Gainesville police want charges filed against Earl Everett and Skyler Thornton.
Florida linebacker Earl Everett and tailback Skyler Thornton on Tuesday became the latest athletes on a growing list of Gators finding trouble with the law.
The Gainesville Police Department finalized two sworn complaints against Everett and Thornton, asking state prosecutors to charge the players with simple battery in connection with an off-campus fight June 13, a police report said.
Everett and Thornton, both sophomores, are suspected of kicking a Florida student during the same disturbance that resulted in last week's arrest of linebacker Taurean Charles on aggravated battery charges, the report said. Another student was hit with a half-full beer keg in the incident, police said.
John Nabet, a Gainesville detective assigned to the case, said all three athletes admitted to committing the offenses during interviews with police.
The sworn complaints issued Tuesday list Tim Lyons, who lived at the house where the party took place, as the alleged victim. Lyons said he attempted to ask a number of athletes to leave the party after they began throwing ice into the crowd. The players began arguing back when the fight broke out, he said.
Lyons was pulled off an elevated deck by his feet and was punched and kicked, the police report said.
Nabet used a photo to identify several players at the party involved in the disturbance, the detective said.
"You can see some of the football players in action poses, with one guy actually swinging," Nabet said. "There's another guy on the right hand side looking as if he needs to walk away. You don't actually see any blows connecting, but these people were obviously involved based on their attitudes in the photograph."
The latest sworn complaints will be turned over to the State Attorney's Office, where prosecutors will decide whether or not to pursue the charges.
Everett, from South Sumter High, is expected to start at linebacker this season. Thornton is expected to play behind Ciatrick Fason and DeShawn Wynn at tailback.
What a damn waste of beer...........I just isn't right.
