Nearly a month after a downtown brawl at a local nightclub, UNM football player Joe Harris, 21, and former wide receiver Bryant Williams, 22, were charged Dec. 21 with aggravated battery and engaging in a public affray, according Bernalillo County Metro Court records.
The two players, along with their teammate linebacker Julion Conley, are suspected of brawling with Lotus Nightclub security early Thanksgiving morning. Conley was arrested Nov. 25 and charged with aggravated battery, according to court documents.
Harris was reinstated to the football team Jan. 4, but the Athletics Department said in a statement Thursday that Harris has been re-suspended pending the outcome of his case. It’s unclear if Conley and Harris will be dismissed from the team if convicted, and the Athletics Department said it will wait to announce a decision until after the case is resolved.
Nightclub owner Brian Craig said head coach Mike Locksley’s initial decision to reinstate Harris before his trail was a “joke.” Not backing down from a threat to take civil action, Craig said he and his employees met with a lawyer to explore whether they have grounds for a civil claim, but for now will hold off on filing one until the players have their day in court.
“I played college basketball, and if I did what these guys did, I would have been gone,” Craig said. “I would have lost my scholarship.”
Conley, who will be a senior next season, has been suspended since the fight, but the Albuquerque Journal reported Locksley reinstated Harris because he hadn’t been charged with a crime. Williams, who was a senior at the time of the brawl, has finished his UNM career.
Harris’ court date is set for Feb. 23 and Williams’ on March 3. Conley, meanwhile, will go before a judge Feb. 9. All three have pleaded innocent.
The trio was indefinitely suspended and missed the Lobos’ season finale against TCU when it was reported that they were allegedly involved in a fight after somebody with Conley’s party tried to get into the 21-and-older part of the club using a fake ID.
Club security personnel said they were outmanned, and the Athletics Department said previously that the three football players were downtown with members of an on-campus fraternity.
No one else was charged in connection with the fight, and Kim Kloeppel, with the Dean of Students Office, said her office determined no other Kappa Alpha Psi members scuffled with security. The three players are a part of the fraternity.
Outside of the punitive measures enacted by the fraternity’s adviser, Kloeppel said, no other disciplinary action will be rendered against the fraternity since the fight resulted from individual actions, not the fraternity’s. She said the Athletics Department is responsible for handling player punishment.
Shaun Griswold contributed to this report.
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