The record-setting operating again with the Mighty Mouse tattoo gained’t be requested to save lots of the day once more as a police officer in California.
Tyler Ebell nonetheless holds the single-season state file of 4,494 dashing yards he set in 2000 at Ventura Excessive, and the 5-foot-8 scatback went on to star at UCLA, setting a freshman file by dashing for greater than 100 yards in six consecutive video games whereas incomes second-team All-American honors.
After three years within the Canadian Soccer League, Ebell turned a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy, seemingly the epitome of a highschool and school soccer hero giving again to his neighborhood. But in 2022, Ebell was fired after an inside affairs investigation discovered he “committed repeated acts of serious misconduct and grossly violated the foundational principles of a law enforcement officer.”
Ebell was accused of pursuing and carrying on a sexual relationship with Nastaza Schmidt, an inmate within the jail the place he labored. The Sheriff’s Workplace referred his case to the California Fee on Peace Officer Requirements and Coaching, and Ebell surrendered his certification with the company earlier this month.
With out the certification, Ebell can not work as an officer in any state police company, as first reported by the Ventura County Star.
Ventura County settled a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Schmidt and one other lady in 2023 by paying them $49,999. The lawsuit accused Ebell of pressuring Schmidt right into a relationship by promising to assist her decrease her legal fees.
Schmidt died two years in the past, her physique discovered on the garden of a Thousand Oaks house after she had fled on foot from a self-storage facility she and two males have been making an attempt to burglarize. The Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Workplace concluded that Schmidt, 34, died of “probable cardiac arrest,” and had a probably deadly quantity of methamphetamine in her system.
Schmidt already had a legal historical past of housebreaking when she was arrested in 2020 and charged with identification theft, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of housebreaking instruments. Ebell was one of many arresting officers, and in accordance with the lawsuit filed in federal courtroom by Schmidt in January 2023, he showered her with favors whereas she was incarcerated, insinuating that she would repay him with intercourse when she was launched.
The day she was set free on bail, Ebell picked her up on the jail, took her to her grandparents home and so they had intercourse, the lawsuit alleged. Quickly thereafter, Ebell’s spouse and two youngsters took a visit to Canada and Schmidt stayed at his home for greater than two weeks, in accordance with the lawsuit.
USC security Troy Polamalu causes UCLA operating again Tyler Ebell to fumble throughout a sport on the Rose Bowl on Nov. 23, 2002.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Instances)
The lawsuit additionally alleged that Ebell assaulted Schmidt when he confronted her and her ex-boyfriend at her grandparent’s home and that Ebell insisted she get an abortion when she turned pregnant together with his baby.
Ebell was seen with Schmidt at a restaurant by two off-duty deputies Dec. 30, 2021, triggering an inside affairs investigation. Ebell resigned from the Sheriff’s Workplace a 12 months later.
In keeping with the prolonged inside affairs report, Ebell informed detectives that he was “going through a lot of emotional stuff, and I made a ton of poor decisions not typically my character. I was looking for an escape and I found it in a friend, and it was the wrong friend in the wrong place. And I did a lot of things that I would never normally do when I’m in the right mindset.”
The outcome has been a steep fall for Ebell. In 2006, he and former UCLA teammates Ricky Manning Jr. and Maurice Jones-Drew have been concerned in an alleged assault stemming from an assault on a person in a Denny’s restaurant in Westwood at 3 a.m. Ebell was charged with felony assault however a decide downgraded it to a misdemeanor, and that cost was ultimately dropped due to inadequate proof.
In keeping with the Los Angeles Police Division, the three allegedly harassed a person engaged on a laptop computer laptop on the restaurant. “The group began by making comments that the victim looked like a geek or a nerd,” LAPD Det. Robert Lewis informed reporters.
The sufferer requested the group to cease and complained to a Denny’s supervisor earlier than somebody within the group punched him within the face. He then was punched and kicked till dropping consciousness, in accordance with Lewis.
The incident occurred three weeks after Jones-Drew had been drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars. He wasn’t charged and went on to a nine-year NFL profession that included three Professional Bowl appearances and All-Professional recognition in 2011.
Manning Jr., a defensive again, had acquired a $21-million contract provide from the Chicago Bears solely days earlier. He signed the deal and some months later pleaded no contest to felony assault and was sentenced to 3 years probation, one 12 months of anger administration counseling and 100 hours of neighborhood service.
Ebell wasn’t thought of large enough for the NFL, however he led the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL with 1,318 complete yards in 2007 earlier than a ruptured Achilles tendon ended his profession a 12 months later. He returned to the hometown the place at age 14 he’d sat in a Hells Angels hangout for that Mighty Mouse tattoo and have become a peace officer, a job that ended for good in California this month.
