A night of drinking, fighting, death

LA JOLLA, Calif. - The surf thunders ashore at the foot of a hillside vista where Hank Hendricks, Doug Flutie's close friend and protégé, allegedly helped four assailants leave a man, beaten and bloodied, for dead.

A skateboarder slaloms past the crime scene, a street corner where fine cars gleam before million-dollar homes with million-dollar views of the sun-dappled sea shimmering to the horizon.

Four blocks away sprawls La Jolla High School, where Flutie and Hendricks formed a special bond in this picture-postcard enclave of wealth and privilege - a tie that endures as Flutie tries to help the young man he guided from California's Gold Coast to the University of New Hampshire football team fight a murder charge that could land him in prison for life.

Their families are so close that after Flutie helped Hendricks secure a football scholarship at UNH - and Flutie left the San Diego Chargers for the Patriots - the Hendrickses relocated to Flutie's hometown of Natick, Mass. There, Hank's younger brother, Nick, enrolled at Natick High School with his girlfriend, Alexa, Flutie's daughter.

"I would be very proud if Hank were my son," Flutie said in an interview. "He's a great kid."

In big trouble.

Several weeks before Flutie and Hendricks attended a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert together in June in Gilford, N.H., Hendricks, 21, began his summer break from UNH by returning to La Jolla to visit relatives and old friends. The wrong friends, it turned out.

Hendricks and his pals grew up on La Jolla's tony streets, several of them in the Bird Rock section, named for a giant boulder that juts out of the ocean near the craggy coastline. The five friends played football at La Jolla High School and occasionally surfed at beaches where rivals have been known to settle differences with their fists.

While Hendricks was away, his friends formed the Bird Rock Bandits, an alleged criminal street gang. Within hours of stepping off a plane from New England May 23, Hendricks hooked up with the group. He later told police they drank a few beers, smoked some marijuana, and left about 10:30 p.m. for the La Jolla Brew House, according to court records.

The bar scene was the beginning of the end of life as they knew it.

"I never understood the partying thing to begin with," said Flutie, the former Boston College great. "I've never taken a drink in my life."

With the booze still flowing after midnight, Hendricks's friend, Eric House, exchanged words with Emery Kauanui Jr., a professional surfer who was familiar with Hendricks and his friends, witnesses told police. As the confrontation escalated, employees ordered Kauanui and Hendricks's friends out of the bar. (Hendricks already had left for a nearby convenience store.)

Having drunk too much to drive, Kauanui, 24, let a former girlfriend drive him a few blocks home, police said. The Bird Rock Bandits allegedly followed.

Before they left the bar, three of Hendricks's friends were recorded by a videographer for a promotional event touting their alleged gang ties. A DVD showed House, Seth Cravens, and Matthew Yanke "throwing up BRB hand signs, stating 'BRB for life,' 'Bird Rock Bandits, baby,' and 'bandits, bandits, bandits for life,' several times," according to an affidavit filed by prosecutors.

Authorities said police recovered evidence at the homes of several of Hendricks's friends documenting their gang affiliation. The evidence included a notebook filled with BRB markings, Nazi symbols, and images denigrating African-Americans and Jews, according to court records. Police have yet to report finding any such evidence regarding Hendricks.

Flutie would have been shocked if they had.

"I'm very close to the entire family," he said. "Hank is a hard-working, disciplined kid, a good student, the whole package."

Quarterbacks bond

They met in 2002 when Flutie and Hendricks were backup quarterbacks, Flutie for the Chargers, Hendricks for La Jolla High. Alexa Flutie was a member of La Jolla's cheerleading team, and when Flutie arrived early to pick up his daughter after practice, he watched the football team and noticed Hendricks. One backup decided to help the other.

"I thought Hank had more athleticism and ability than the starter," Flutie said. "He had a strong arm and all the potential in the world."

Flutie agreed to coach Hendricks on Tuesdays, his days off from the NFL.

"It was a really neat relationship that developed between Doug and Hank," La Jolla coach Dave Ponsford said. "Doug really became an advocate and mentor for Hank."

