Schmidly, Krebs discuss Locksley saga

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The news conference that tried to clear the air about how the University of New Mexico handled an altercation between football coaches left unanswered other questions KRQE News 13 posed in later interviews.

Chief among them: If the athletic director mishandled the investigation so badly, why hasn't he been disciplined, too?

At the morning news conference UNM President David Schmidly and Vice President for Athletics Paul Krebs conceded the university bungled the probe into whether football Head Coach Mike Locksley punched out receivers coach J.B. Gerald.

Gerald reported to police he had been hit, and another coach said he saw Locksley choking Gerald. Locksley has said he didn't hit Gerald and only grabbed him by the collar.

However both Schmidly and Krebs denied any intent to cover up whatever happened when a Sept. 20 coaches meeting turned physical. And while Schmidly said mistake after mistake was made, no one will be punished for not following policies.

"First you do the corrective action, and you don't punish people for every single incident," Schmidly told News 13 in an interview after the news conference. "Were you done that way in your childhood? You look at the totality of what people do."

The investigation into what happened between Locksley and Gerald broke down immediately when the Athletic Department tried to handle the case itself. Instead the scuffle should have been reported to the UNM Human Resources Department.

After Human Resources got involved, Locksley served a 10-day suspension. Gerald remains on paid administrative leave.

"If I had to do it all over again--and there's no do-overs in life--we would have turned it over to HR immediately," Krebs told News 13.

Schmidly cited another complication: An athletic department staffer conducted the initial interviews with the other coaches, and the interviews were not taped instead producing a handwritten record that paraphrased the witness statements.

On Wednesday it was revealed the original documents of the findings from the Athletic Department investigation were shredded and destroyed.

"I certainly understand why people assume we haven't been totally forthcoming," Krebs said.

Regardless the facts of the case still are in dispute, he added.

"In the end the only people that know what happened were the six people in that room, and there's conflicting evidence," Krebs continued. "I have seen no information that would lead me to believe that coach Locksley threw a punch at coach Gerald.

"The swinging to me has been portrayed as flailing of arms and not punches."

An online poll on KRQE.com Wednesday asked whether people thought UNM had intentionally withheld information on the incident. Ninety-one percent of those responding to the nonscientific poll said yes.

So how to restore faith that there wasn't an attempt to cover up the incident?

"By carefully examining the timeline, the integrity of people involved," Schmidly said.

Still no one will be punished.

"The last time I looked, we don't have a flogging pole on this campus," Schmidly said. "We tried to treat people fairly and with respect."

Schmidly said he's embarrassed and upset about what happened but still stands by Krebs. And he hopes this is the end of it.

"Looking you in the face and in the eye right now, I believe it's all out there," Schmidly said. "But I'm learning to never say never."

A new dispute also arose on Wednesday with Gerald claiming Krebs pressured him to downplay the scuffle after it happened and to just come back to work. Krebs insisted he in no way did that and was only laying out Gerald's options for him.

UNM still has not said if or when it will release the documents from the Human Resources investigation. The university earlier apologized to New 13 to failing to release the Athletic Department documents in response to a formal request under the state Inspection of Public Records Act.

Initially UNM said no documents could be released because nothing had been written down.

Beyond the off-field controversy, the Lobo football team is 0-8 so far in Locksley's first season.