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Published - Friday, July 25, 2008

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Smith booted from first-offenders' program, suspended from UW football team

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Wisconsin Badgers running back Lance Smith fumbled his second chance at being a law-abiding citizen and now faces the possibility of a jail sentence, heavy fine and the end of his college football career.

Smith, the Badgers' third-leading running back in 2007, on Thursday was terminated from the first-offenders program he was placed in after beating his girlfriend in July because of "continued non-compliance" and lack of follow-through with the program's rules and requirements, court records show.

In response, Badgers head coach Bret Bielema on Thursday suspended Smith from the team, including competition and practice, pending further information about the matter. During the suspension, Smith will remain on official squad lists and may continue to receive services in the sports medicine facility, the academic support center and the weight training room, Bielema said.

In a letter to Dane County Circuit Judge Stuart Schwartz, who accepted Smith's guilty pleas to battery and disorderly conduct in October and then withheld the convictions, the director of the District Attorney's Deferred Prosecution Unit said Smith poses a "high risk of reoffense" and "is no longer appropriate" for the first-offenders program.

"He has consistently met contract requirements late, if at all, which also indicates his inability and/or refusal to accept responsibility," director Patricia Hrubesky told Schwartz. "He is in need of a more intense level of supervision than the (first-offenders program) can offer."

If Smith had completed the first-offenders program, which was to have ended in December, the charges would have been dismissed, according to the court agreement. Because he failed the program, the case has been sent back to court where he must be sentenced.

Last year, because of the incident, the Athletic Department suspended Smith, then a 19-year-old sophomore, for all five of UW's regular-season road games — though he was allowed to play in the Outback Bowl in Tampa. In the Badgers' seven home games and the Outback Bowl, Smith carried the ball 71 times for 429 yards, for a 6-yard average.

Smith last year also said he was remorseful about the incident, in a UW press release that quotes him as apologizing to his "girlfriend, my coaches, my teammates, our fans and the university community."

In December, before the bowl game, Smith also said he had "learned a lot" from the incident and was trying to take responsibility for his actions. Hrubesky's letter to Schwartz paints a far different picture, saying Smith missed two appointments, failed to pay the program fees and failed to get assessed for required abuser treatment. Smith also is "suspected of further assaultive behavior" toward the same woman he abused originally, Hrubesky told the judge.

At a pre-termination meeting on Wednesday, when Smith had one last chance to address his failings in the program, Hrubesky was not impressed with his attitude, she said.

"While he admits (the original offense), he does so with an unacceptably high level of minimization," she said. "His rationalizations for non-compliance (to program rules) were excessive and unacceptable."

Smith on Thursday could not be reached for comment and his attorney, Erik Guenther, did not return a message.

Court records on Thursday did not set a date for Smith's sentencing. Smith faces up to a year in jail and an $11,000 fine.
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