Southfield — The attorney for four Star International Academy High School football players charged with assault and battery after a shoving match at a football game against Westland's Lutheran High in October, said he believes the players were criminally charged because they are Arab-American.
Farmington Hills attorney Nabih Ayad said Tuesday that while he doesn't excuse the actions of the four players, he thinks Dearborn Heights police did a "sloppy" job in investigating the matter and were wrong to charge the teens, who play for the Dearborn Heights school, when they were doing what a lot of student and professional athletes have done. Ayad said he plans to ask that the charges, reduced by the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office to misdemeanors, be totally dropped.
"After the play, they hit those kids ...it was wrong, but it doesn't rise to this level of criminal liability," said Ayad during a news conference Tuesday at the Southfield office of the Muslim civil rights group the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The teens stood behind Ayad and others at the news conference, including CAIR-Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid and Rashid Baydoun, the Executive Director of the Arab-American Civil Rights League. They were joined by Aaron Sims, the Director of the NAACP Western Wayne County Branch.
In the October 21 incident, the students from Star are accused of kneeing members of Lutheran's offensive line and the team's quarterback. Ayad said the person who should have been charged is one of the Lutheran coaches instead of the teenagers. Ayad said a coach ran onto the field during the incident and assaulted one of the kids.
The four students were suspended from school for two days and between two and three games each.
One of the students Hadee Attia, a 17-year-old, said the publicity and the charges have brought him embarrassment. He said he didn't understand why he was criminally charged with an incident involving a football game.
"They want to come after us because we're Arabs," said Attia.
Efforts to reach officials for Lutheran High and the Dearborn Heights police were not successful.
The teens are due back in court for a preliminary examination Feb. 29. If they are convicted, they could face 90 days in jail and/or a $500 fine.
Maria Miller, the spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office said "The policy of the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office is not to let race or ethnicity influence any of our charging decisions. The facts and the evidence are what guided us in the decision to charge the four football players with assault and battery."
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