Anger management behind him, Rutgers’ Demarest cleared

By Darrell Laurant  |   Saturday, February 09, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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Upon further review, Rutgers secondary coach and assistant head coach Chris Demarest is now in the clear.

Demarest, 42, was charged with domestic assault last July after a 3 a.m. argument with a date in a bar in Long Branch, N.J. He pleaded not guilty, the woman involved in the incident declined to press charges, and in November Demarest agreed to a plea deal in which charges would be dropped if he underwent anger management and stress management counseling.

Last week, according to the Newark Star-Ledger, Judge Georgia Cieri said: "I'm satisfied that Mr. Demarest has done what he said he would do, and what he promised to do, and it is satisfactory to the prosecutor."

Commentary: In the immediate wake of this incident, college football bloggers questioned why Demarest remained on Rutgers' staff, and whether a player would have been treated differently for the same offense. Only head coach Greg Schiano can answer that.

Certainly, it's unnecessary to add that this hardly sends a good message to young athletes who also tend to be emotional. However, as facts filtered out about the case, Demarest's "beating" (as one blogger described it) of his companion turned out to be a shove and a lot of harsh words. Besides declining to press charges, the woman appeared in court on Demarest's behalf.

Without knowing what was said about this in-house, perhaps Demarest was able to turn it into a life lesson for his team. And he certainly owes Greg Sciano.
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