Previously dismissed McGill Redmen running back Luis-Andres Guimont-Mota has been acquitted of charges of assault and uttering threats after his wife withdrew charges on January 29, and will be allowed to return to the team.
Guimont-Mota, a third-year management student, was arrested in September 2014 following a domestic dispute. He was subsequently suspended from the football team, with the administration citing his plea of guilty and a prior conviction for assault in a bar fight in Quebec City in 2010.
Shortly thereafter, Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning) Ollivier Dyens released a statement declaring that “the individual should not have been invited to join our team. That was not in accordance with the values of our community.”
Dyens’ comment led to former Redmen head coach Clint Uttley’s resignation. In a statement released on September 30, Uttley indicated that he favoured rehabilitation, and asserted that McGill’s statement did not “represent my personal morals or values with regards to sport, recruiting, and life in general.”
Uttley criticized McGill’s reaction, saying that at the time of Guimont-Mota’s arrival, “the University tolerated and accepted his presence and then proceeded to celebrate his accomplishments. For McGill University to now say that this individual should not have been allowed on our team in the first place because of his past deeply troubles me.”
Dyens told The Daily that the University’s current stance in no way contradicts the statement he made in the fall.
“What is different now is that, as far as we know, he has gone through the previous sentence and has done the whole sentence, so he has now paid his debt to society,” said Dyens.
“In general, we don’t think that somebody who’s under serious criminal charges or has pleaded guilty should be recruited by McGill Varsity to play for McGill,” he continued. “We believe that playing varsity sports […] or doing any of these things where you represent McGill is a privilege, and the University expects a higher standard.”
The McGill Redmen have been without a head coach since the incident, though McGill University Athletics Director Drew Love has said that he expects to announce a replacement for Uttley within the next two weeks.
Guimont-Mota represents McGill’s fourth football player to face criminal charges in the past two years.