(left) University of North Dakota hockey player Matt Frattin is getting a lot of national publicity todayIn America its good to know that the laws that apply to most of us need not apply if you're famous or an athlete. Needless to say Matt Frattin, a North Dakota hockey player would have landed in jail if he played anywhere else. While everyone is entitled to a fair trial, once again the North Dakota hockey program continues to lead college hockey in arrests, fines and court appearances.
From today's Grand Forks Herald.
A jury of six Grand Forks County residents found UND hockey player Matt Frattin not guilty of drunk driving Tuesday.
The trial began in the morning and ended in the afternoon, with jurors returning a verdict after less than 30 minutes of deliberation, prosecutor Jason McCarthy said.
Campus police pulled over Frattin, a junior forward, in the early morning hours of Aug. 19. According to police, Lt. Tracy Meidinger smelled alcohol on Frattin’s breath and a test at the station put his blood-alcohol level at .12 percent. The legal limit is .08 percent.
McCarthy said Frattin passed some of the sobriety tests, but failed others. “This was a closer one,” McCarthy said.
Meidinger testified for the prosecution; the defense did not call any witnesses. Among the evidence the prosecution presented was a video showing Frattin that night.
Frattin was kicked off the team following his arrest, which was his second run-in with police that summer. He rejoined the team and began playing again in January.
In July, campus police arrested Frattin and Joe Finley, a player who graduated in the spring of 2009, for throwing objects into a street. In that case, Frattin pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct.
Messages left for Frattin’s attorney at his office were not returned Tuesday afternoon and evening.
31 comments:
Two arrests and he is still playing hockey. Wow, what a great ambassador for UND.
.i2 is guilty PERIOD. By definition -Guilty! How the heck can a jury say not guilty to that?? Only in North dakota!
If the DUI story doesn't fit, you must acquit...
Obviously, some of these jurors were on the OJ jury!
Note to myself, don't drive on the street of Grand Forks when this guy is behind the wheel.
He sux and so does his team
"jury of six Grand Forks County residents"
Lemme guess....they are all season ticket holders???? Frattin could have blown a .35, pissed on the cop's car, and pinched a loaf on the courthouse steps and still gotten off.
UND players have done two of the three in one degree or another in the past two seasons. :-)
New UND fight song, "I've been working on the chain gang" or possibly "Folsom Prison Blues"
Real classy, dg. I guess the pioneers walk on water
.. more pompous du bullshit. U really are all bunch of spoiled brats. I hope u choke on your smug words. U are all a disgrace to a classy hockey program.
9:40 PM EST 2/3/10:
****CURRENT DU FORWARD JOE COLBORNE'S NAME HAS JUST POPPED UP AMONG TRADE RUMORS BETWEEN THE ATLANTA THRASHERS AND BOSTON BRUINS IN A DEAL FOR ILYA KOVALCHUK. THIS COMES FROM BOSTON SPORTS RADIO WAMG-ESPN BOSTON 890 AM. THE DEAL WOULD SEND DENNIS WIDEMAN, FORMER GOPHER BLAKE WHEELER, JOE COLBORNE, AND THE BRUINS 2010 1ST ROUND PICK (NOT FROM TORONTO) TO ATLANTA FOR KOVALCHUK AND CHRISTOPH SCHUBERT****-->COLBORNE POSSIBLY HEADING TO ATLANTA
Yep, a lot of similarity with a NFL star who killed his ex wife. You've out done your idiocy. One word.....tool
i wish i lived way up at the level of DU fans. so easy to piss on the rest of the college hockey community from there. you obviously have no kids of your own - thank goodness for small favors.
Yes, this is truly embarassing for some of us who follow UND hockey. It is ashame, to say the least, that the high profile of hockey in this state out ranks what is right and fair in the world. I blame the coaching and administration for continually allowing these antics to go on. We have drunk hockey players who run from the cops, and fans who start fights and get their heads busted open. UND hockey used to mean something good up here at one time, but over the past few years that image has been severely tarnished. I suppose I will always be a UND fan, much like you DU fans stay true to your school, but I just wanted to let you guys know that there are some of us who wish our program could better resemble yours.
Um... no offense... but unless your a legal professional, you really don't know much about what went down in this situation in the courtroom and if you weren't there in the courtroom yesterday...who the hell are you to judge anything? there are many things that go into judging a DUI case. Why do you even care? This has nothing to do with you. Why don't you find out who the jurors were and ask them why they decided what they decided if you care so much? Maybe you should go to law school and become an attorney if you care so much about the state of America. From what I hear, the DUI case the prosecution presented wasn't very strong.
When a guy blows a .12 BAC in a state where .08 is considered DUI, most of us would assume the conviction would be pretty much automatic, unless there was something procedural or mechanical the produced a false reading.
There wasn't anything reported in the news story that would eliminate or alter the BAC reading, and in fact, the other reported mitigating factors don't seem to outweigh the BAC reading (looking sober on video, etc.)
Driving drunk is a serious crime. And unless we read otherwise, it's very easy to surmise that Mr. Frattin certainly benefitted from a Grand Forks Jury.
It's hard for me to take anyone seriously when they are yelling at people via blog and not spelling you correctly. Sara its quite apparent that you are new to the blog and do not realize that anything juicy surrounding WCHA hockey will be posted here regardless of what team it is. This is juicy news because a .12 is way over the legal limit period, if you have any insight about the case I'm sure DG would love to hear it. Regardless calm down it is just a blog.
Hey hey hey..... let's all settle please down and think about THIS FACT: Denver swept Fourth Dakota this year! 4 games... 240 minutes of ice hockey... 2 in Colorado and 2 at the fabulous arena in Grand Forks .....and Fourth Dakota couldn't win a single game against Denver !!!! LOL That means.... simply put - that Denver is a (much) better hockey team than Fourth Dakota! Can't argue with that can you?
Yeah this one seems pretty simple.
>.08 Blood Alcohol = drunk driving
Frattin blew a .12, not to mention he threw a landmower into a road in a different incident.
DG's satire and sarcasm aside, he broke the law that 99% of other North Dakota residents wouldn't have gotten out of had the same happened to them. Nice work defending that UND fans, just so your boy doesn't face the music.
8:00......you need a stiff drink and a tranquilizer. Calm your ass down.
Moi? Sarcastic?
DUI lawyers get people off all the time. Even people who have rammed police cars or put their cars in the living rooms of houses. The "good ones" make a lot of money.
But the one thing DUI lawyers ALL tell you, "Don't take the breathalyzer." Obviously cities and states can have vastly different laws or procedures regarding this.
Frattin took the breathalyzer and yet UND must have been pretty confident that he would be aquitted since since they cut his suspension short at XMAS.
Here's the dealio. Hakstol is the one who is ultimately on the hook. If there is ever a serious accident involving a player, these previous transgressions are going to bite him in the ass. He'll be the fall guy not the University.
I don't expect anything less from those oh-so-responsible hockey boys at UND.U.I.
p.s. Hey Sioux fans! How was it watching your team get embarrassed 4 times this season by DU? Come talk shit when you guys are actually able to put a W on the books.
Denver sweeps!Dirty and Hextall give each other Cleveland Steamers.
Any serious hockey fan who watched the four games knows that all four DU/UND games were tightly contested and could have gone either way. None of the UND losses to DU could be considered embarrasing.
Also, just as some UND fans need to shape up a little, some DU fans could benefit from a little humility. Just becuase DU's hockey hockey players have managed to stay off the police blotter for years, doesn't mean it couldn't happen in the future. There are many ways for athletes to find suddenly themseleves in trouble that don't always apply to regular students.
Actually... I like that "UND.U.I." moniker... That could really catch on... Especially if some of us do our best to make sure it does... Haha...
And speaking of suspensions.... how about that dramatic 4 game no-win suspension Marc Cheverie handed out to Bennie Blood and his boys this year, huh? You can see all the details, on the Fighting Sioux hockey website... just click on "schedule/results"
LOSERS
We could probably display a little bit more humility, but it's more fun to rub it in.
As for not being embarrassed, we must not be on the same page.
If my memory serves me right, DU shut UND.U.I. out in their own barn, and then scored 4 straight to win 4-2 on saturday night. I'd be embarrassed if I were you.
I've never seen our fans this cocky. Even when DU won the championships we were praised by our opponents and the college hockey community for our humility.
We've turned the corner as a fanbase. Arrogant, condescending, conceited...I like it. :-)
"...Arrogant, condescending, conceited..."
Where have I heard that before? Sounds a little like "...offensive and condescending, but in a creative, classy kind of way..."
Go Pios. CC (Team 1957) Sucks.
Well now we've lost the "classy." :-)
I'm not much in favor or arrogant or cocky behavior from DU fans--one bad bounce of the puck and any team can face an early exit from the NCAA's. That said, I don't mind a little trash talking towards the UND fans. They have a disproportionately large number of bone-headed tools among their fan base. So, I say we remind them as much as possible of the four game sweep this year, and the four game sweep in 2005. It must really cheese them off to think about 1-0 in Colo. Spgs and 4-1 in Columbus.
I would say the DU fans on here do need to show some more class........let's carry ourselves with a little more grace........oh to hell with it....CC SUCKS!!!!!
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