Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Suns hockey player charged with assault


By MATT FURBER
Express Staff Writer

Former Suns hockey player, Neil Ford, 27, has been charged with aggravated battery after a scuffle escalated during a Suns hockey game Friday, March 4. Ford has agreed to appear March 28 in 5th District Court in Hailey for a preliminary hearing. He was served with the summons over the weekend, and has been cooperative with police, said Sun Valley Police Lt. Mike Crawford.

"We had him served with a summons pretty far after the fact," Crawford said. "We didn't feel he was going to be taking off anywhere."

Last week, after hearing numerous complaints about the violent nature of the incident, Sun Valley Police opened their investigation into the incident, which resulted in Colton Allen, a Siskiyou Summits team member from Ashland, Ore., being treated for facial injuries at St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center. Allegedly, Ford delivered seven or eight blows to Allen while he was down on the ice during the first of two games played over that weekend.

At question is whether the rules of hockey, which allow mutual combat, have reached such a level of intensity that the incident can only be judged by the rule of law. According to police, Allen may even have been unconscious while Ford was allegedly striking him.

Crawford said that Ford has not denied that the fight occurred, but he has withheld saying anything about the incident that may incriminate him.

Crawford said it is difficult to draw a line between a hockey fight and an assault in a game that involves a high level of physical contact. Aggravated battery is defined as the unlawful touching of another person. However, he said that even applying the rules of hockey in the case the line did not seem particularly thin.

"We probably had 34 written statements," Crawford said. "And there were probably 25 other phone calls and interviews."

If Ford does not honor the summons to appear in court, a warrant for his arrest could be issued.




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