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Look at Hnida Allegations
Aired February 18, 2004 - 14:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: More now on the unfolding story of Katie Hnida, the former place kicker for the University of Colorado. She's gone public with allegations that she was verbally abused and harassed during her single season as a Colorado place kicker. Furthermore, she says she was raped by a teammate.
Rick Sallinger is an investigative reporter for KCNC. He joins us now live from Denver with some insight into the case and talk about Katie herself.
Rick, good to see you.
RICK SALLINGER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, KCNC: Glad to be here.
PHILLIPS: Well you have been in that market for a while. You do know this family pretty well. Tell us about Katie Hnida, about her character, her reputation there.
SALLINGER: The Hnida name is well known throughout Denver. Her father, Dr. Dave Hnida, is not only a doctor but is he a medical reporter at this very TV station here, KCNC. He's currently serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq.
His daughter, Katie, has been well known for many years. She went to Chatfield High School where she was a female place kicker on the football team. Not only that, she was the homecoming queen. In fact, she received her crown one year while wearing her football uniform.
So to hear this almost fairy tale story have a very sad chapter to it today is quite disturbing to a lot of people.
PHILLIPS: And as this comes forward, let's listen once again to Coach Gary Barnett's remarks out of CU.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY BARNETT, HEAD FOOTBALL COACH, UNIV. OF COLORADO: Well, it was obvious Katie was not very good. She was awful. OK? And so -- you know what, guys? Do they respect your ability? I mean you can be 90 years old, but if you can go out and play, they respect.
Well Katie was a girl. Not only was she a girl, she was terrible.
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: All right, Rick, so you hear these words. You say, OK, he was saying she was a girl, she was terrible. Does that leave room or any leniency to treat somebody the way she was allegedly treated, to harass her or give her a hard time?
What do we know about the coach's character, his reputation, how people view him?
SALLINGER: Up until now, Coach Gary Barnett's reputation has been very solid. He came here and took over from predecessor Rick Neuheisle who was known for having sort of a loose ship. And Barnett was known for running a very tight ship.
But now with all these allegations, Barnett's ability to run that ship to be the captain, so to speak, has come into question. What Barnett had to say yesterday, those words that you just played, have really overshadowed all his denials of Katie Hnida's allegations and all the others.
In fact, the University of Colorado president, Elizabeth Hoffman, is scheduled to meet with Barnett this afternoon to discuss his comments that we just heard, comments that she deems inappropriate.
PHILLIPS: Well, we've also talked about Katie Hnida's father. You mentioned him. What did he know? What does he know now? There were some surprises that sort of came out of all of this as time went on. Yes?
SALLINGER: Her father says he went to the University of Colorado officials, the coach, Barnett, and the athletic director, Dick Tharp in 1999 and 2000 on several occasions to discuss allegations of sexual harassment.
Now Barnett and Tharp are telling a different side of that story. They say there was only one meeting and the only issue discussed was one player uttering a vulgarity at Katie Hnida and Barnett saying that that player was given a tongue lashing for that statement.
PHILLIPS: Rick, finally, just the allegations that continue to come in surrounding CU, what's happening to this university and this is just sort of the beginning of a number of issues that seem to be surfacing.
SALLINGER: Well, this all goes back to 1997 and woman who claims that she was raped by some recruits at a party that was put on for those recruits.
Then in 2001, there was another party in which three women went to police claiming they were raped, no charged were filed. They've now filed lawsuits in federal court.
And now come the allegations of Katie Hnida. All this on top of the University of Colorado being named by the Princeton Review the top party school in America.
So this is certainly not helping that university's reputation. PHILLIPS: Rick Sallinger, investigative reporter for KCNC out of Denver, we appreciate your time. We'll continue to follow up with you. Thanks, Rick.
SALLINGER: My pleasure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 18, 2004 - 14:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: More now on the unfolding story of Katie Hnida, the former place kicker for the University of Colorado. She's gone public with allegations that she was verbally abused and harassed during her single season as a Colorado place kicker. Furthermore, she says she was raped by a teammate.
Rick Sallinger is an investigative reporter for KCNC. He joins us now live from Denver with some insight into the case and talk about Katie herself.
Rick, good to see you.
RICK SALLINGER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, KCNC: Glad to be here.
PHILLIPS: Well you have been in that market for a while. You do know this family pretty well. Tell us about Katie Hnida, about her character, her reputation there.
SALLINGER: The Hnida name is well known throughout Denver. Her father, Dr. Dave Hnida, is not only a doctor but is he a medical reporter at this very TV station here, KCNC. He's currently serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq.
His daughter, Katie, has been well known for many years. She went to Chatfield High School where she was a female place kicker on the football team. Not only that, she was the homecoming queen. In fact, she received her crown one year while wearing her football uniform.
So to hear this almost fairy tale story have a very sad chapter to it today is quite disturbing to a lot of people.
PHILLIPS: And as this comes forward, let's listen once again to Coach Gary Barnett's remarks out of CU.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY BARNETT, HEAD FOOTBALL COACH, UNIV. OF COLORADO: Well, it was obvious Katie was not very good. She was awful. OK? And so -- you know what, guys? Do they respect your ability? I mean you can be 90 years old, but if you can go out and play, they respect.
Well Katie was a girl. Not only was she a girl, she was terrible.
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: All right, Rick, so you hear these words. You say, OK, he was saying she was a girl, she was terrible. Does that leave room or any leniency to treat somebody the way she was allegedly treated, to harass her or give her a hard time?
What do we know about the coach's character, his reputation, how people view him?
SALLINGER: Up until now, Coach Gary Barnett's reputation has been very solid. He came here and took over from predecessor Rick Neuheisle who was known for having sort of a loose ship. And Barnett was known for running a very tight ship.
But now with all these allegations, Barnett's ability to run that ship to be the captain, so to speak, has come into question. What Barnett had to say yesterday, those words that you just played, have really overshadowed all his denials of Katie Hnida's allegations and all the others.
In fact, the University of Colorado president, Elizabeth Hoffman, is scheduled to meet with Barnett this afternoon to discuss his comments that we just heard, comments that she deems inappropriate.
PHILLIPS: Well, we've also talked about Katie Hnida's father. You mentioned him. What did he know? What does he know now? There were some surprises that sort of came out of all of this as time went on. Yes?
SALLINGER: Her father says he went to the University of Colorado officials, the coach, Barnett, and the athletic director, Dick Tharp in 1999 and 2000 on several occasions to discuss allegations of sexual harassment.
Now Barnett and Tharp are telling a different side of that story. They say there was only one meeting and the only issue discussed was one player uttering a vulgarity at Katie Hnida and Barnett saying that that player was given a tongue lashing for that statement.
PHILLIPS: Rick, finally, just the allegations that continue to come in surrounding CU, what's happening to this university and this is just sort of the beginning of a number of issues that seem to be surfacing.
SALLINGER: Well, this all goes back to 1997 and woman who claims that she was raped by some recruits at a party that was put on for those recruits.
Then in 2001, there was another party in which three women went to police claiming they were raped, no charged were filed. They've now filed lawsuits in federal court.
And now come the allegations of Katie Hnida. All this on top of the University of Colorado being named by the Princeton Review the top party school in America.
So this is certainly not helping that university's reputation. PHILLIPS: Rick Sallinger, investigative reporter for KCNC out of Denver, we appreciate your time. We'll continue to follow up with you. Thanks, Rick.
SALLINGER: My pleasure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
