Setting out for the second day of its conference championship, the Baker University track and field team heard a different morning announcement than expected.
“As you may have noticed, there are three members of the team not on the bus this morning,” head coach Rob Mallinder said. “The three of them were incarcerated last night at the Harrison County Jail.”
Juniors Jeremiah Harp and Adam Perez, and sophomore Alex Dingman have each been charged with a misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance. The three were held at Harrison County Jail and missed the second half of the meet after they were charged with possession of marijuana.
Mallinder said the events that led to his suspicion started with him hearing noise from one of the rooms while he was walking the halls around 12:30 a.m. After he confirmed that the room belonged to his athletes, Mallinder tried to call the room, but no one answered. He then walked to the room, smelled marijuana and confronted Dingman and Perez whose room was the source of the odor.
Mallinder called together Dingman, Perez, Harp and sophomore Katey Wegemer because he claimed he heard their voices during his first check, Dingman said. Wegemer was suspended from competition that weekend because she was in the room, but is awaiting the results of her drug test so she can be reinstated.
While meeting with his athletes, Mallinder told all four they were kicked off the team, Dingman said. Both Harp and Dingman said that after Mallinder left the room, the matter seemed settled for the night.
“I really wouldn’t have had a problem with (the coaches) calling the police if they had told us they were going to, but (Mallinder) told us that we didn’t have to worry about it,” Dingman said. “And later, (the police) just showed up.”
Harp said he didn’t think the incident needed to involve the police and that the potential punishments imposed by Baker would be enough.
While Mallinder said the decision to call the police was made after about an hour of phone calls between him and Athletic Director Dan Harris, both men declined to comment on the details of the conversations between them or others who were involved in the decision to call the police.
Harris did say that he and Mallinder had to follow the same procedures as if the incident happened in a campus residence hall because Baker paid for the athletes’ rooms and thus was responsible for their behavior.
“Because it occurred in the middle of an athletic trip, and there was some pretty serious violations of substance abuse, we had to report it (to the police) for liability purposes,” Harris said.
The official athletic department drug policy does not specify what conditions require police intervention. According to the policy, however, students charged with possession of an illegal substance are suspended until they are cleared of the charges. A conviction results in the immediate dismissal from the program and removal of all athletic-related financial aid.
Following a search of the motel room, Dingman said the police arrested him and Perez in the lobby of the Bethany, Mo., Super 8 Motel around 2:30 a.m. Harp was arrested later because he had been staying in a separate room.
As of Wednesday, Dingman and Harp had not met with anyone from the athletic department. Dingman also said Harris had not replied to an e-mail he sent Sunday. The only official word the athletes had received concerning their status was during a Wednesday afternoon meeting with Dean of Student Development John Frazier, who also heads up the university judicial system.
“Frazier was a sympathetic ear,” Harp said. “I have the utmost respect for the guy.”
In general, Frazier said, Baker does not take any disciplinary action against students prior to a lawful conviction.
Dingman, Harp and Perez are set to be arraigned in Harrison County March 19.