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	Athletics Director Paul Krebs, right, answers a reporter’s question during a press conference in the SUB on Wednesday. Krebs, Vice President for Human Resources Helen Gonzales and UNM President David Schmidly sought to clarify the incident involving a physical altercation between head football coach Mike Locksley and assistant coach J.B. Gerald. “We’re embarrassed by the whole situation,” Schmidly said in his opening remarks.

Athletics Director Paul Krebs, right, answers a reporter’s question during a press conference in the SUB on Wednesday. Krebs, Vice President for Human Resources Helen Gonzales and UNM President David Schmidly sought to clarify the incident involving a physical altercation between head football coach Mike Locksley and assistant coach J.B. Gerald. “We’re embarrassed by the whole situation,” Schmidly said in his opening remarks.

'We bungled,' administrators say

Three UNM administrators try to clarify Locksley incident at press conference

Three UNM administrators try to clarify Locksley incident at press conference

Straight from UNM President David Schmidly: The University of New Mexico “bungled” its investigation into the Sept. 20 physical altercation between first-year head coach Mike Locksley and former wide receivers coach J.B. Gerald.

Flanked on the right by Athletics Director Paul Krebs and on the left by Vice President of Human Resources Helen Gonzales, Schmidly repeatedly denied that the University concealed any findings of its investigation.

“At this point, I have seen no evidence of a cover-up as many people have alleged,” he said. “We bungled the process … and we have already taken steps to correct and refine our procedures. But, and I want to repeat this. I am not aware of any direct evidence that would suggest a cover-up.”

Challenging accusations aimed at Krebs and Gonzales by the public that the Athletics Department worked closely with Human Resources in not disclosing the full facts about the incident, Schmidly said he’s confident that Krebs and Gonzales did their jobs separately.

Krebs, too, defended his statements and decisions.

“In my 30 years in this business, I have never had my integrity challenged,” Krebs said. “I’ve been known in this profession for being honest, for being candid, for being decisive and for transparency and the ability to make tough decisions. Did I cover anything up? Absolutely no. I misapplied University policy when conducting the investigation.”

But emerging details suggest otherwise.

Schmidly admitted that the original copy of HR investigator Shannon Garbiso’s handwritten notes have been destroyed, but not before copies were distributed to UNM’s Human Resources.

Gonzales said Garbiso wasn’t aware that she was to keep record of any documentation pertinent to the case prior to their formal investigation.

“Ms. Garbiso informed me yesterday, when she said that she hadn’t kept the notes, that she never thought that those were official University documents, that those were only her own notes as a result of an informal inquiry she was doing in the department,” Gonzales said.

Garbiso, an HR representative for athletics, conducted the initial inquiry into the allegations that Locksley punched and choked Gerald during a coaches’ meeting.
Her findings concluded that Gerald was indeed choked, as this was verified by three assistant coaches who were present when the incident occurred — Mike Degory, Cheston Blackshear and Tee Martin.

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Degory, according to the notes, told Garbiso that Locksley “reached out and started choking (Gerald)” and was “swinging” at Gerald as Degory attempted to restrain the first-year head coach.

Blackshear and Martin had nearly identical accounts.

Marin told Garbiso, “All of a sudden, coach Locks was grabbing Gerald around the throat choking him.” According to the handwritten notes, Blackshear told Garbiso that Locksley “grabbed Gerald by the shirt and started choking him.”

Those preliminary findings, however, have been ignored in favor of the results from the official HR probe, which was conducted by Helen Gonzales in the presence of a lawyer.

At an Oct. 13 press conference, Krebs said the formal HR investigation found no witnesses to verify that Locksley actually threw a punch.

Gonzales said no documents or recordings were produced through the course of the investigation apart from notes jotted down by a lawyer, which are protected pending litigation from Gerald.

University officials stopped short of saying Garbiso or her notes are void of credibility.

“I think it’s important to note that Shannon Garbiso is not a Human Resources employee,” Gonzales said. “She works for the Athletics Department and is not trained in conducting investigations. Shannon took some notes and put on there recollections of what the individual said. She paraphrased some of the things and did not record exact comments as they were made.”