They worked out on the field, with Flutie refining Hendricks's footwork and passing, and spent hours in the film room, with Flutie tutoring Hendricks on game situations. On the Tuesdays when Flutie felt like skipping a session, he said, Hendricks called and coaxed him to the field.

"Most kids make excuses not to work, but Hank is very goal-oriented," Flutie said. "He was fired up about us working together."

Since most colleges recruit players as high school juniors, Hendricks attracted little attention as a backup quarterback. His dream of landing a football scholarship appeared doomed until Flutie stepped in. He asked Ponsford for game film of Hendricks and sent it to a coaching friend at UNH, clearing the way for Hendricks to land a scholarship.

Thanks to Flutie, Hendricks arrived at UNH in the winter of 2005. His family followed him east, with his parents wanting to be close enough to attend his games, and his brother, Nick, wanting to attend Natick High School with Alexa and play football there with Flutie's nephew, Billy Flutie, now a receiver at Boston College. The Hendrickses moved into a house 3 miles from Flutie's.

With Flutie back home after signing with the Patriots in April 2005, his friendship with Hendricks grew. Hendricks, who had helped stage bowling tournaments in San Diego for Flutie's autism foundation, contributed in Massachusetts as well, working at Flutie's celebrity golf tournament. Flutie visited Hendricks a few times at UNH and once took Hank and Nick to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, setting them up with seats atop the Green Monster.

For all practical purposes, Hank became part of Flutie's family. Flutie and his wife, Laurie, also have a son, Doug Jr.

"He has been awesome with my kids," Flutie said. "He has been like a big brother to my daughter."

Violent encounter

Which makes it difficult for Flutie to fathom what happened on that moonlit hillside in La Jolla early on the morning of May 24.

Hendricks put himself in jeopardy by hopping into an SUV outside the bar with his friends and riding to Kauanui's house. In a statement he made voluntarily to police six days after the incident, Hendricks said House and Kauanui agreed by phone while the SUV approached Kauanui's house that they would fight to settle their differences, according to prosecutors.

Hendricks told police Cravens was "hyping" up House during the ride, telling House he could "take him."

Kauanui, however, got the better of House, according to witnesses. As they tangled on a sidewalk across from Kauanui's house, Kauanui punched House several times and knocked out one of his teeth, prosecutors allege. Witnesses reported that House told Kauanui, "You got me, it's over."

Instead, witnesses told police, Cravens rushed in and punched Kauanui, sending him reeling into a tree, where he struck his head and lost consciousness. Yanke and Orlando Osuna, another Bird Rock Bandit, then repeatedly kicked Kauanui as he lay motionless, bleeding badly from his head, according to prosecutors.

Court records contain no reference to Hendricks striking Kauanui, who died four days later of brain injuries. But Hendricks made several decisions that night that haunt him.

An All-Academic athlete in high school who made the dean's list at UNH, Hendricks acknowledged to police that he intervened when Kauanui's former girlfriend, Jennifer Grosso, tried to defuse the violence.

"He pulled Grosso off Eric House and said, 'You don't know what the [expletive] is going on,' " according to prosecutors.

Authorities said Grosso was the only person who tried to stop the fight.

"According to Hendricks, he held Grosso at bay while she hit and slapped his arms trying to get away," the prosecution's affidavit states.

The document states that Hendricks also acknowledged yelling to his friends, "Get the hell out of here," after Cravens struck the allegedly fatal blow. While Cravens and Yanke fled in the SUV, Hendricks told police he and Osuna left on foot after they tried unsuccessfully to persuade House to join them. (House stayed to search for his missing tooth and was arrested.)

The four friends then gathered six blocks away at Yanke's house, where, Hendricks told police, they did not discuss the incident for fear of waking Yanke's mother. Authorities said Hendricks also acknowledged driving Cravens to a residence beyond the jurisdiction of local police and said he returned to the crime scene to gauge the vantage points of witnesses.

While four of the alleged Bird Rock Bandits were arrested within days of Kauanui's death, prosecutors initially informed Hendricks he was not a suspect and could return for his junior year at UNH, Ponsford said Hendricks told him.

"Then it looks like they identified him being involved in some other fights," Ponsford said.

