Attorney: Investigators are 'harrassing" Timber Creek players

Several Timber Creek High School football players and their families have been "interviewed, followed and harrassed" in recent weeks by investigators from the Camden County's Prosecutors Office, the attorney for the team's football coach said at the Black Horse Pike Board of Education meeting on Thursday night.

Troy Archie, a Cinnaminson-based attorney who represents Timber Creek football coach Rob Hinson, was one of several speakers who addressed the board of education at its monthly meeting at the administration building on Erial Road in Blackwood.

Archie asked the board and Black Horse Pike superintendent Dr. Brian Repici to consider hosting a "meeting" between investigators and players and their families.

"We want to get to the bottom of this," Archie said of the ongoing investigation by the prosecutors office into residency issues with regard to someTimber Creek players. "Identify the players you have concerns about. Bring them in. Bring their parents in. Let's get this thing settled."

Repici said after the meeting that he could not comment on Archie's suggestion or on any other matter with regard to the investigation.

Repici said the district issued a statement on its website in the form of the "open letter" to parents and guardians on Wednesday.

In the statement, Repici said the district is "very well aware of the residency concerns and taking the accusations promulgated by an anonymous group of concerned citizens very seriously."

In May, an anonymous group that identified itself as S.T.O.P (Stop Taking Our Players) sent a 13-page letter to the prosecutors office, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the Black Horse Pike district and several media outlets, charging that the Timber Creek program included on its roster several players who don't have legitimate addresses within the district.

One of the players mentioned in a "case study" of student athletes who live outside the district in the anonymous letter was identified as "E.A."

On Thursday's agenda, one of the monthly action items, with the heading "Tuition Placement," recommended a student identified as "E.A., a regular-education student from the Winslow Twp. school district," be placed in the district for the 2016-17 school year as a tuition student.

The board unanimously approved the recommendation.

Archie confirmed that his son Ezrah Archie, a star senior wide receiver for Timber Creek, is a tuition student at the school.

During the opportunity for public comments, four speakers stood to offer their support for Hinson, who has been Timber Creek's coach for the last 10 seasons.

Mike Martin, a Sickerlerville resident who said three of his children attended Timber Creek but none played football, said of the letter that apparently triggered the investigation, "When I see 'anonymous' that says 'coward.'"

Of Hinson, Martin said, "I'm here in support of Coach Hinson and I hope the board would support him as well."

Walt Dority, from the East Chapter of the Camden County NAACP, said his organization "fully backs Coach Hinson and his family at this time."

Dexter Miller, a Sickerville resident who said his son Dexter is a senior football player for Timber Creek, wondered why "the school board doesn't come out and say,' Coach Hinson is our guy until something is proven.'"

Tony Brown, an Erial resident who said his son Tony was a senior football player for Timber Creek, said the "players are being affected" by the ongoing investigation.

Brown said investigators were "following them (players), questioning them, asking them where they live. They're like, 'I live here.'"

Brown said: "It's really bad."

Archie told the board the investigation has been an "ordeal" for the program.
Standing outside the meeting room when the board went into executive session, Archie said players have told him they have been followed and questioned by investigators.

Archie said "six families" have been questioned by investigators.

Archie said investigators "are stopping at houses, at night."

Asked to describe the "harassment," Archie said: "Having the same car parked in front of the house when they come home."

A spokesman for the CCPO said Friday morning that "we can not comment on active investigations."

Archie said he believed the investigation is not centered on Hinson.

"He's a football coach," Archie said of Hinson. "He's not checking driver's licenses or affidavits or lease agreements. He's coaching the team."

Timber Creek has a 52-8 record over the last six seasons, winning three South Jersey championship and making five sectional finals.

"Anywhere in the country, if you win parents are going to put their children in the best possible position," Archie said. "That's the parents doing that. It happens all over the country."

Archie said he suggested a meeting involving prosecutors and players whose residency is in question to try to speed the process to a conclusion.

Timber Creek is scheduled to open the season Sept. 9 vs. Delsea.

"Give us a decision," Archie said. "The team wants to get it over with."

-- Contact Phil Anastasia at panastasia@phillynews.com

-- Follow @PhilAnastasia on Twitter

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