Two arrested following fight at youth football game
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Posted 6:48AM on Friday, October 18, 2002
PICO RIVERA, CALIFORNIA - Two men were arrested Thursday for allegedly kicking a man in the head repeatedly in a videotaped brawl that erupted after a weekend youth football game. <br>
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Joe Saracho, 32, and his brother Gino, 25, were booked on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Al Grotefend. The deadly weapon was their feet, he said. <br>
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The fight involving about 25 children, teenagers and adults occurred Saturday immediately after a San Gabriel Valley Junior All-American Football Conference game in this suburb just east of Los Angeles. Authorities said no one was hospitalized. <br>
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More arrests are expected, Grotefend said. The brothers were being held in lieu of $500,000 bail. <br>
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A review of a videotape made by a bystander led to the brothers' arrests. <br>
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``They had us way outnumbered,'' team parent Desi Tubbs told KCBS-TV. ``They separated anybody who wanted to get in there to stop the fight and beat them up. It was about five or six guys.'' <br>
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The president of one of the teams, Dick Engels, said he saw a 9-year-old girl hit. Engels himself was shown on the video being knocked down, and he appeared on TV Wednesday with a deep cut over the bridge of his nose. <br>
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Some parents complained there had been heavy drinking by adults during the game. <br>
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Linda Lane, conference president of the youth football league, confirmed Thursday that two teams from the San Gabriel Valley program were involved in the brawl but did not offer further comment. <br>
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The fight occurred immediately after a game between teams from Pico Rivera and nearby Downey.