The Latest on Scott

Well, there's a lot being written about the Eric Scott arrest but very few facts are surfacing.

The LA Times has this to say about the incident.

LA County Sheriff Sgt. Craig Harmon said, "A neighbor saw the three suspects on the porch of a single-family home, then saw them force their way in. When deputies arrived, the three were seen walking from the location, and were found with property from the house they admitted to taking."

Here is a totally different account from Rick Kimbrel over at Bruin Blitz.

The home of the alleged burglary is, we are told, actually the residence of DeAlba's cousin. A neighbor saw DeAlba and Williams walking around the house and phoned the police. When the police arrived, they questioned DeAlba and Williams. Scott was waiting his Mercedes Benz for his two former players and when he saw the police talking to them, he joined the conversation to try and sort things out. The reason for the arrest is they couldn't find DeAlba's cousin.

The Daily News has a similar account from their sources.

Sources said DeAlba's cousin lives at the house, and when the group stopped by to pay a visit, DeAlba walked around the property in search of him. Sources added Scott remained in the car until police arrived, and was arrested only when he exited the car in an attempt to learn what was happening with DeAlba, 23, and Williams, 23.

"We're actually still trying to figure this thing out ourselves," Sheriffs Sgt. Leonard Rivas said. "We have no victim. They're charged with burglary, but it's still an ongoing investigation. We're still trying to figure it out ourselves."

Rivas said a handgun was also found on the property. The handgun was not registered to Scott, DeAlba or Williams, and it was unclear whether the gun belonged to a resident of the home, he added.

Maybe I'm biased with my middle-class suburban background, but I don't think the cops would just arrest someone and charge them with felony burglary because they happened to be milling around in front of someones house. At the very least it would be trespassing. They must have taken something out of the house, right?

It was also brought to light that Scott has had four prior arrests from 1994 and 2005 and he pleaded guilt on two of those charges, both misdemeanors. One was a concealed weapons charge and the other was for disturbing the peace. The gun charges originally started out as felonies but his lawyer got them reduced to a misdemeanor after he challenged the legality of the search the cops performed.

Brian Dohn also reported that UCLA may not have know about all the prior arrests. That's probably true considering they were misdemeanors and you typically only have to report felonies on a job application. Still, makes you wonder if Guerrero or Dorrell do background searches on candidates they are hiring. It always amazes me how the press can dig this information up in just a few hours, but it catches the employer off guard.

Karl Dorrell announced yesterday that he put Eric Scott on administrative leave until the facts are all sorted out.

“I have decided to place Eric on administrative leave while the matter is being investigated,” said Dorrell. “We will continue to gather information regarding the case and will make a determination on Eric’s status at the appropriate time.”

Dorrell added some comments this afternoon at PAC-10 media day.

"One of my assistant coaches I put on administrative leave yesterday, given an allegation against him that is out there...we can't really comment much about what has happened, but I'm the type of guy and coach that the players and coaches are held accountable at UCLA....we're gonna' find out more about that case and those issues...I'm going to act as the receivers coach, if it ever gets to that point. It's not going to affect this team, and our expectations of this program this year....I'm very optimistic about how this outcome [the Scott situation] will be uncovered."

If the Bruins do lose Scott as a receiver coach that probably isn't that big of a deal for the team this season. As coach Dorrell stated, he can take over the job. Dorrell was a receiver coach in the NFL. The bigger hit is the job Scott has done in recruiting this year.

It sounds like there might be some misunderstanding from this whole thing and coach Scott got caught up in a bad situation. However, you expect more from a grown adult, especially someone in a position to influence young players. Even if the charges are dropped this is a black eye for the program.