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Title: OSU football player allegedly involved in (gay) sheep theft
Source:
KGW
URL Source: http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stori ... ts_osu_football.1448647d3.html
Published: Mar 17, 2005
Author: ABE ESTIMADA
Post Date: 2005-03-17 15:52:53 by Mr Nuke Buzzcut
Keywords: allegedly, football, involved
Views: 50
OSU football player allegedly involved in sheep theft 08:17 AM PST on Thursday, March 17, 2005 CORVALLIS -- This time, there were no allegations of punches thrown at the Headline Café, no accusations of marijuana being used to pay for a cab ride. Instead, the story making the rounds in Corvallis involves a lot of alcohol, a speeding pickup truck and a 200-pound ram that was part of a study on homosexuality in sheep, according to sheriff?s and newspaper reports. OSU football player Ben Michael Siegert was arrested early last Friday morning after he was pulled over for driving under the influence and speeding 60 miles per hour in a 25 mile-per-hour zone. But what the Benton County Sheriff?s Office deputy who stopped Siegert really noticed was something moving in the bed of the pickup as he drove up to make the stop along SW Whiteside Drive about 1:30 a.m., said undersheriff Diana Simpson. Siegert, 20, pulled over, and the deputy had plenty of questions. Such as how a large sheep ended up in the pickup truck. Siegert first told the deputy that he and the passenger in the truck, former OSU football player Brent Charles Bridges, 22, spotted the animal on the side of the road and decided to take it. The deputy wouldn?t have the wool pulled over his eyes, and Siegert eventually admitted the sheep was taken as part of a prank, Simpson said. ?Siegert admitted to the deputy that he and Bridges had taken the sheep from the OSU sheep farm,? the undersheriff said. The deputy could also smell ?alcohol on Siegert,? Simpson said. After Siegert failed a field sobriety test, he was arrested and charged with DUII and cited for speeding. He was booked into the Benton County Jail. While there, he blew a .14. He is scheduled to appear in court on March 31. Reached on Tuesday afternoon by the Corvallis Gazette-Times, Siegert said he remembered being pulled over but denied any involvement with the ram. ?I don?t know anything about that,? Siegart told the newspaper. ?I?m from a city. I don?t know anything about sheep.? OSU head football coach Mike Riley is considering Siegart?s situation and what consequences the player might face, said OSU sports information director Steve Fenk to the newspaper. ?At this point, they?re just going to deal with it internally,? Fenk told the newspaper. ?I don?t know if it's going to affect spring practice.? The 'sheep farm' that undersheriff Simpson referred to is actually the OSU Sheep Center. The ram lives there, and is part of a study on homosexuality in sheep, said the center?s manager Tom Nichols to the newspaper. The ram weighs about 200 pounds, Nichols said, and it likely took both men to get the ram into the bed of the pickup. Siegert is a starting defensive tackle, and Bridges was an offensive guard. According to the newspaper, sheep rustling isn't uncommon at OSU. ?We have at least one prank a year where we have to go to a dormitory or a sorority house and pick up a ram or a lamb or a ewe,? Nichols told the newspaper. ?It?s one of those springtime pranks.? Siegert's arrest was the latest in a string of off-the-field cases that have brought undue attention to OSU?s football program. Joe Rudulph will go on trial on April 25 for his involvement in a Nov. 12 fight at the Headline Café in Corvallis. Rudulph allegedly punched a National Guard soldier. Rudulph is charged with two counts of fourth-degree assault, one count of harassment, and one count of disorderly conduct. Three other football players, Anthony Wheat-Brown, Whitfield Usher and Ryan Rainwater, were also in the café that night. The four players were suspended from the team, but Riley reinstated them in February. The team suspended Bridges in November after police arrested him for an alleged assault at the Headline Café during a Civil War victory celebration, according to the paper. In February, Jimtavis Walker and Star Paddock were charged with assault, robbery, theft of services, harassment and attempted delivery of a controlled substance when they allegedly tried to pay a cabbie with marijuana.
By ABE ESTIMADA, kgw.com Staff 
kgw.com/Benton County
Ben Michael Siegert.
Some of the sheep living at the OSU Sheep Center.
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