Cocaine Led Weatherspoon to a Run-In With the Law

Anthony Weatherspoon arrived at the University of Colorado in 1984, a straight arrow shot out of La Habra High School whose most conspicuous features, this side of his chest, were his good sense, good fortune and ability to run over people on a football field.

For most of his life, at least the slice that belonged to school, he had been the biggest of big men on whatever campus he strode. When he left La Habra, he was 6-feet tall, 220 pounds and one of the nation’s most coveted high school running backs.

He received exceptional grades. He was popular even though he was cast-iron clean and steered clear of the heavy high school party scene.

He arrived at Colorado on a football scholarship, enrolled in the business school and received good grades, about a B average. In his sophomore season, he led Colorado in rushing and helped the Buffaloes to a Freedom Bowl berth. Everything seemed to be going as expected until one night when he sat down with some friends and snorted cocaine.

Given the pervasiveness of drugs on college campuses, this amounted to little. But given the exceptional nature of Weatherspoon’s life, it amounted to a radical departure, a total personality overhaul--the bending of the arrow.

Weatherspoon told Times reporters that he used cocaine four times. Police say he told them he used it 10 times. An informant told police that it was Weatherspoon’s desire to buy cocaine that caused him to participate in a small-time burglary of a dormitory room on May 6, 1986. And when the story of the burglary and drug use broke, splashed across the front pages of Colorado newspapers, Weatherspoon was either a misguided kid or just another drug-crazed jock hoodlum, depending on whom you talked to.

Weatherspoon used cocaine for the same reasons any high school freshman tips back his first beer at a party. It was about fitting in and breaking away, about doing something that was new and forbidden and therefore exciting.

“In that atmosphere, where a lot of people are doing it, you can get really caught up,” Weatherspoon said. “I was naive, and I saw a lot of my friends do it. I was still adjusting to not being at home for the first time.”

The Weatherspoon household is a demanding one, guided by the father’s firm, swift hand. Johnnie Weatherspoon picked cotton as a child in Georgia. He became a high school valedictorian and graduated in the top 10% of his class from Savannah State.

He expects the same drive and results from his children; he told them to take care of schoolwork and he would take care of the rest. He often worked three jobs to make sure his children could focus all their energy on school.

Anthony Weatherspoon’s brother Chuck plays football at the University of Houston and gets good grades. Linton, the youngest brother, has a 4.0 grade-point average at La Habra and is expected to be a Division I football recruit next season. Dawn, the only daughter, excels in several sports and, yes, gets excellent grades.

“I’ve always done it for them,” Johnnie said. “But my tolerance is nothing less than an A on schoolwork. Maybe I’d understand a B if you explain it to me. But I want you to explain to me why you didn’t get an A. I want their best effort, because I’m giving my best effort. Most times they didn’t fail my expectations because they didn’t want to face me.”

It may be understandable that Anthony Weatherspoon temporarily turned wrong. Sheltered by his father, he had concentrated almost exclusively on academics and sports in high school. He excelled in each. But he never had to get a job, and he had always hung around with the right people, who did the right things.

“Anthony wouldn’t have known the wrong crowd if it bit him on the leg,” Johnnie said. “In a strange way, I feel like we crippled him. I wanted him to excel so much in doing certain things that I protected him from things he should have been learning about. Maybe he didn’t get the independence he needed to learn how to deal with things on his own.”

On his own, Weatherspoon wasn’t getting A’s at Colorado, but his B average seemed to be fine with his father. His grades never slipped nor did his athletic performance--the usual telltale signs of drug abuse. As far as his family was concerned, Anthony was doing fine.

But a few people, aware of the social realities at Colorado, did notice the type of crowd that gathered around Weatherspoon. His football talents had once again brought popularity his way, but this time the people who came around wanted something in return.

“I knew his struggle at this school was going to be a little harder because he was that good,” said Morris Copeland, a Colorado defensive back. “Once you’re in the limelight, a lot of people like to be around and hang with you and get you involved in a lot of things that maybe you don’t want to be involved in. And I saw this happening to him little by little.”

Weatherspoon said: “When you’re an athlete, there are a lot of people out there who just want to be involved with you so that they can be known as well. They can say, ‘I know him, this and that. I bring him this and that.’ It makes them a bigger person on campus.”

Exactly how this crowd persuaded Weatherspoon to try cocaine isn’t clear. He prefers that the past remain there, and he is a bit apprehensive about getting specific about the events leading to his use. It’s unlikely that anyone would be foolish enough to try to force him to do anything.

“The way I understood it,” said Tim Delaria, the CU police detective who ran the burglary investigation, “there was a lot of subtle pressure on Anthony. You don’t stick a line of cocaine in front of a guy that big and say, ‘Here, chicken, stick your nose in this.’ That would be stupid. Anthony would probably stand up and break your neck. I imagine there was a lot of indirect pressure.”

Members of this crowd included Danny Lee Goldstein and Bernie Meador of San Diego, neither of them CU students, who police say took an active role in the dorm room burglary. After stealing computer equipment, a television and a camera, the pair drove to Colorado Springs to pawn the merchandise for about $100, according to a campus police report. While returning to Boulder, they were killed in a single-car accident. Autopsies revealed cocaine in both men’s systems.

It wasn’t until July 12 that an informant came forward with information about the burglary and Weatherspoon’s involvement. The informant said that Weatherspoon had been in the room when it was burglarized. The informant said Weatherspoon had participated in the burglary to acquire money to buy cocaine.

Weatherspoon eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal trespass, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to six months’ probation and 48 hours of community service. Weatherspoon also was suspended from Colorado’s Bluebonnet Bowl game against Baylor.

When the news of Weatherspoon’s travails reached La Habra, there wasn’t a lot of sympathy. That’s because no one believed it. Kid Golden and drugs? Someone must have switched the pictures and the names. Mistakes can happen, but Anthony Weatherspoon doesn’t make them.

Johnnie Weatherspoon said dozens of people called the Boulder district attorney’s office to inform officials that they had nabbed the wrong guy. There were callers who knew Anthony in high school and callers who knew him during his days of playing Junior All-American football. His uncle, a police officer in Georgia, called and, very politely, said they had the wrong kid.

“These people knew Anthony,” Johnnie said. “They were very emotional about the thing. They didn’t want to believe it.

“I was disappointed. It’s hard not to be. Because you create a mold that everyone looks up to. One of the ladies who works with my wife was probably more hurt than anyone. She cried because she said the Weatherspoons are perfect people. She was telling my wife we were the perfect family. . . . She didn’t think that it could happen to us.”

But it did. Johnnie says it never would have happened had his son attended a college much closer to home.

“He wouldn’t have got involved,” he said. “If he knew I would be able to get in touch with him rather quickly, he wouldn’t have got involved.”

Anthony, very respectfully, disagrees.

“I think regardless of other things, I would have tried it,” he said. “It’s just the campus life. There’s a lot of pressure to adjust. The change from high school to college is drastic, and in my case, leaving home was too. You’re looking for someone for support.”

Weatherspoon says he hasn’t used cocaine for more than a year now, after quitting in the spring of 1986. It’s likely he again will be Colorado’s starting fullback when the football season comes around. As far as support is concerned, he’s looking a little closer to home these days.

“I realize I control my own future,” he said. “I’ve done wrong, and I think I’ve turned it into a plus. It’s working for me, the knowledge I gained. I know now that you have to be choosy of your friends. And now I feel comfortable about the fact that the wool won’t be pulled over my eyes again.”