Letting the legal process go through its steps then act accordingly is the response by Allen County Community College Athletic Director Randy Weber.
Weber answered questions from the Register Wednesday afternoon following the appearance of an article in Tuesday’s The Anderson County Review newspaper in Garnett. Arrests of five ACCC basketball players were reported stemming from charges filed in Anderson County District Court last week.
The ACCC players are Terrell Shears, 19, Christopher Laveist, 20, Thomas Daniel, 19, Canon Fields, 21, and Christopher Parker, 18. A single count of marijuana possession was filed against each player in connection with a June 25 traffic stop on U.S. Highway 169 south of Greeley.
“According to the athletes involved, they said at the original court appearance they were told no charges had been filed at that time but authorities had three months to bring charges,” Weber told the Register.
Weber explained ACCC rules deal with student-athletes who are on probation for an offense were immediately declared ineligible to participate in any team activities. He said the college will wait until the five athletes went through the legal process of the charges and final determinations have been made by the court.
Anderson County District Court is in the Kansas 4th Judicial District. Five separate hearing dates have been set for the ACCC players in September and October.
Anderson County Attorney Fred Campbell told The Review that an Anderson County sheriff’s deputy stopped the southbound vehicle around 10:15 p.m. on June 25 a few miles south of Greeley because the driver failed to dim his lights for oncoming traffic. Campbell said the deputy detected the smell of marijuana in the car and a search of the vehicle turned up a small amount of the drug.
Campbell said the amount of marijuana discovered was not enough to suggest the intent was to resell it but none of the five claimed its ownership.
“No one will say who it belonged to, so we’re charging them all,” Campbell told The Review.
Campbell said the evidence and information for the suspects revealed they had been on a shopping trip to the Kansas City area and the car contained various new clothing items in sacks from area department stores.
Shears (6-7) and Daniel (6-8) are sophomores from Kansas City, Mo., who played for the Red Devils last year. Shears averaged 9.4 points and 6.6 rebounds a game for Allen County. Daniel averaged 9.8 points and 5.6 rebounds a game.
Parker is a freshman from Kansas City, Kan. and Schlagle High School, while Fields is a freshman from Topeka’s Highland Park High and Laveist is a freshman from Bel Aire, Kan., who played at Kapaun Mt. Carmel High.
Five ACCC men’s basketball players face drug charges
