SU running back Carter pleads guilty to harassment
Syracuse running back Delone Carter received a one-year conditional discharge for harassment in City Court on Thursday for punching a fellow Syracuse University student in a Feb. 27 snowball-throwing incident, said his attorney, Kimberly Zimmer.
Carter pleaded guilty to the charges, Zimmer said, which were reduced from a misdemeanor third-degree assault charge by Judge Langston McKinney on Thursday. The charges are contingent upon Carter avoiding any additional legal trouble. The case will remain open for the next year on a probationary status and close if the year’s conditions are met, Zimmer said.
‘He pled guilty to harassment,’ Zimmer said. ‘The conditional discharge was basically his sentence. So the case remains open, if you will, until that year’s up. If there are no further problems with the law, then the case is closed, and that’s it.’
Through Zimmer, Carter offered a statement expressing relief that the process was over and gratitude to everyone who had helped him through the process.
‘He said he’s very thankful to those who have helped him through this process, including his family and the Syracuse University football program,’ Zimmer said.
According to a press release from District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, Carter read a statement expressing his guilt of striking SU student William Hotaling.
‘On Feb. 27, 2010, I punched William Jay Hotaling in the face without his consent,’ Carter read in part, according to Fitzpatrick’s release. ‘I understand that he did not throw a snowball at my car and he did not throw one at me or threaten me in any way. Mr. Hotaling did not start any altercation with me or anyone I was with that night. When I hit Mr. Hotaling I was not acting in self-defense, and I never felt threatened by him or the individual he was walking with.’
Carter’s case had been postponed several times before finally reaching a conclusion Thursday. The last time it had been postponed was Sept. 14. Zimmer said that was normal in court proceedings similar to Carter’s situation.
‘That happens for a variety of reasons,’ Zimmer said. ‘Based on attorneys’ availabilities and others. But that happens typically in a lot of cases.’
The news comes just days after Carter was recognized by the Big East as the conference’s Offensive Player of the Week following his 172-yard, four-touchdown performance Sept. 25 against Colgate.
In what was first reported by The Daily Orange on March 3, a passenger exited a black SUV on the 300 block of Waverly Avenue and struck William Hotaling, then a junior in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, in the face Feb. 27 after a snowball hit the vehicle. The suspect was later revealed as Carter, who was riding with teammates Ryan Gillum, Donte Davis and Daniel Bailey in Gillum’s 2007 GMC Yukon.
After the SU Department of Public Safety and the Syracuse Police Department investigated, Carter and Gillum were taken in by police for questioning on April 14 in the hours leading up to Syracuse’s spring practice session that day, according to an article published in The Daily Orange on April 15.
Carter was charged with assault later that night and was subsequently suspended from the team and the university the following day, according to the article. Carter missed the final two days of spring practice and the annual spring game.
Fitzpatrick said Hotaling, who had been unable to name his attacker, had been unfairly labeled as an ‘instigator’ by media outlets after the charge. He noted in his release that Hotaling could not be identified as the snowball-thrower, and there was no evidence of any alcohol in Hotaling’s system at the time.
After a summer away from the team, Carter was reinstated by SU head coach Doug Marrone on Aug. 9. Marrone said he would not be further disciplined by the team. Carter rejoined the team one day later.
‘We look forward to (Carter) coming back and being a part of this team,’ Marrone said on Aug. 9. ‘One of the things that has happened is that we have taken disciplinary action internally as a football program, and Judicial Affairs has had its part in that. As far as our football program goes, we have punished Delone, and that punishment has been carried out. Now it is time for us to move forward.’
Added Marrone: ‘We took action right away, which is the way our program is. We took action immediately, internally, right off the bat, prior to him leaving campus, and that punishment was fulfilled.’
And now it appears the criminal trial proceedings and obligations are fulfilled for Carter as well, something about which Zimmer said Carter is relieved.
‘Throughout the process,’ Zimmer said, ‘he has matured and grown personally, and he’s very grateful to have this behind him.’
Published on October 3, 2010 at 12:00 pm
