UCF Basketball Player Dwight McCombs Says Girl Battered Him

Basketball, News, Sports — By Kevin Wolkenfeld on July 27, 2011 at 7:15 pm

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UCF basketball player Dwight J. McCombs, who is 6-foot-8 and weighs 250 pounds, told UCF police he’s pressing dating violence battery charges against Tyler Ashley Smith, a 5-foot-6, 145-pound female UCF track athlete.

McCombs, who is from the Chicago area, told police he went to her Tower IV apartment to talk to Devante Starks, a male friend she had over. Starks is not listed on UCF’s roster as a football player, however, ESPN lists a man by the same name as a potential college football recruit.

The report is vague about what was talked about, but states McCombs asked Starks, “Did you know?” The report also says McCombs asked Smith, “Did you tell him?”

That’s when, according to the report, Smith charged McCombs. The report states McCombs told the officer that the suspect struck him on his face and kicked him in the right leg. In the report, the officer wrote, “I didn’t see any marks, and the victim declined medical attention at the scene.”

KnightNews.com legal analyst and Orlando defense attorney Lisa Figueroa says that observation by the officer could work to the suspect’s advantage.

“Unless they have witnesses to the actual fight or her hitting him, it would be her word against his,” Figueroa said. “It could also mean she may argue he’s just mad because he caught her with another guy or something like that — that he’s just making it all up.”

While Figueroa made it clear she’d never be one to say it’s impossible for a woman to attack a man, she also pointed out that it’s very possible the State Attorney’s Office will drop the charges because “at the end of the day people really aren’t going to feel sorry” when they see a 250-pound basketball player on the stand accusing a 145-pound girl of a battery that didn’t leave any marks.

McCombs had to be restrained by another male before police responded to the the scene, according to the report. Smith had already run out of the area and was later arrested in Parking Garage E on campus.

Figueroa pointed out that if she were defending Smith, she would raise the question: Why was someone holding McCombs back when police arrived on scene — after Smith was already leaving.

“Who was he going to go fight, her?” Figueroa asked. “That doesn’t look good on his part.”

Figueroa also explained that in some cases you can hit someone first and still claim self-defense, such as in cases when someone invades your space, is moving his or her arms all around and getting worked up and you feel a threat is imminent. She said you can’t, however, successfully claim self-defense if you go on the attack against someone after the incident is over, such as 10 minutes later when the imminent threat is over, just because you’re still upset.

KnightNews.com has been working for nearly a week to uncover the details in this story after we first broke that there was mysterious police activity near Tower IV a day after an FBI raid at Tower III. It was quickly confirmed by the FBI that that agency wasn’t involved, but UCF athletics did not respond to inquiries about the situation until after KnightNews.com obtained the police report and contacted Smith directly for her side of the story.

Smith said she’d call back to explain more about the situation after she finished being tutored. However, UCF Associate Athletic Director Joe Hornstein called back about 10 minutes later instead to say that UCF policy doesn’t allow media to contact athletes directly. KnightNews.com didn’t know Smith was an athlete until Hornstein explained how the policy applied and asked Hornstein to submit KnightNews.com’s interview request for the athletes involved.

Hornstein declined to talk about the situation on the phone, but the next day released a statement by email in response to a follow up email from KnightNews.com regarding the interview requests placed for both athletes. “We are aware of the situation and will take appropriate action if and when it is necessary,” the statement read.

This run in with police involving UCF athletes comes after UCF Quarterback Jeff Godfrey was arrested by UCF police for driving with a suspended license.