LeGree back on job for UC

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Keith LeGree understands that his reputation has been damaged even though he was acquitted of a charge of driving under the influence.

"There's no question," LeGree said. "But I don't care. I just wanted a fair trial. I just wanted the truth to come out and it did. I didn't know I had this health problem. I'm a low-key guy. All this attention, I don't like to have that. That was the worst thing that could happen to me."

LeGree, 33, was back at his job as an assistant men's basketball coach at the University of Cincinnati on Wednesday after a meeting with athletic director Bob Goin, who suspended him with pay when LeGree was arrested March 23.

"We reinstated the guy," Goin said. "The bottom line is that he was cleared and he's back on the job. Now go do what you've got to do."

LeGree was found asleep and slumped over the wheel of his Chevy Blazer at the time of his arrest. Cincinnati police said he was disoriented and smelled of alcohol, but a jury in Hamilton County municipal court acquitted him Friday after about five minutes of deliberation.

He said later that a sleep disorder - sleep apnea - caused him to fall asleep that night, but that was not the reason he was acquitted.

"The sleeping disorder, that didn't even come up in trial," LeGree said Wednesday. "I had said something about it, but it had nothing to do with the trial."

LeGree continued: "I don't like when people say, 'He beat the rap because of a sleep disorder.' That's not true."

LeGree said after his arrest he went to the Sleep Management Institute in Northern Kentucky and was told he had sleep apnea. The institute would not comment on LeGree.

According to WebMD.com, sleep apnea is a disorder in which a person's breathing is interrupted during sleep.

If left untreated, it can be responsible for "job impairment and motor vehicle crashes," according to the Web site.

"They have you hooked up with valves and wires all up and down your body," LeGree said. "They monitor you all night. They had me sleeping for 41/2 hours and I stopped breathing 15 times. They show you the videotape. When you breathe in so deep, something collapses down there and it stops your breathing. That was one of the things I didn't know. I was only sleeping the first or second stage. I was never getting to the third or fourth stage. I was never getting any rest."

LeGree said before his arrest he was chronically tired and sometimes would fall asleep unexpectedly, but he attributed it to his workload.

"I was constantly going," LeGree said. "I thought it was just something that you just get fatigued. I just never looked into that. I've had people telling me they'd knock on my door in a hotel, and I didn't hear anything."

LeGree said he spent his four months off work visiting his parents, working out and playing softball. Although he says it was a difficult time for him, he believes what happened might be beneficial in the long run.

"I had a chance to rest a little bit," he said. "It really put my life in perspective. It was something I wish wouldn't have happened, but it was something I think I needed.

"This is what I've been around all my life, giving back to the game, giving back to the kids, giving out advice where it's needed, just being back lending a helping hand again. I'm just happy to be back being part of something I love to do."

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050728/SPT0101/507280394/1064

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