Penn State wrestler faces charges after allegedly fleeing police, refusing to leave frat
An All-American Penn State wrestler is facing multiple charges after police say he refused to leave the property of a local fraternity house in late March before running from an officer and resisting arrest while visibly intoxicated.
Braeden Davis, 20, had a blood alcohol content of .225, nearly triple the adult legal limit of .08, according to tests later taken at Mount Nittany Medical Center and referenced in the criminal complaint. Davis' preliminary hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on May 21, before District Judge Donald M. Hahn.
The incident involving Davis reportedly occurred around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 29, less than a week after Penn State wrestling won its fourth straight national championship where Davis finished fifth nationally at 133 pounds.
'We are aware of the charges against Braeden Davis,' a statement from Penn State Athletics read. 'These alleged actions do not reflect the values and standards of our program and will be addressed. We will not comment any further as this is an ongoing legal matter.'
According to the criminal complaint, State College police were called to the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house (346 E. Prospect Ave.) on March 29 because two men — one of whom was Davis; the other was unidentified in the complaint — were asked to leave the property at least twice but refused. When the first police officer arrived, he found the two men arguing with private security.
When borough police approached Davis and he was informed he could not go until he had been identified, Davis took off running — and an officer caught up to him in about 10 yards, per the complaint.
Police said Davis attempted to wrestle free while an officer told him to, 'Stop resisting.' After two more officers arrived, police said Davis then complied. According to the officer who tussled with Davis, the officer's wristwatch and radio earpiece were broken. His body-worn camera was also ripped off its mount and lying on the nearby ground, but was still recording, per the complaint.
State College police then transported Davis to the station, where he received a preliminary breath test, which tested positive for alcohol. Centre LifeLink Emergency Medical Services then evaluated Davis and transported him to the hospital 'as a result of an alcohol overdose,' according to the complaint.
Davis is facing five charges, including resisting arrest; evading arrest or detention on foot; criminal trespass; purchase, consumption, possession or transportation of alcohol while under 21; and public drunkenness. No offense rises above a second-degree misdemeanor.
The wrestler is a rising junior. He won four Michigan state championships in high school, before winning the Big Ten title (125 pounds) as a college freshman and earning All-America honors (133) as a sophomore.
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Taylor's senseless death "reflects not only a catastrophic failure of the warrant process, but also a foreseeable consequence of Jones," Walker's brief argues. "By allowing magistrates to issue warrants based on hearsay, Jones removed the requirement that a declarant appear in court, swear to the truth of their statement, and be subjected to questioning, and replaced it with a framework that lends itself to fabrication." Thanks to Jones, "officers seeking a warrant but lacking probable cause—like Detective Jaynes—may now be motivated to enhance their own affidavits by inventing conversations with third-party declarants," the brief notes. "And, because Jones requires no oath or appearance from those declarants, the reviewing judge must rely entirely on the affiant's secondhand account of what a declarant allegedly said and why he/she should be believed. 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"It quickly became apparent that the information they had received from the informant was bad," the brief says. "They were at the wrong apartment." Young "should never have had to endure the invasive and degrading raid that was conducted on her home," the brief adds. "When presented with a warrant application that relied entirely on an unverified tip from an informant, the magistrate judge who issued the warrant had a constitutional obligation to probe the basis for the officer affiant's assertions—e.g., by asking whether the informant's claims were corroborated and what, if anything, law enforcement had done to verify them. While it is unclear whether the magistrate ever spoke with the informant, the fact that he issued the warrant at all—given the apparent lack of any attempt by officers to verify the informant's tip—is highly suggestive of a lack of any meaningful consideration." Jones encourages such lax oversight, the brief argues: "The magistrate judge is no longer able to meaningfully perform [his] constitutional role. Denied access to the declarant, the judge cannot assess his/her credibility firsthand. Instead, the affiant alone decides which facts to include and which to withhold, effectively filtering the evidence and shielding the judge from any information that might undermine the affiant's narrative….The Fourth Amendment demands more than this system of magisterial rubber-stamping that Jones has engendered." The post Denver Case Highlights the Potentially Deadly Hazards of Police Raids Based on Secondhand Information appeared first on
