Former USC tight end arrested in carjacking during probe of robberies

Former USC tight end Bryce Dixon was arrested on suspicion of carjacking as part of an investigation into a series of robberies in Southern California, Los Angeles police said Wednesday.

Dixon, who was dismissed from the football program after allegations of sexual misconduct in 2014, was booked on suspicion of felony carjacking shortly before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. About eight hours earlier he was arrested on Van Ness Street, not far from the campus, police records show.

“He was taken into custody in connection with a series of robberies in Los Angeles and Ventura County,” said Capt. Andrew Neiman, an LAPD spokesman.

Dixon, 19, was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail at the 77th Street station jail. The investigation by detectives into the incident remains ongoing.

Dixon, who attended Saint Bonaventure High School in Ventura, was reinstated to USC as a student, but not as a football player, last summer after he filed a legal challenge to his May 2015 expulsion. Dixon was investigated for two alleged incidents of misconduct in fall 2014, both involving the same USC female student, who was an athletic trainer.

He was cleared of misconduct for an Oct. 9 incident but was found to have violated USC’s “affirmative consent” policy on sexual activity on Oct. 23. Dixon said in a lawsuit that USC’s sexual-misconduct investigation process was “utterly lacking” in due process.

After a judge last August put the expulsion on hold, USC restated that Dixon would not be allowed to rejoin the team. “We will comply with the court’s order and allow Mr. Dixon to re-enroll in the university immediately,” USC said in a statement. “The judge’s order does not impact or reverse the findings made by the university in this student conduct case.”

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