A Sorry Day for Bruins

With activists in wheelchairs jeering outside the courtroom, nine current and former UCLA football players pleaded no contest Wednesday to misdemeanor charges for using handicapped permits to get better parking spots on campus.

In accordance with a plea bargain, the players were put on two years’ probation, fined about $1,500 each and required to complete 200 hours of community service. Five other athletes charged in the scheme requested continuances and will return to court Aug. 25.

Less than an hour after the sentencing, UCLA suspended the nine current players--including two whose cases were continued--for the season-opening game, against Boise State, and the second game, against Ohio State.

The players huddled outside Los Angeles Municipal Court after the proceedings there as linebacker Ali Abdul Azziz strained to be heard over protesters, who called for the maximum sentence of six months in jail and waved signs reading, “Park them on the bench.”

Azziz said, “We did not realize the seriousness of our actions. Our faces have been posted on television and newspapers and we know we have embarrassed our school, our families and ourselves.”

Chancellor Albert Carnesale said later during a media conference at UCLA, “This behavior is particularly insensitive because it was carried out by student-athletes, for they are among the most able-bodied of all. Yet, fairness requires that their punishment be of a severity consistent with that which would be imposed upon any other student guilty of the same conduct.”

The punishment--at least the court-ordered portion--did not satisfy activists, who screamed, “Shame! Shame!” at fullback Durell Price and offensive lineman James Ghezzi.

Ben Rockwell, in a wheelchair, chased down Azziz and tearfully castigated the strapping senior for abusing “the rights we’ve worked so hard for.”

Azziz stood speechless before turning away.

These latest developments in a very public scandal occurred on the same day The Times obtained police reports suggesting that Azziz was one of the ringleaders in a long-standing pattern of illegal conduct by team members.

The scheme was uncovered six months ago when UCLA police spotted a car with an improperly displayed handicapped placard entering a parking garage. An investigation led to numerous players who had obtained placards by filing false applications to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The applications listed bogus maladies ranging from asthma to lower back pain and included fabricated physicians’ signatures.

Many of the players told officers they got the applications from Azziz. According to a supplemental report by the University of California Police Department, Azziz told police he had learned to falsify parking applications from former running back Skip Hicks, who plays for the Washington Redskins.

“Azziz said that one day he had been complaining to other team members about the cost of on-campus parking permits,” the report states. “One of the other players told him that he could get a disabled parking placard from a fellow team member, Hicks. Azziz went to Hicks’ home where Hicks gave him an application that already had the [fabricated] doctor’s signature.

“Azziz said that when Hicks graduated from UCLA in late 1997, that he took over the job of producing placard applications for the other team members. . . . Although he cannot remember all the names, Azziz estimated that he produced false applications for about a dozen people.”

UCLA police chose to investigate only those players with current placards. The information was then turned over to the city attorney’s office, which charged each player with separate counts of filing a false document and illegal possession of a placard.

The maximum sentence is six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. The city attorney offered to drop the false-document charges if the players agreed to accept probation, community service and a $150 fine that, with additional penalties, would total $500.

“We thought it was a fair disposition,” Deputy City Attorney Brian Williams said. “This isn’t one of those cases that require jail time.”

Williams added that the players got no more nor less than the average citizen would have gotten.

All 14 players were expected to enter pleas on Wednesday but the proceedings hit a snag when it was discovered the minimum fine for misusing a placard was $500. That increased the total fines and penalties to about $1,500.

“That sort of threw things for a loop,” said Harland Braun, an attorney who represented six players. “There was a lot of negotiating.”

Several players balked, asking for more time to consider their plea, but most accepted the offer shortly before noon.

Among those entering pleas were Azziz, a projected starter; Oscar Cabrera, a starting guard; Ryan Nece, a starting linebacker; and Ryan Roques, listed No. 1 on the depth chart at cornerback.

Among those requesting continuances were Price, Ghezzi and former fullback Craig Walendy, who is in training camp with the San Francisco 49ers.

As part of their community service, the convicted players must devote 100 hours to the Special Olympics. Rafer Johnson, 1960 Olympic decathlon champion and a Special Olympics board member, accompanied them to court.

“People do make mistakes,” said Johnson, a UCLA alumnus. “Hopefully, these athletes will learn there’s a very positive way to repay their debt.”

The players will probably serve as coaches and on-field assistants at Special Olympics events, Johnson said. They will spend the remaining 100 hours of their community service working with the disabled in organizations ranging from the Multiple Sclerosis Society to the city Department of Recreation and Parks.

Each must also spend a day with the disabled as part of the victim-impact program, Williams said.

“If we had realized then how offensive our actions were toward the disabled community or anyone else, we would never have committed these acts,” Azziz said in a brief statement. He added, “We’re anxious to make amends for what we have done.”

His teammates refused to speak to reporters and onlookers, waving their hands and saying “No comment!” as they walked to the parking lot. That left activists still angry.

“[They] totally ignored us,” Dianne Piastro said from her wheelchair. “I’m absolutely shocked that the players made no response.”

Staff writer Scott Howard-Cooper contributed to this story.