After returning from a 31-15 win over South Florida in Tampa, two U of M football players were involved in a domestic disturbance resulting in the arrest of a female student.
Van Houston and LaVale Washington called University Police Nov. 27 after Houston's ex-girlfriend, Jalysia A. Thompson, arrived at their apartment in the Carpenter Complex at approximately 7 p.m.
A University Police report records, "Washington stated that all the roommates agreed that the defendant was no longer welcome in their home and that he instructed her to leave when she entered the apartment." Thompson, according to the report, began hitting Houston and kicked at him. Houston then told Thompson they were calling the police and picked Thompson up and carried her outside the apartment, shutting the door in her face.
University Police deputy director Derek Myers said that this was the first reported incident involving both Houston and Thompson.
"This is not the first call she has been involved in," Myers said. Thompson called University Police on Sept. 6, 2003, about an ex-boyfriend showing up at her apartment. She called police again on Nov. 9, 2003, to report that the same ex-boyfriend had been calling and harassing her.
Additional information about U of M student Jalysia A. Thompson was not available because she has requested that her personal information remain private and out of all U of M print and electronic directories. In her written report to the Memphis Police Department Domestic Violence Bureau, Thompson said that after being removed from the apartment she "left the apartment and drove around for a second and came back."
Thompson returned to find University Police at the scene as they began investigating the disturbance call.
The University Police report states that "Washington told her to leave, and she became angry with Mr. Houston for not interceding for her."
The report states that Thompson admitted to throwing punches at Houston, but she said that Houston and Washington were rough with her in trying to get her out of the apartment.
Police found marks on both Houston and Washington, and because of a statement from a witness and Thompson's admitting to throwing punches at Houston, police arrested her for domestic assault and transported her to Jail East.
In a defendant statement made by Thompson on Nov. 29, she said that she talked to police at the scene, but that they did not take a written statement from her.
She said police "went into the apartment and stayed about 30 to 35 minutes with them."
In her statement Thompson said she "heard laughing and joking" inside the apartment and when the officers came outside "they told me I was going to Jail East for assaulting him because he has scratches on him."
Thompson said she also sustained scratches from the altercation.
In Thompson's Nov. 29 statement, she said that she initially went to the apartment to talk to Mario Pratcher and Tyus Jackson, teammates and roommates of Washington and Houston.
Van Houston is a junior defensive end from Okolona, Miss. LaVale Washington is a junior defensive tackle from New Orleans.
The Nov. 27 assault call is the third assault or domestic disturbance incident at the Carpenter Complex since Oct. 10.
