Luke Easterling posted part of this article on his twitter feed. Below is a link and some quotes from the article. http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/into-the-fire-6404613 In the months leading up to the March 26, 2005, murder of Brandon Falkner, then-coach Dirk Koetter did everything possible to get his star running back, Loren Wade, back on the team.Wade had been suspended from the team in fall 2004 after accepting payments from an athletic department friend with whom he'd had a sexual affair. Wade missed the rest of the 2004 season, but by early 2005, Koetter had decided to reinstate the running back. Koetter made that decision even though he'd received extremely troubling information concerning Wade's behavior. So, in short Dirk allowed some very bad guys to play football when they should have been in jail.Koetter was aware that Wade had threatened to kill a female gymnast. Koetter also had received a report from ASU's women's soccer coach that players were terrified because Wade possessed a gun. He also knew that Wade's girlfriend had called police, fearing Wade was going to destroy her apartment after he threatened her life.Rather than report Wade's increasingly dangerous behavior to campus police or to student-affairs authorities, Koetter elected to counsel Wade personally.Koetter's decision allowed Wade to careen out of control in early 2005. If campus police and university authorities had known he was carrying a gun and making death threats, he almost certainly would've been expelled from ASU.Wade's criminal defense attorney, Ulises Ferragut, says that although Wade accepts full responsibility for the shooting, ASU should have provided better guidance to him in fall 2004 and early 2005, when it was clear that he was struggling with a volatile relationship and with the fallout caused by his suspension from the team."When things went awry, instead of the coaching staff saying 'Time out!' they sort of just let it go on," Ferragut says. ASU, he says, sent "the wrong message to Wade" by allowing his aberrant behavior to go unchecked.Wendy Adams — the former athletic department employee who provided the improper cash payments to Wade that led to his suspension and ASU's subsequent and most recent NCAA probation order — said in a letter to Wade that many people were aware he was having serious problems in fall 2004 and early 2005. Adams sent the letter to Wade after he was being held in the Maricopa County Jail in the slaying of Brandon Falkner."I think the system failed you," Adams wrote in that April 25, 2005, letter. "The signs of your temper, depression, and not being rational were there, and they should have gotten you help."She noted in the letter that ASU obtained a psychologist for Wade when he was considering quitting football in fall 2004 after sustaining a concussion during a practice. But, Adams wrote, the university didn't do anything when Wade was having problems with girlfriends and "punching walls."Adams wrote, "I saw it, so I know that our friends, coaches, and your mother saw it, too. Like I said, we all failed you and, in turn, Brandon."ASU, however, doesn't see it that way. In a heavily censored report prepared by a university task force formed to investigate the shooting, ASU acknowledged in July 2005 that Koetter made "errors in judgment" in handling Wade. The report, however, concluded that no university policies were violated.Koetter escaped reprimand, but his future at ASU appeared to be in jeopardy, especially because his teams struggled against top opponents. Love surprised many — and infuriated Falkner's family — when she extended Koetter's contract in December 2005 through the 2009 season. She also gave him a $172,000 raise, boosting his pay to $950,000 a year.
