[LightningRod]

Originally Posted by MililaniBuckeye

LR, what Horton did to his girlfriend is eerily similar to what my oldest's boyfriend did to her a little over a year ago. I hope the courts [censored] Horton up...

This fine outstanding Michigan athlete will only be charged with a misdemeanor. Notice that Horton choked this young lady in DECEMBER but it is only now being reported. The Michigan athletic dept had to know this happened, yet they let him play how many games before the hand was forced to suspend him? What a joke. The police label this as a lover's spat and go with a misdemeanor. Horton chokes her into unconsciousness, and when she regains consciousness, he chokes her again. MISDEMEANOR! LOL!!! Ira Guilford pled guilty to a misdemeanor, and while I am not condoning anything Guilford did, he deserves to be back for another chance if Horton is permitted to get away with such a light charge. Especially given the fact that Horton witnessed his own mom being abused by a boyfriend while he was young. No excuses for this kid. But this is typical Michigan - choke somebody to unconsciousness, and get a slap on the wrist with the Michigan media writing sob stories (see story attached below). After all, he did say he was sorry. Hit a student with a bottle, get promoted to team co-captain while missing the Central Michigan game as punishment. Don't worry, the serial jack off DT will find himself on the receiving end of a traffic violation when all is said and done. This is the Michigan way.

MICHAEL ROSENBERG: Perils of abuse

Suspended Horton said his mom was victim

January 26, 2005

BY MICHAEL ROSENBERG
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

Daniel Horton released a statement Tuesday about domestic abuse.

"I understand the severity of the situation I'm in," said the Michigan basketball star, who has been charged with one count of domestic violence for allegedly choking his girlfriend. "I feel embarrassed about it, and I'm very sorry that my family, team and school have to deal with it, too. I understand why the consequences have happened, and I will continue to do whatever I can to help this situation."

The consequences include an indefinite suspension from games and practices. Horton is U-M's second-leading scorer, so this is a major blow to the Wolverines.

Since his arraignment Monday, Horton has issued only that one statement.

But in the past, Horton has told me a far different story of domestic abuse.

He said that when he was a kid in New Orleans, he saw violence in his own house. He said his mother, Andrea Williams, had a violent boyfriend.

Horton moved in with his father in Texas after ninth grade, and his mom moved there, too. But he said the scars remained.

"Waking up in the middle of the night, hearing my mom screaming ... tussling ... I'd just hear stuff banging and moving," he told me once, in one of several conversations we had about the abuse. "Some of the stuff still bothers me. When I sleep I still dream about it."

Statistically, the fact that Horton lived in a violent household makes him more likely to commit domestic violence.

Horton said he wanted to stop the cycle. He said he wrote papers for his English classes about it.

"It gives me a chance to express my feelings in a different way," Horton said. "I don't necessarily have to verbalize. I can write it down."

He said he underwent extensive counseling to deal with the emotional fallout.

"At the time I just felt a lot of hurt and a lot of anger," he said. "No one wants to see their mom battered and bruised and beat. I actually saw my mom get punched in the nose. No one wants to see their parents go through that.

"Your mom and your dad are supposed to be like Superman and Superwoman. When you see that happen ... I don't know, it does something to you. I think I was too young to realize that when I was younger. I do now, as I get older, and learn more about those types of situations."

He said he routinely told his mother he was sorry.

"At the time I used to apologize to my mom for not doing anything," he said. "She used to be like, 'That's OK. There's nothing you can do.' I never understood that until now."

He talked about how lucky he felt to get away from the situation in New Orleans.

"Somebody would have gotten really seriously injured or somebody would have died," he said. "That's just how crazy he was, and that's how much my mom's side of the family hated him. He would do stuff and we would go to other people's houses and people would literally threaten to kill him."

In the years after the family left, Horton said they never saw the abusive boyfriend. But he said that every few months, when the phone rang, it would be him.

When I heard the news about Horton this week, I immediately thought of what he had told me. We had talked about my writing a story about it, but for various reasons, I never did. And certainly, the version you just read came directly from Horton, not anybody else. Tuesday, I could not reach his mother, and his father declined to comment.

Daniel Horton is probably having the worst week of his life -- or at least, the worst week since he left New Orleans. It must seem like this nightmare won't end.

But it will.

The case will be resolved, one way or the other. Considering that the woman did not want charges pressed, and that the charge is a misdemeanor, Horton probably will be back on the court fairly soon.

But the stigma will remain. When Horton, a 20-year-old junior guard, is reinstated (and I'd be stunned if he doesn't return this season), critics will blast coach Tommy Amaker.

Even if Horton is acquitted, many people will assume he got off easy because he is an athlete.

An out-of-control, self-important athlete.

The very stereotype he always said he hated.

"People see you playing or see you in the newspaper," he said. "But when they get to know me, they start to see Daniel Horton the person, not just the basketball player. ... I'm a nice guy.

"A lot of people think football players and basketball players are arrogant just because those are the two sports that are always in the spotlight here at Michigan. We're students, and we're people just like everybody else."

I don't know what happened between Horton and his girlfriend. If Horton physically harmed the woman in any way, for any reason, he was dead wrong, no matter what the legal outcome of the case.

And if he was sincere in his comments about childhood abuse, he knows that.

I hope he learns from this.

I hope he remembers what he said about being a scared 13-year-old in New Orleans.

And from here on, I hope he strives for a different kind of relationship -- like the one he saw when he moved to Texas.

"Moving to my dad, seeing his relationship with my stepmom -- they don't have a perfect relationship, but it's not the relationship that I had seen, the situation I had been in," he said. "My brother and I realize you don't have to be like that ...

"That's not how you're supposed to treat a woman."

Contact MICHAEL ROSENBERG at 313-222-6052 or rosenberg@freepress.com.