Nov 7, 2014 3 min read

CALIFORNIA – California University of Pennsylvania will seek an independent leader to oversee a task force to review its beleaguered football program that has had 28 players facing criminal or noncriminal cases since 2011.

The university announced the task force following the arrests last week of six players in an off-campus assault that left the victim in critical condition with brain trauma.

“The participation of an independent third party is not meant as a reflection on any Cal U. employee,” interim university President Geraldine M. Jones said. “Instead, it is designed to protect the integrity of the review process and enhance the credibility of its findings as we examine every aspect of the football program.”

Jones on Tuesday told the university’s faculty Senate the national media attention given to the assault temporarily damaged Cal U.’s reputation.

The Cal U. football players who were arrested, suspended from the team and jailed in the Oct. 30 assault are: Corey Ford, 22, of Harrisburg; James Williamson, 20, of Parkville, Md.; Jonathan Barlow, 21, of Pittsburgh; Rodney Gillin, 20, of Reading; D’Andre Dunkley, 19, of Philadelphia; and Shelby Wilkerson, 20, of Harrisburg.

The victim, Lewis Campbell III, 30, of West Chester, was released from Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh.

Authorities in the District of Columbia, meanwhile, obtained court approval Thursday to revoke Ford’s bond in connection with his pleading guilty to aggravated assault in a New Year’s Day vehicle crash that left a bicyclist with critical injuries.

William Miller, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen in D.C., said Ford will remain in custody in Washington County and only transferred to the District of Columbia if he were released from Washington County Jail.

A review of Washington County Court cases by the Observer-Reporter confirmed 21 Cal U. football players have been cited by police in the past two years.

Some of the players faced such offenses as marijuana possession, public drunkenness, underage drinking or criminal mischief, while the majority of the offenses were for attending loud house parties.

Meanwhile, it was learned that one of the captains of the Cal U. football team, Branko Busick, was dismissed from the West Virginia University team in 2011 after being charged in an armed robbery in which a man claimed he was struck repeatedly with a gun while telling his assailant he had no money, the Associated Press reported in 2011.

Busick pleaded guilty in 2012 in Monongalia County Court to two counts of assault during the commission of a felony and received five years of probation. He also was ordered to perform 250 hours of community service, the Times Leader in Martins Ferry, Ohio, reported.

Cal U. spokeswoman Christine Kindl said Cal U. has not had any problems with Busick, and he’s a good student.

Kindl said the university had not set a timetable for naming the members of the task force, nor one for when it would need to draw conclusions.

One of the issues the committee will look at, Kindl said, is the recruiting practices of the football team.