Prosecutors, trying to build a case that Kauanui's attackers were gang members, developed allegations that Hendricks had participated in previous assaults with the other four suspects. When prosecutors charged Hendricks with murder Sept. 4, they said he acted as a member of a criminal street gang in Kauanui's death as well as assaults against three individuals last New Year's Eve in La Jolla.

Authorities said Hendricks acknowledged fleeing after one of the alleged assaults on New Year's Eve because he "did not want to be contacted by police with blood on his hands."

Several residents of Kauanui's neighborhood said they were aware of the Bird Rock Bandits, though none cited Hendricks.

"A lot of people were afraid of them," said Jennifer Ziegaus, who lives in the neighborhood. "They were known as a group that started trouble."

Ponsford, who coached all five suspects, said he was most surprised to learn Hendricks was involved.

"Other than Hank, those kids came into the school with some disciplinary baggage," Ponsford said. "They never gave us problems in the football program, but I know a couple of them were really heavy into the partying, drinking, and fighting scene, and when they got out of high school, they hung around town and continued that behavior."

The allegation that the five friends acted as a criminal street gang, however, struck many in La Jolla as odd, including some of Kauanui's friends. As Henry Jones lashed a surfboard to the roof of his Jeep near the crime scene, he said he surfed with Kauanui and knew some of the men charged in his death, none of whom he considered a gangbanger.

"No one is dying for their gang colors here," Jones said. "They were more like a bunch of kids who grew up together and thought they were bad [guys] and called themselves the Bird Rock Bandits. A couple of them have violent tendencies, and if there is a fight, they will jump into it. Alcohol aggravates that. But I'm sure nobody meant to kill anyone."

Letters of support

No one is more perplexed than Flutie that Hendricks was charged as a criminal gang member. Hendricks had spent very little time in La Jolla since high school.

"It's absolutely ridiculous," Flutie said. "It's absurd."

Hendricks, who backed up UNH's star quarterback, Ricky Santos, his first two years on the team, was suspended indefinitely by the university after he was charged. Prosecutors asked that Hendricks be held on $2 million bail, triggering a torrent of letters to the court, 75 in all, from Hendricks's supporters, including doctors, military officers, teachers, coaches, and Tucker Frederickson, a former New York Giants running back who is a business partner of Jack Nicklaus.

"Hank has always been a model citizen," Flutie wrote the judge. "He is a respectful person who is well-liked by his parents, teachers, and peers. He has no history or reputation of violence."

Others described Hendricks as "a Renaissance man for the way he excels in every aspect of life" and "a thoughtful young man with a strong sense of morality and purpose."

Nicole Sparks informed the judge she was a friend of both Hendricks and Kauanui.

"This may sound cliché, but [Hendricks] is truly a lover, not a fighter," she wrote. "Although he may have associated himself with a group of very uncivilized and immature people, he does not possess the anger or rage to intentionally harm anyone."

The judge lowered bail and Hendricks was released on a $500,000 property bond. He was ordered to stay away from several individuals, the crime scene, and "any beaches in San Diego County."

Now, as Hendricks prepares to make his way through the court system, Flutie watches from afar, all but certain Hendricks should be exonerated. All five suspects have pleaded not guilty.

"Hank was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got clumped in together with the other kids," Flutie said.

Kauanui's mother, Cindy, however, expressed no mercy for Hendricks.

"I don't care about Hank Hendricks or football stars," Mrs. Kauanui said tearfully from Hawaii. "What goes on in a kid's brain that makes him part of an attack on my son, five against one, in front of his own house? My son was a skinny kid, 5-10, 155 pounds. He didn't stand a chance against those football players."

She said none of the suspects or their families have contacted her.

"I don't care what the attorneys might tell them," Mrs. Kauanui said. "Isn't it human to say you're sorry for your behavior? Where's their humanity?"

As tragic as Flutie considers Kauanui's death, he said, he fears for his young friend and protégé. He knows a different Hank Hendricks from the one in the headlines, and the prospect of Hendricks doing prison time disturbs him.

"It would be one of the biggest injustices I've ever seen in my life," Flutie said.

Bob Hohler can be reached at hohler@globe.com.