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Football player sentenced for beating
Steroids played role in attack on officer
Friday, November 09, 2001
By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
INDIANA, Pa. -- Willie Knapp, once one of Allegheny County's most promising high school football prospects, is going into the state prison system for tackling and choking a police officer last year in what Knapp's lawyer said was a steroid-fueled rage.
Indiana County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Olson yesterday sentenced Knapp, 23, to two to four years in prison but allowed 14 months' credit for the time Knapp spent awaiting trial, under house arrest at his family's Franklin Park home.
Knapp, though, could be paroled to a halfway house in about eight months if the state Corrections Department honors a request from Knapp's lawyer and steers the former football star away from a state prison and into the commonwealth's Quehanna Boot Camp. Quehanna is a remote Clearfield County center where corrections officers take the role of drill sergeants and dish out a six-month helping of boot camp conditions to prisoners.
"We think there'd be benefit," defense lawyer Thomas Ceraso of Greensburg said after Knapp -- about 6 feet 2 inches tall and 300-plus pounds, looking very much the lineman he was -- was led away in shackles.
Olson could have let Knapp off with probation. But he said he came down heavily because Knapp had a history of violence, a juvenile record and a drug problem -- the latter, Ceraso said, a reference to the bodybuilding steroids police found in his car when he was arrested after the midday attack 13 months ago on the Indiana University of Pennsylvania campus.
What's more, Olson said, Knapp "has shown no remorse."
"There's no indication that Willie has used drugs other than steroids," Ceraso said outside the courtroom. "But he's a much different person now. He's a good person who doesn't have the rage he had."
It was a subdued Knapp who went before Olson yesterday, dressed in a sport coat, open collar shirt, oversized slacks and running shoes. Outside the courtroom, he politely brushed off questions.
Knapp was an explosive lineman at North Allegheny High School, where he graduated in 1997 before going on to play two years at the University of Rhode Island.
What followed, though, were aborted bids to break onto the football rosters of the University of Pittsburgh and IUP -- and then, an explosion of rage.
On Sept. 10, 2000, he was charged with flattening an IUP student with a punch to the head during a fraternity party at which one witness told police he watched Knapp "throw people off the back porch."
For that, Knapp got two years' probation.
But two days after the attack, IUP police say, Knapp became enraged when he was stopped for making an improper turn.
Police said Knapp threatened IUP Sgt. Gregory Davis, charged him and then -- when Davis sprayed Knapp with Mace -- knocked him down and tried to choke him.
Knapp avoided trial by pleading guilty to aggravated assault under a deal in which he avoided other charges, including attempted homicide and possessing restricted steroids.
Steroids played role in attack on officer
Friday, November 09, 2001
By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
INDIANA, Pa. -- Willie Knapp, once one of Allegheny County's most promising high school football prospects, is going into the state prison system for tackling and choking a police officer last year in what Knapp's lawyer said was a steroid-fueled rage.
Indiana County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Olson yesterday sentenced Knapp, 23, to two to four years in prison but allowed 14 months' credit for the time Knapp spent awaiting trial, under house arrest at his family's Franklin Park home.
Knapp, though, could be paroled to a halfway house in about eight months if the state Corrections Department honors a request from Knapp's lawyer and steers the former football star away from a state prison and into the commonwealth's Quehanna Boot Camp. Quehanna is a remote Clearfield County center where corrections officers take the role of drill sergeants and dish out a six-month helping of boot camp conditions to prisoners.
"We think there'd be benefit," defense lawyer Thomas Ceraso of Greensburg said after Knapp -- about 6 feet 2 inches tall and 300-plus pounds, looking very much the lineman he was -- was led away in shackles.
Olson could have let Knapp off with probation. But he said he came down heavily because Knapp had a history of violence, a juvenile record and a drug problem -- the latter, Ceraso said, a reference to the bodybuilding steroids police found in his car when he was arrested after the midday attack 13 months ago on the Indiana University of Pennsylvania campus.
What's more, Olson said, Knapp "has shown no remorse."
"There's no indication that Willie has used drugs other than steroids," Ceraso said outside the courtroom. "But he's a much different person now. He's a good person who doesn't have the rage he had."
It was a subdued Knapp who went before Olson yesterday, dressed in a sport coat, open collar shirt, oversized slacks and running shoes. Outside the courtroom, he politely brushed off questions.
Knapp was an explosive lineman at North Allegheny High School, where he graduated in 1997 before going on to play two years at the University of Rhode Island.
What followed, though, were aborted bids to break onto the football rosters of the University of Pittsburgh and IUP -- and then, an explosion of rage.
On Sept. 10, 2000, he was charged with flattening an IUP student with a punch to the head during a fraternity party at which one witness told police he watched Knapp "throw people off the back porch."
For that, Knapp got two years' probation.
But two days after the attack, IUP police say, Knapp became enraged when he was stopped for making an improper turn.
Police said Knapp threatened IUP Sgt. Gregory Davis, charged him and then -- when Davis sprayed Knapp with Mace -- knocked him down and tried to choke him.
Knapp avoided trial by pleading guilty to aggravated assault under a deal in which he avoided other charges, including attempted homicide and possessing restricted steroids.
May he be his overly endowed cellmate's bitch
