Carlton Hill Update

[bigbull]

College football

USF star recruit charged

Quarterback Carlton Hill is accused of having sex with an underage girl at his school.

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer

Published February 23, 2005

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Quarterback Carlton Hill, a touted recruit who signed with South Florida three weeks ago, has been charged with a misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after he was found having consensual sex with a female student last week at his high school.

Hill, 19, has been suspended indefinitely from school since the Feb. 16 incident, and while school administrators said Tuesday that the incident likely will not keep him from graduating, he now has other problems.

Hill faces a March 8 arraignment on the misdemeanor, but last week's arrest was not his first on school grounds. In January 2000, Hill was arrested at Tallahassee's Swift Creek Middle School, charged with a misdemeanor count of battery after he pushed and "continuously" punched a classmate in the head in a hallway after class, according to police reports.

The victim, a younger male student, told police that Hill, then a 6-foot-2, 172-pound seventh-grader, had pushed him earlier in the day and "was waiting for me" outside a class and punched him "in the eye and in the back of the head about 4 times." Because juvenile court records are sealed, it's unknown how Hill pleaded to the charge against him.

Hill changed high schools twice in the past three years. After returning to Monticello for his freshman year at Jefferson County, he transferred to Rickards High, near where his father lives in Tallahassee. After attending his sophomore year there, he switched back to Jefferson County, and Algie Hendrieth, his coach at Rickards, said Hill had transferred back because he was struggling academically and his mother didn't like the crowd he was hanging with in Tallahassee.

Hill has not returned messages left at his home, and David Collins, the Monticello attorney hired to represent him last week, declined to comment Tuesday. USF coach Jim Leavitt said Monday that he has spoken with Hill about the incident but declined to comment further.

Jefferson County's school board policy says that a student who commits "a lewd and lascivious act" has committed an offense serious enough to merit expulsion by the school board upon recommendation from the superintendent.

County superintendent Phil Barker said Tuesday that no action would likely be taken until the board's next meeting on March 14, but that he didn't anticipate any penalty so harsh as to threaten his graduation.

"It's still under investigation, but I would hope that after everything is said and done, he would have the opportunity to graduate," Barker said.

It's unknown when Hill is expected to return to school. Any discipline would come from the five-member school board, and member Beverly Sloan said Tuesday that the board would not want to cost Hill the opportunity he has earned at USF.

"Students make bad choices, but I don't think anybody wants to see him lose out on what he has," she said. "We don't have many students who get such an opportunity."

Hill, ranked as the nation's No.13 quarterback by recruiting site Scout.com and the 14th-best prospect in the state by the Times, was a first-team Class A all-state selection after passing for 1,765 yards and 20 touchdowns and rushing for 888 yards and 12 more scores last fall.

Did not know he was in trouble before....It seems however he will graduate and hopefully not ruin the rest of his life

[Apis Bull]

So he got into a fight in 7th grade.  So did I.  The difference is, no one called the police back then.

[NAM37]

Man, I sure hope this kid is not a thug....

NAM37

[Velcro]

Getting into a fight as a kid doesn't make someone a thug.  

[Papa_Bull]

His HS principal called him a "model student" before this incident.

[beastiebull]

Geez, now middle school altercations are being blown out of proportion and reported on by the media.  I really don't think it was appropriate for Auman to put this in print.  A fight in 7th grade and messing around with a girl as a senior: Both of these incidents are not uncommon and could have happened with anyone on this board, as well as Mr. Greg Auman.

[Guest wildrover]

So he got into a fight in 7th grade.  So did I.  The difference is, no one called the police back then.

Nobody called the papers either.  Hope he is learning really quick that with great opportunity comes great responsibility.  If it was any one of us nobody else would know I'm sure, but with all the great press he got, he now has to walk on egg shells just like any other celebrity.  If he gets a speeding ticket it will make the paper and people will judge.

[BULLfreak]

Who hasn't got in a fight in 7th grade?

[Guest SFBullfan]

Keep making those excuses for him everyone.  I would say a 6'2" 7th grader hitting another 7th grader would classify him as a punk and a thug.  When you are that  much bigger than the other kids, you don't need to punch people.  Hill sounds like a thug and I am willing to be he never makes it past his freshman year.  Between his grades and his choices, he will be gone.   Good thing we have Grothe.

[Velcro]

Gnat alert