Handicapped Parking Scandal Will Return to the Spotlight This Week

Attention turns back to the handicapped-parking issue this week, when two current and three former Bruins are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on misdemeanor charges and several others are put under renewed scrutiny as the UCLA Police Department expects to turn over new evidence to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office.

The latest investigation dates to January 1997 and includes details on the actions of former stars Skip Hicks, Larry Atkins and Cade McNown, sources have confirmed, but it is not known whether the information is damning enough to result in additional charges. The same goes for the two current players known to be under similar scrutiny, tailback Keith Brown and defensive back Eric Whitfield.

Brown has made a public apology and then some--he has written a letter to the city attorney who will decide whether to bring charges to explain his actions, hoping it will result in leniency. The two-game suspension and other school-imposed penalties will stand regardless of the outcome of the legal proceedings.

“I didn’t want to be categorized like what everybody else did, purposely going in and trying to abuse the handicap system,” Brown said. “That wasn’t my version. I wanted to go in there and write my own version.

“I did something wrong. But I was actually injured at that time. I was trying to get an actual handicap placard. I obtained it illegally, but [without] knowing it. I wouldn’t do it again. If I was trying to abuse it, I would still be using it for the past three years. That’s something I did my freshman year. Someone got over on me. But I am apologetic for that.

“At the time, I didn’t know it was a fake doctor. That’s the whole thing. I thought if I gave him the proper paperwork from the hospital that I had my surgery that a real doctor would come in.”

Brown said he couldn’t remember which player arranged for the placard because “there were like three guys who were doing it.”

He said he used the permit while recovering from shoulder surgery in the winter and spring of 1997 because “it was kind of hard for me to walk up the steps in the heat because I would sweat all the time,” resulting in a bad rash. “It would affect my wound. I was trying to get easier access, to get closer to my classes.”