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January 21, 2011
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The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Football players charged after brawl Harris, Williams face battery charges; Conley awaits trial by Isaac Avilucea
managingeditor@dailylobo.com 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.
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
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-andolder 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 oncampus fraternity. No one else was charged in connection with the fight, and Kim Kloeppel, with the Dean of Students Office, said
Nightclub owner Brian Craig said head coach Mike Locksley’s initial decision to reinstate Harris before his trail was a “joke.” 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 resuspended pending the outcome of his case. It’s unclear if Conley and Harris will be dismissed from the team if
Robert Maes / Daily Lobo Student Frida Moreno prepares to raise the Queer Resource Center’s rainbow flag after it disappeared from a nearby flag pole last month. More than 60 people attended the center’s welcome back ceremony Thursday and saw the raising of a new flag.
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
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.
When going gets tough, she thinks of magma by Chelsea Erven cerven@unm.edu
N
icole Thomas traveled the world, learned four languages and held an array of professions before deciding to study science at UNM. The future volcanologist was born in Mexico City and followed her father, an international banker, and mother, a TV/radio journalist, to places like Panama, Jamaica and Hong Kong. She attended high school in Hong Kong, skipped several grades and graduated at 16 with plans to pursue an art degree, but she dropped out of CUBoulder when she was 17. Between then and now, Thomas watched one husband die of lung cancer and another go to jail. She had three children, pursued her art passion and worked in many jobs including yoga instructor and personal trainer. “I’ve had a lot of unique circumstances in my life,” she said. “My first husband died of lung cancer while my son had leukemia, so I’ve been through a lot of stuff, and I think going back to school is probably one of the best
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things I could do for myself.” Thomas was living in Taos when she decided to pursue a science degree at UNM, but because her high school transcripts were lost in Hong Kong she couldn’t get in. “All I had was my diploma, not my transcripts, and because I graduated so young, no one believed me,” she said. “Since I had graduated, Hong Kong had gone from being a British territory to part of mainland China, so I was on the phone with the minister of international education in Hong Kong for weeks trying to acquire these transcripts, which were nowhere to be found.” Thomas was waiting tables when then-UNM President David Harris came in for breakfast. She said she recognized an opportunity. “I waited until he finished eating his eggs, and I approached him and told him my story … and he said, ‘Let me make some phone calls. Give me your number,’” Thomas said. “That day, I had three calls from admissions while I was still at the restaurant waiting tables.” Thomas is studying geology under a grant from the National Science Foundation. She
Robert Maes / Daily Lobo Nichole Thomas sits by the fire working on a puzzle during some down time at her home. Thomas, a Kung-Fu enthusiast, knows several languages and hopes her degree will give her the chance to study volcanoes.
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