The Daily Agenda: Let’s play a game of semantics!

The UA has a new athletic director, but we still have questions for the old one … We hit another dead end in our inquiry about the school’s former quarterback … County can't decide on jail.

Former University of Arizona Athletic Director Dave Heeke had to answer for a handful of scandals during his seven years with the UA, including the conviction of a former track coach who assaulted one of his student-athletes, a lawsuit involving sexual harassment allegations against former football coach Rich Rodriguez and an FBI investigation into a pay-for-play on the men’s basketball team.

In each of those situations, the public questioned what, how and why such a thing could happen, and although we didn’t always like what we were told, we were at least able to get some answers.

But there’s one situation in which we’re still left with plenty of questions. And with Heeke’s departure, the hiring of new Athletic Director Desireé Reed-Francois and the UA’s response (or lack thereof) to multiple record requests, it feels like the book is officially closing on this particular scandal.

We’re talking about Jayden de Laura, the UA’s starting quarterback for the 2022 and part of the 2023 season. Last May, reporters learned that de Laura had settled a sexual assault case from 2018 with a woman who claimed he and another player raped her after a high school football game in Honolulu.

According to the lawsuit –– which Caitlin reviewed at the time –– de Laura and the other player were charged with second-degree sexual assault and later pleaded guilty. Because they were both minors at the time, police and court records for the case were sealed to the public.

De Laura’s attorneys were quick to say he never pleaded guilty, was never convicted and made no omission of guilt in the civil court settlement, which was rejected by the judge, who said the amount was too low because of de Laura’s ability to make money off his name, image and likeness.

De Laura eventually lost his starting quarterback position and was ultimately cut from the team, transferring to Texas State last month. Days later, amidst campus protests after the student newspaper broke the news of his amended settlement, de Laura withdrew his transfer.

This situation has never sat well with us and we’ve spent the past six months trying to find out what exactly the UA knew about the sexual assault allegation and when (they said they found out in the fall of 2022, when the civil lawsuit was filed.)

But after two failed records requests for the documentation about de Laura’s case that athletic department officials claimed to have reviewed, we’re starting to think we may never find out.

And it seems like this is all coming down to semantics.

In August, Heeke told the Arizona Daily Star’s Michael Lev that the department “looked at every ounce of the information, evaluated it” and that the review of that information is the reason why de Laura stayed on the team.

If Heeke had received information related to de Laura’s juvenile file, the documents would become part of the UA’s public record, so we put in a request for “all the records relating to … de Laura's juvenile charges and the adjudication thereof that … Heeke obtained and reviewed.”

The UA rejected our request last month, telling us it “does not possess any records responsive to your request as written.”

We figured the rejection had to do with the wording of our request, so we tried again, asking this time for “any and all court or police documents related to Jayden de Laura that were reviewed by the UA and/or its athletic department as part of his recruitment and/or acceptance to the football team and/or school.”

Last week, the UA again told us it had no responsive records.

So, either we still aren’t asking the right way or the UA actually doesn’t have any records related to de Laura’s juvenile record in Hawaii, which begs the question, what exactly did Heeke review?

According to former football coach Jedd Fisch, not much.

“We were not able to get much information. We did as much due diligence as humanly possible, and what we learned is that Jayden never pled guilty or was never found guilty of any crimes,” Fisch said during a July press conference. “There is no information, there won’t be any information that is available under Hawaii law. Everything is sealed and expunged, so there really is nothing for us to learn.”

It’s worth noting that de Laura could have consented to the records being released to the UA by the juvenile court in Hawaii, but we don’t know if the UA asked him to do that or if he offered.

Fisch said that the department decided that’s what they could “live off of” and that it would be unfair to make decisions based on information they didn’t have.

But this doesn’t seem to line up with Heeke’s statement a month later, which implied that he actually reviewed quite a bit of information. And we’d like to believe he was telling the truth in the wake of several recent and high-profile situations involving alleged sexual abuse and domestic violence by members of the athletic department.

So, are we still just not using the right words in our request?

That would be par for the course with this particular situation, which has revolved heavily around word choice since day one.

De Laura’s lawyers have been very specific in saying that he didn’t plead guilty and was not convicted of sexual assault, and it turns out, that may very well be true.

That’s because in juvenile court, a person isn’t found innocent or guilty and they’re not convicted. They’re “adjudicated delinquent,” and it’s not considered a plea of guilt, but rather a “stipulation” to an adjudication or finding of delinquency.

Caitlin never got the chance to ask de Laura’s lawyers if he’d been adjudicated delinquent in connection with a sexual assault and it’s unclear if anyone else ever did, either.

One thing is certain: The public’s right to know is not the winner of this particular game of words.

County says no: The Pima County supervisors decided on Tuesday they won’t use county funds to care for asylum seekers after federal funds dry up next month, the Arizona Daily Star’s Charles Borla reports. The supervisors are writing a letter to southern Arizona’s congressional delegation to that effect. They’re hoping other local officials, as well as those in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties, who also have been dealing with large numbers of asylum seekers, will sign the letter.

Asylum worries: Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik traces the history of the five-year effort to care for asylum seekers in a guest opinion in the Star and calls for donations to keep coming in as local officials figure out what to do. Star reporter Emily Bregel breaks down the funding situation with KJZZ’s Lauren Gilger.

Constable suspended, again: The county supervisors suspended Constable Oscar Vasquez on Tuesday for the rest of his term, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. A state ethics board recommended the suspensions after he didn’t show up to work from April to September following an injury. Vasquez said the suspension wasn’t fair. This is the third time he’s been suspended. He was suspended in 2020 after driving at excessive speeds, damaging county vehicles, and failing to take anger management classes. He ran unopposed for re-election that year, then he was suspended again in 2021 for delaying an eviction. He filed to run again this year, but he isn’t sure whether he’ll stay in the race against Tracy Ethridge-Nielsen, who had a long career with the Pascua Yaqui Police Department. 

No decision yet: As they debated what to do about the Pima County jail on Tuesday, the county supervisors hesitated to endorse any of the options laid out for them by the Blue Ribbon Commission, the Arizona Luminaria’s John Washington reports. Supervisor Matt Heinz wants to reduce the jail’s population. Supervisor Rex Scott wants to know how many people are there because they couldn’t afford bail. Supervisor Adelita Grijalva wants more input from people who work in the jail or were impacted by the jail. Supervisor Steve Christy, the lone Republican on the board, wants to know why the commission couldn’t come up with a clear recommendation.

“If they can’t come up with a recommendation, what was the purpose of the commission?” Christy asked. 

Out and in: Republican candidate Beatrice Cory Stephens dropped out of the District 2 county supervisor race, then jumped back in, the Sentinel’s Nintzel reported. Stephens is trying to win the seat held by Supervisor Matt Heinz. She posted on social media on Monday that she didn’t see a way to win and planned to drop out. But after encouragement from state Sen. Justine Wadsack and state Rep. Cory McGarr, both Republicans from Legislative District 17, Stephens decided to get back in the race.

Nice paycheck: University of Arizona basketball coach Tommy Lloyd got a big raise in a revamped contract, the Star’s Bruce Pascoe reports. His compensation went up 28% to $5.25 million for next season and his deal with the UA added two years to his contract. The raise will be covered by donors. The Arizona Board of Regents have to approve the contract before it becomes official.

$19.34 million: The combined deficit for all Pac-12 athletic departments during the 2021-22 fiscal year (the most recent year available in the Knight-Newhouse College Athletic Database.) That same year, the UA athletic department reported a loss of $5.5 million, according to the database.