UW-Madison freshman wide receiver Ernest Mason was suspended from the football team for a total of two days after he was charged with beating his girlfriend and attempting to prohibit her from notifying police of the incident Tuesday night.
According to a revised athletic conduct code developed last spring following the arrests of numerous other football players, an athlete charged with any crime faces immediate suspension from his or her athletic team.
Though Mason received notification of his suspension Tuesday, he missed no games between his suspension and the suspension's dismissal Thursday. Unless any new information about the case arises, Mason will continue practicing and competing with the team, according to a press release.
\When you violate the policy, as [Mason] did in this case ... you are suspended immediately, which is what happened. And then he has the right, if he so chooses, to tell his side of the story and appeal to the Appeals Committee,"" said Steve Malchow, spokesperson for the Athletic Department. ""That process concluded today and this [change in punishment] is the result of that.""
Because of The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the Appeals Committee does not need to explain why they reversed the suspension, Malchow said.
Police arrested Mason Tuesday and charged him with disorderly conduct and intimidating and dissuading his girlfriend, a UW-Madison freshman, from reporting to the police. The arrest followed an incident that started in Sellery B Hall in which Mason reportedly pushed his girlfriend down some stairs and into an elevator as well as injured her hand and repeatedly pushed her head against a wall.
He faces up to $11,000 in fines and a year of jail time for his actions, according to the criminal complaint.
Despite the recent incident, Mason's high school football coach, Bob Jones of Dunbar High School in Fort Worth, Texas, said Mason was not violent in his high school career, which ended last spring.
""He had no [disciplinary] problems in high school,"" Jones said. ""I don't see [discipline] being a problem with Ernest.\
