Football player dismissed from team
Utah State starting linebacker Monte “Junior” Keiaho was dismissed from the USU football team Wednesday. Keiaho has also been charged with three counts of assault by the 1st District Court in Logan.
Keiaho was charged with two class B misdemeanors and one second-degree felony. The case was presented and filed Oct. 27 but no hearing dates have been set.
Prosecutor Andrew McAdams, from the Cache County Attorney’s office, said the allegation is that Keiaho was involved an an unprovoked attack on three males that had pulled into a parking lot on Sept. 19. He said Keiaho and two others, who have yet to be identified, assaulted the three men. McAdams said witnesses were able to pick out Keiaho from a photo lineup but weren’t able to identify the other two suspects.
Other media outlets have reported that one other suspect has been identified and has yet to be arrested, but Sgt. John Italasano, public information officer for the North Park Police Department, as well as McAdams, said Thursday Keiaho has been the only suspect identified at this time.
“There are three suspects total,” McAdams said, “but I think the third suspect may not have been involved in the fight, he was just there to witness it. There were definitely two people involved in the assault, at this point we have only identified Junior.”
“I think a couple went to the hospital and at least one was knocked out,” McAdams said. “All three of them were beaten up.”
McAdams said the victim from which the aggravated assault felony charge stems had complicated fractures of multiple bones.
USU head football coach Gary Andersen issued a statement Wednesday saying Keiaho has been dismissed from the team for an undisclosed violation of team rules.
“I feel that it is in the best interest of this program and for Junior Keiaho that he no longer be a part of this team,” Andersen said. “We wish him the best in the future and we are fully supportive of him in his life outside of football.”
The athletics department was contacted Thursday but said they had no further comments on the matter.
The aggravated assault charge is defined as “intentionally causing serious bodily injury to another” and the class B misdemeanor is defined as “an attempt, with unlawful force or violence, to do bodily injury to another; did threaten, accompanies by a show of immediate force or violence, to do bodily injury to another; or did commit an act, with unlawful force or violence, that caused bodily injury to another or created a substantial risk of bodily injury to another.”
McAdams said he hasn’t thought about any plea offers at this time and it is still an ongoing investigation.
– megan.b@aggiemail.usu.edu