UCF attorneys suffered another major loss in court this morning, when an Orange County judge ruled the trial to determine whether UCF should be held accountable for the death of football player Ereck Plancher won’t be delayed past June 13, despite strenuous objections from the defendants.
UCF argued it needed more time, and asked for a continuance to delay the trial for a few weeks. The judge, however, told UCF that if it does push the trial back, the next time he’d have time to hear it would be in middle September — right in the middle of the UCF football season.
See Plancher family lawyer Steven Yerrid discuss this morning’s ruling and hear why he thinks UCF needs to be punished for wrongdoing.
UCF spokesman Grant Heston told KnightNews.com yesterday, “A trial in the middle of the football season compromises our ability to fairly and adequately present our complete defense.” A court filing from the Plancher family, which KnightNews.com obtained exclusively yesterday, argued UCF had enough time to start the trial in June and opposed pushing the trial back. UCF disagreed.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the UCF lawyers ended up reluctantly accepting the June date because they didn’t want to accept the other option of waging a trial during the middle of the UCF Knights 2011 football season.
While UCF did not get the extra time it requested, the defendants did win one big victory from the judge.
“He also agreed with us and is allowing our expert witness and further heart examinations,” Heston said.
As KnightNews.com first broke yesterday, the Plancher family’s lawyers filed court documents trying to stop the judge from allowing UCF to bring in a new expert to further examine Plancher’s heart in order to explore a “remote ‘possibilty’” that Plancher may have died of some sort of heart problem instead of dying as a result of issues arising from his sickle cell trait combined with the “intensive exercise he completed,” as the unbiased medical examiners concluded.
“The heart of Ereck Plancher has already been cut apart and all sides had had equal access to the medical and pathological information necessary to try this case,” states the filing submitted April 26 by plaintiff attorney Steven Yerrid, which also indicates allowing further dissection would violate the sanctity of the Plancher family.
UCF has maintained from the beginning of the controversial death that it was a tragedy that UCF did everything it could have done to avoid. Heston reiterated UCF’s stance earlier this week when denying a public records request from KnightNews.com related to the case, filed in order to try and investigate the circumstances surrounding Plancher’s death.
“Our top priority is the health, safety and welfare of our student-athletes, and we provide superb medical care at UCF,” Heston said. “As we move forward, our goal remains the same: to operate a first-class football program, on and off the field, that makes our students, university family and Central Florida community proud.”
Based on numerous conversations KnightNews.com has had with lawyers specializing in public record law, UCF hasn’t yet provided KnightNews.com with the full legal explanation it is obligated to provide when it denied the public records request on Monday.
The plantiff’s attorney has suggested UCF is not interested in the full truth coming out regarding how Plancher died.
“We’re pursuing the truth,” Yerrid told media after the hearing. “And in pursuit of the truth there will be no compromises. There will be no settlements short of a truthful outcome. And What I saw today disturbs me — this defense team attacking a graduate of the University of Central Florida.”
Yerrid was referring to UCF’s attempts to dispute damning testimony from former UCF wide receiver Anthony Davis, who was right next to Plancher on the UCF practice field just minutes before Plancher died, according to WESH 2 news.
“Coach O’Leary was like, ‘Get up. Get your ass up,’ and it really didn’t make any sense … I was going to go help (Plancher) up, me and among other teammates, and he was like, ‘I want everybody to get the (expletive) back,'” Davis testified, during a videotaped deposition.
“Ereck had his head down, and (O’Leary) just blatantly called Ereck out like, ‘You are a disgrace to the team. How the hell are you on scholarship? That makes no (expletive deleted) sense,'” Davis added.
Davis also testified that Coach George O’Leary ordered the assistants remove all water and did not provide players with a break.
While UCF disputes Davis’ testimony, Yerrid alleges UCF just won’t admit wrongdoing and punitive damages are needed in order to save lives.
“It’s not about compensating the Plancher family, it’s about stopping football programs from disregarding the safety of the student athletes that participate in them,” Yerrid said, adding that punitive damages are “designed to punish the wrongdoer” for running an athlete into the ground.
Learn more about the issues the judge considered today by reading this story with the exclusive details we first broke yesterday.
KnightNews.com is committed to devoting our resources to complete coverage of the Ereck Plancher case, as other media in town focuses on the Casey Anthony trial starting in May. Check back to KnightNews.com for continuing coverage, and updates regarding our public records request we have outstanding in order to uncover the facts surrounding Ereck Plancher’s death and report them to you.
