Owens to plead not guilty to assaults

Warnell "Yode" Owens will plead innocent at a September trial to charges that he assaulted four University Police officers near the intersection of 36th and Walnut streets October 30, his attorney said yesterday. The incident attracted about 50 police officers from five different forces to campus. Owens, a 26-year-old Harvard University alumnus who lives in New York City, was allegedly arguing loudly with his friend, U.S. Attorney Richard Sofield, 28, and Sofield's brother, College freshman Bill Sofield, 18, outside the Phi Gamma Delta house on Locust Walk. After then-University Police Officer Jeff Dougherty cited the three for disorderly conduct, Owens walked through the house and out the back door into an alleyway behind it. Owens, a 250-pound former college football player, allegedly proceeded to beat four officers who confronted him in three separate incidents between the rear of the house and the corner of 36th and Walnut streets. "It will be pretty clear when the evidence is borne out that the facts issued by the University of Pennsylvania Police are not exactly accurate," Owens' lawyer Paul Hetznecker said yesterday. "Their confrontation [of Owens] was completely unnecessary and improper." When two officers confronted Owens in the alleyway, he allegedly reached for one of their guns and resisted arrest. The officers then used pepper spray in an attempt to subdue him. Owens allegedly knocked one of them to the ground and fled east toward 36th Street, where he allegedly knocked down another officer who confronted him outside the Hillel building. The last officer Owens allegedly assaulted was one of several who approached him at 36th and Walnut streets, telling him to "get to the ground," according to witnesses. Owens allegedly struck the officer in the face so hard he knocked off the officer's helmet, broke his nose and inflicted several other facial fractures. Officers wielding nightsticks eventually subdued Owens, who was later hospitalized for injuries he suffered during the incident. Hetznecker said he believed University Police mishandled the situation. Since the event, Bill Sofield's part of the case has been marked by controversy. Several FIJI brothers accused police of using excessive force while arresting Sofield inside their house. But neither Sofield nor his family ever filed a formal complaint, and an internal Penn investigation concluded that the situation was handled properly. In January, Sofield was acquitted of the disorderly conduct charge. Richard Sofield's disorderly conduct charge was settled after he attended a seminar on the subject.