Professor Feeney Comments on Basketball Felony Charge for KCRA-3
Professor Floyd Feeney commented for a television news report on KCRA-3 on felony charges filed against a 15-year-old Rocklin boy over a foul committed in a basketball game. Though the boy's parents claim he accidentally knocked another player over in the normal course of the game, the Placer County District Attorney has filed a felony battery charge.
Professor Feeney said that criminal charges resulting from acts engaged in during athletic competition are "not unheard of, but it happens very rarely."
He said that prosecutors may have a difficult time proving an intent to do harm. "The clearer the injury, the clearer this was something that was above and beyond the normal game, the more likely there will be a prosecution," he said.
Floyd Feeney is the Homer G. and Ann Berryhill Angelo Professor of Law at the UC Davis School of Law and the winner of the Law School's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1986 and 2008. The author of seven books and numerous articles, Feeney has received awards from the National Institute of Justice and the California Probation, Parole, and Correctional Association, and is a nationally recognized scholar on election law.