Felony charges for three Cal State Long Beach students for possession of two dry-ice explosive devices in Parking Structure 2 on Nov. 4 have been dropped.
Nicole Blalock, 22, Jason Bruton, 22 and Scot Breithaupt, 21, were arrested and booked at Long Beach Police Department two weeks ago for setting off a dry-ice explosive device in Parking Structure 2. Blalock and Bruton are cross country athletes for the university.
“We declined to file any charges based on insufficient evidence,” said Jane Robison, press secretary of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. “There was not enough evidence to reasonably believe a jury would convict them.”
University Police arrested the three students because of their possession of destructive devices and the students admitted to purchasing the items to make the devices, University Lt. Fernando Solorzano said.
Breithaupt said it was just something that people do. He said it wasn’t to cause harm, but they did it and they might receive hard consequences.
“We apologize for the disgrace. We’re sorry, especially to the coaching staff and the administration staff,” Bruton said. “Long Beach State means a lot to all of us. [There is] nothing we can do to make up for it and [we] never want to embarrass our school in a negative way.”
The students said they had originally planned to”blow up pumpkins.
“One pumpkin blew up, but it really didn’t do anything,” Breithaupt said. “The charges were dropped, [we] didn’t have to go to court.”
“People had been taking it a lot more seriously. It was not an actual bomb. It just to make some noise,” Bruton said. “We just had pumpkins we could throw them off,” he said.
“Me and Jason first thought it would be interesting to set off a sound in the parking structure,” Breithaupt said. He said the pumpkin fell off the parking structure and the police were at the bottom of the structure. He said they ran down the stairs, and the police chased them.
“Ever since 9/11, they take things more seriously,” Breithaupt said.
Blalock was not available for comment.
Blalock and Bruton are still on the team, but they are not allowed to practice or compete for the regionals or nationals.
“They can’t compete or practice to understand the responsibility that they have,” said Athletic Director Vec Cegles. “Those are the consequences of their behavior.”
The coach will meet with the team on Monday to address them and to let them know that they still represent the school, Cegles said.
“They are great student-athletes and great kids, and they are suffering the consequences,” he said. “They made stupid decisions and they have to understand that.”
