The mess at Rutgers is getting worse before it gets better.
Details emerged Tuesday on the suspension of wide receiver Leonte Carroo, considered the team’s best player. Carroo slammed his female romantic partner into the concrete outside of the Scarlet Knights’ headquarters after their game Saturday night, according to documents obtained by The Record.
The incident was precipitated by an altercation between two women, one of whom works for the program, according to the Daily Targum, the school newspaper.
Both of the women involved in the altercation outside the Hale Center were acquainted with Carroo, who rushed outside from the locker room when he heard about the disturbance. One of the women worked for the team as a recruiting ambassador — a hostess for incoming recruits on game days and at other events, according to the Daily Targum.
Carroo was arrested by Rutgers University police on Saturday and charged with simple assault in a domestic violence incident. He’s accused of picking one of the women up and “slamming her down on a concrete surface, injuring her left hip, both palms, left elbow and left side of the head,” according to The Record, which cites a complaint filed in Piscataway municipal court Tuesday.
It’s the latest in a list of embarrassing incidents for the state university’s football program — several players were arrested earlier this month in connection with a group assault and a string of home invasions — but the highest-ranking state official thinks the situation is being blown out of proportion.
“The breathless media coverage of all this, and every time there’s a problem, it’s some indication of some problem, some deep-seated problem at Rutgers,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday, according to the Asbury Park Press. “Man, you guys gotta find something else to do.
“I have a president there. I have a Board of Governors. If they need my help or they want my advice, they’ll call. And if I see something that I think is completely outrageous, I’ll call them, but they’re dealing with disciplinary problems with teenagers. This is not shocking. I’m a father of four. Having disciplinary problems with teenagers is the normal course on a college campus.”