prompted him to ban future Skit Nights.
Athletic director Bob Scalise declined to comment on Toci's informal grievance or Murphy's handling of the episode.
Toci was the fifth Harvard player to be disciplined this year, along with Thomas, and O'Hagan, who was suspended for five games for violating an unspecified team rule. Two other players received one-game suspensions for an altercation with a bus driver, whom the school fired.