While maintaining that no witness definitively stated Gerald was punched or choked, as documented in Garbiso’s notes, Gonzales said she wasn’t suggesting Garbiso wasn’t thorough or misheard interviewees.

“I want to be clear that I’m not saying that Shannon was off base,” she said. “I’m saying that Shannon did not write what the individuals said. I heard different things about choking. I did hear what some people said ‘might have been choking.’”

Considering it was in a dimly lit room in Tow Diehm Facility on South Campus, Gonzales said, the discrepancies between assistants’ stories could be a product of how quickly the event transpired.

“There were six different accounts of what happened,” she said. “I think it’s important to remember it was a dark room — there was film being viewed. It all happened in the course of a few seconds. And all of the interviews showed different things.”

Lawyer says Gerald was not asking for ‘hush money’ from University

Julian Haffner, the lawyer representing former wide receivers coach J.B. Gerald, said the University is attempting to discredit his client by claiming he told UNM his grievance could be washed away if the University paid him $500,000.

According to a University-issued timeline provided at Wednesday’s news conference, Haffner presented the University with a letter on Oct. 1 offering continued media silence in exchange for a $500,000 settlement.

UNM President David Schmidly said the letter immediately brought up questions in his mind about Gerald’s intentions.

“There were several actions there that were disturbing,” he said. “One was, ‘Give us money, and we won’t saying anything about this.’ That, in my opinion, would have been completely unethical on the part of the University. … (So), I outright refused it. I turned it over to our legal staff and told them that the answer was ‘No.’ Subsequently, there were efforts on the part of that attorney to interview some of our people without seeking our permission.”

Late Wednesday night, in a phone interview with the Daily Lobo, Haffner fired back.
“At no time did he condition his silence on the payment of that money,” he said. “For them to characterize it like that is a blatant misconstruction of the fact.”

Haffner said the letter, which the University received Oct. 1, said that Gerald sought to settle the issue in-house rather than play back-and-forth media games. He said the $500,000 was asked for as reparations for damages caused to Gerald’s reputation.

“In that letter, we said that for respect for the process and the football team, J.B. was choosing to remain silent despite many media inquiries,” Haffner said. “But rather than play this thing out in the media, what we wanted to do was seek to resolve this among ourselves. What we said further was that in the event that it became necessary to J.B. to protect his reputation and his future prospects for employment that he would go public.”

Haffner said Gerald was concerned that his speaking out about the altercation would adversely affect his job prospects.

As Gerald told the Daily Lobo on Saturday, his dissatisfaction with the findings of the investigation forced his hand, and, as a result, he intends to file a lawsuit against Locksley as well as the University.

Haffner said that suit would be filed “sooner rather than later,” but he declined to say exactly when or what would be contained in the suit.

“I believe what the University is doing is a rather weak attempt to shift the focus away from what the real issues are — which is the battery of J.B.,” Haffner said. “Specifically, with respect to the extortion they are clearly misconstruing what was unambiguously stated in our demand letter.”

Haffner said the University is in the wrong and Gerald’s letter should not be seen as a demand for hush money.

“Locksley has admitted the battery,” Haffner said. “The school has admitted the destruction of evidence in this investigation. In my mind, that’s the only thing that matters here. That J.B. has made a demand — of $500,000 — isn’t out of the ordinary. It’s quite common place. For them to misconstrue that as an extortion demand is reprehensible.”

Haffner also tried to get in touch with UNM employees following the altercation, according to documents provided by the office of the Custodian of Public Records.

In a letter written by Ira Bolnick on behalf of University Counsel, he alleged that Haffner displayed “professional misconduct” and improperly communicated with UNM employees during the week of Oct. 19.

The letter did not give the names of the two employees Haffner talked to. In securing those interviews, the University said Haffner told the individuals that he had “gone through the proper channels and that he was conducting an ‘official investigation.’”

The letter, addressing Haffner, stated: “On behalf of the University, you are directed to cease and desist from contact with any UNM managerial employee without prior notice to and express consent of UNM’s Office of University Counsel.”

Haffner brushed aside those allegations of professional misconduct.
“At this point, I don’t think it’s material,” he said. “So I’m going to choose not to comment on that.”

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