Misdemeanor case against Russell County baseball coach Tony Rasmus takes new turn
Eight months after the incident that could yet cost suspended Russell County baseball coach Tony Rasmus his job, a jury has reached a verdict on allegations Rasmus choked a player.
It decided Monday that Rasmus is not guilty of a Class A misdemeanor of third-degree assault, the verdict a county judge reached in a June trial. But Rasmus is guilty of the lesser offense of harassment, for touching the player, jurors concluded.
According to Alabama law, harassment means a suspect “strikes, shoves, kicks, or otherwise touches a person or subjects him or her to physical contact,” with the “intent to harass, annoy, or alarm another person.”
Class C is as minor a misdemeanor as Alabama law allows, said Rasmus’ attorney James McKoon, who thought Monday that after four days of testimony, Russell County might have broken a state record for days spent on a misdemeanor trial.
“This whole thing was childish from day one, if you want to know the truth,” McKoon said after the jury delivered its verdict around 3 p.m.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Chancey said the case involves more than a single incident of alleged abuse: It raises the issue of whether coaches freely may mistreat their players in a way no teacher would be allowed to treat students in a classroom.
“If it’s not good enough for a teacher, why is it good enough for a coach?” he asked, later adding, “Is there a line to be drawn between tough coaching and abuse, and where is that line?”
The defense
According to McKoon, it all started Feb. 16, at the Russell County Warriors’ home game in Seale against Rehobeth High School, which is in Dothan.
McKoon gave this version of the incident:
Around dusk a 16-year-old infielder made an error, and the infield coach, Rasmus’ son Cyle, berated him and pulled him out of the game. The player cursed, threw down his cap and glove, and glared at Cyle Rasmus.
Tony Rasmus, who’d been coaching the pitcher, saw the confrontation, walked over and told the teen, “Look at me.”
When the boy ignored him, Tony Rasmus reached out and turned the player’s chin to face him, repeating, “Look at me.” He told the teen to sit down and shut up, and later lectured him, McKoon said.
The prosecution
That same night, an eighth-grader who was at the game told his parents he saw Tony Rasmus choke the infielder, and the eighth-grader’s parents reported this to the player’s parents the next morning, Chancey said. The 16-year-old also said he was choked, when his parents asked him about it, the prosecutor noted.
The students’ version of what happened differed significantly from the coaches’: They said Cyle Rasmus didn’t just berate the player, but cursed him out, telling him he was worthless.
“When I say cursing, I mean it was brutal,” Chancey said Tuesday.
Tony Rasmus used similar profanity, the prosecutor said: “They were both using abusive language.”
Both kids said Tony Rasmus didn’t just grab the player’s chin, Chancey said: He put his hands on the boy’s throat and squeezed. The boy later testified that it hurt and that he could not breathe.
After that face-off in the dugout, no one complained, right away. McKoon said the player later returned to the game, and Rasmus thought that was it, and it was over.
But it was not.
It was just the beginning of the controversy that led to Tony Rasmus’ being suspended with pay March 1, with school district termination hearings afterward postponed. Rasmus’ 23-year career still hangs in the air like a fly ball, and no one yet knows where it will fall.
The fallout
For eight days after the Rehobeth game, the 16-year-old continued to practice and play, and Rasmus continued to coach.
Then on Feb. 24, the player’s parents came to a practice, to speak with Tony Rasmus. When they told him they’d heard he choked their son, Rasmus was caught off guard, McKoon said. He told them he had not, and were their son saying that, he would not want their son on his team, McKoon said.
After practice, Rasmus questioned the player, who told the coach it was a misunderstanding the boy would clear up, McKoon said.
Chancey said Rasmus confronted the player with an implied threat, telling him, “I grabbed you by the chin, right?” and adding, “You better get it straight.”
When the player showed up the next morning for training, Rasmus again assumed all was settled, McKoon said.
But it was not. This series of events followed:
- On March 1, the player’s parents reported the alleged choking, and their son was questioned at the county’s child advocacy center, where he denied having been choked, later claiming he was afraid to tell the truth.
- On March 2, Rasmus was arrested on a warrant charging him with assault.
- On March 3, the player’s mother took him to the sheriff’s office to tell an investigator he was choked, contrary to his earlier account.
- On June 14, Rasmus had a one-day misdemeanor trial before District Court Judge Zack Collins, who found Rasmus guilty of third-degree assault, fined him $500 and sent him to anger-management counseling.
Chancey said Collins understood the deeper issues the alleged assault brought up: “That program is a culture of abuse,” the judge declared.
Under Alabama law, Rasmus was able to challenge that conviction, and get a new trial before a jury, a rare appeal called a “trial de novo.”
“You don’t have it happen that often,” McKoon said.
After the jury decided against the assault charge and settled on the misdemeanor of harassment, Circuit Court Judge Michael Belamy said he’d sentence Rasmus in 30 days. The sentencing now is set for Nov. 22.
Each side will be allowed five witnesses then, and Chancey says more details will emerge.
“This isn’t the first accusation that’s come up, and it will all come out at the sentencing,” he said, later adding, “There will be a lot more that comes out that’s eye opening.”
Meanwhile Rasmus remains suspended with pay, his fate uncertain.
The Ledger-Enquirer wasn’t able to reach Russell County School District superintendent Brenda Coley for comment prior to publication.
This story was originally published October 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM.