Samaritan has his leg broken Cal athlete run over by men annoying a female friend

Jake Curtis, Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writers
Thursday, June 30, 2005
When a group of men in a car tried to pick up a friend of Cal football player Mike Tepper on Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue over the weekend, the 6-foot-6., 312-pound lineman jumped between the car and the woman.
After Tepper, 19, told them to leave her alone, the men allegedly put their car in reverse and ran over the player -- twice -- breaking his leg and putting him out for the football season. Now, two convicted felons from Oakland are in custody, and Tepper is contemplating his future, wondering why he was attacked for simply trying to help a woman.
"My season's toast," Tepper said Wednesday as he recuperated from surgery to repair a broken fibula and torn ligaments in his ankle. He had nine screws and one plate put in his leg and can't put any pressure on it for eight weeks.
Cal football coach Jeff Tedford said he was "proud of the courage Mike showed Saturday night. ... He is a quality young man. We expect him to make solid contributions for us."
The incident happened at about 1 a.m. Sunday at Telegraph Avenue and Dwight Way, four blocks from UC Berkeley. Tepper and three friends, including the woman, were crossing the street when a carload of young men stopped.
One of them said something like, "Hey, honey, what you doin'?" to Camille Leffall, 22, a UC Berkeley senior and asked for her number, Tepper said.
Leffall ignored the apparent come-on, but the men cut the group off with their car. "I don't think you heard me," one of the men said. "I want your number."
"They were being complete butt-heads," said Leffall, who was a star Cal women's volleyball player.
At that point, Tepper told the man that she wasn't interested and stepped in front of her. That's when the car bumped Leffall, and Tepper fell on top of her to "get me out of danger," she said. But the car ran over his leg and sent him flying about 8 feet, he said.
"They did it on purpose, no ifs, ands or buts," Leffall said.
Then the car came forward and ran over Tepper's leg again, he said.
"I was bleeding like crazy. It took about an hour to stop the bleeding," said Tepper, a graduate of Pacifica High School in Garden Grove (Orange County) whose hometown is in nearby Cypress.
Leffall said of Tepper, "He really lessened the injury to me. I'm really thankful. It was honorable. He didn't have to come up and just stand up for me. "
The assailants crashed into a parked car. Berkeley police arrested Johnny Ray Smith, 33, and Calvin Joe Kelley, 29, for violating terms of their probation or parole, authorities said. Officers also arrested a third man, but prosecutors declined to file charges against him because of lack of evidence.
Berkeley police are handling the incident as an assault with a deadly weapon. No charges related to the incident have been filed, but prosecutors can do that later while the suspects are being held for parole or probation violations.
Both men are well known to local police, court records show.
Kelley was convicted in 2003 of selling marijuana to an undercover police officer at People's Park. In June 2004, police found "seven dime bags in his underwear" at a Telegraph Avenue market, records show.
"Kelley has been a nuisance in the south campus area as it appears he is conducting his illegal drug trade" in the blocks south of UC Berkeley, Berkeley police Officer Richard Marin wrote in a police report.
Kelley's 16-year-old niece, who didn't want her name used, was surprised by the new allegations against him and said she knew nothing of his drug conviction. "My uncle's not like that," she said. "He's a sweetheart."
In November 2003, Smith fled after being caught by residents trying to steal two car stereos and two amplifiers from a home on the 2700 block of Durant Avenue, court records show. He pleaded no contest to first-degree residential burglary and was sentenced to 16 months in prison for a probation violation.
Smith has convictions dating back to 1991 for possession of stolen property, a weapon and marijuana for sale.
Tepper, meanwhile, said he didn't think he would do anything different if he found himself in the same situation again.
"I don't think so," he said. "It just happened. The whole thing only took 7 to 10 seconds. I just did what was natural. I didn't think about being a hero or anything."