RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina basketball player Steve Bucknall received a 30-day suspended sentence and teammate J.R. Reid was ordered to perform community service Monday in their trial on assault charges.
The charges stemmed from a fight Oct. 24 in a Raleigh nightclub. North Carolina State student Paul James Doherty received nine stitches around his eye and a chipped tooth in the fight. According to testimony, the injuries resulted from a punch by Bucknall. Reid was said to have spit in Doherty's face.
North Carolina Coach Dean Smith called the case an 'expensive and damaging lesson' for Reid and Bucknall. He said he disagreed with Reid's punishment.
'It's hard to conceive spitting as an assault,' said Smith, in his 27th year as the Tar Heels' coach. 'If that is true, I've been assaulted several times just walking from the dressing rooms to the court at N.C. State, even with FBI agents present.'
Bucknall pleaded no contest to assault with intent to inflict bodily injury. He paid a $25 fine and $40 in court costs imposed by Judge Stafford Bullock. Reid, charged with simple assault, did not enter a plea. His case will be reviewed in nine months and will be stricken from the record upon completion of 100 hours of community service.
Reid, a sophomore from Virginia Beach, Va., and Bucknall, a junior from England, earlier agreed to pay Doherty's medical expenses. Doherty dropped his civil suit when that payment was made.
'I'm sorry that it happened,' Bucknall said as he left the Wake County Courthouse. 'I'm glad to get this behind me and get on with my education.'
The fight happened at Shooters II, a nightclub near N.C. State and about 30 miles from the North Carolina campus. Reid, last year's Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year, spit in Doherty's face according to Assistant District Attorney Lorie Fuller. She said Bucknall then hit Doherty with a fist.
Tar Heel guard King Rice was involved in the incident but was not charged in the case.
Reid and Bucknall were suspended by Smith from the Tar Heels' first game of the season, against Syracuse Nov. 21 in the Tip-Off Classic in Springfield, Mass. North Carolina defeated the No. 1 Orangemen in overtime.
