Rick Costa accused of punching police officer
Maryland linebacker Rick Costa has been indefinitely suspended from the team after being accused of punching a police officer in the face at a local bar early Sunday morning.
Costa, a senior criminology major who has been splitting time with Trey Covington at outside linebacker, was charged with assault after police were summoned to the Cornerstone Grill & Loft in College Park at about 2:25 in the morning.
Costa had been trying to get into the bar and began brawling with a bouncer when told the bar was closing, police said.
“The officer rushed over to try and break up the fight when he came in contact with two employees who work at the bar as bouncers,” said officer Henry Tippett, spokesman for the Prince George’s County Police Department. Tippett said he was paraphrasing from a document – a statement of charges – filed against Costa over the weekend.
The bouncers told police that Costa and two other unidentified males had been told “they had to leave,” Tippett said.
“At this point the defendant [Costa] became combative, striking one of the bouncers in the face. Another bouncer came to intervene and tried to stop Costa from fighting with the other bouncer, at which point Costa pushed him away,” Tippett said.
Tippett continued: “The officer approached Costa. He announced himself as a police officer. The officer said Costa was intoxicated and disorderly at which point he punched the officer in the right side of his eye, causing a face injury.”
Other officers then arrived and Costa was charged with assault. He was later released on bond.
Coach Ralph Friedgen said at the afternoon media lunch that Costa had been suspended because of an “off-campus incident” but declined to elaborate.
"Due to the nature of the charges, Rick has been indefinitely suspended from all team activities, including practice and game participation," Friedgen said in a prepared statement released later. "Once the issue has been resolved, Rick's status with the team will be re-evaluated."
Costa has played in nine games, starting two. His 22 tackles include seven that resulted in lost yardage – tops on the team.
Costa’s brother, Phil, is an offensive lineman on the team. The Costas are from Moorestown, N.J.
Rick Costa began his career at Temple, then transferred to Maryland after redshirting as a freshman.
Comments
Rick Costa's a criminology major, huh? Jeeezezzz---Didn't he read the chapter where they tell ya not to punch cops?!? Ughhh. Wow, that was two-fer--the kid screwed up his football and law enforcement careers in one night.
Posted by: cjterps98 | November 11, 2008 10:24 PM
Stupid,Rick.Did he think the officer was wearing a NC uniform?It's sad but kids have issues that they don't handle well under alchohol.I hope he learns a lesson and comes back a better person later in the season.
Posted by: Dan R. | November 12, 2008 6:18 AM
Glad to see Costa is learning a lot from those criminology classes. Poor kid pulled a bona fide twofer--screwed up his football and law enforcement careers in one fell swoop.
Posted by: chris | November 12, 2008 12:22 PM
Who'da thunk it? He was a problem in high school, given a scholarship to Temple, which he lost because he hit a cop. If I were in charge of giving out scholarship money for UMD, he'd be at the top of MY list!!!!! I guess UMD thought he'd be a good boy if they did him a favor and took him in (he can probably thank his little brother Phil, who was already playing football for UMD). Meanwhile, top of their class, serious students are paying full tuition and busting their humps to get degrees while people like Rick Costa take up valuable learning space!!!!!!!
Posted by: PaulinCinnaminson | November 13, 2008 6:37 PM
wow paulincinnaminson seems like you have been jealous of rick costa since his high school days. so what great things have you done or accomplished. and just so you know playing football and getting your degree in four years is by no means an easy task. and all the money rick and all the other football players bring in with tv contracts, ticket sales, parking sales, and concession sales is way more money then if you added up the free tuition they all get. also playing football even at the college level is a full time job the only off time they get is a few weeks after the bowl game until the middle of january. and then they go rite back to classes and football practice until the next january.
Posted by: c | November 15, 2008 2:51 PM
hey "c", as much as i agree that it's hard work to juggle NCAA sports with a full time education, it doesn't change the fact that this kid is wasting peoples time and UMD's classroom space.
he's now shown us on 2 occasions that he's not deserving of either a scholarship OR a place on the UMD football team
Posted by: t-rex | November 19, 2008 2:12 AM