Ducks football coach’s lawyer tells judge no injuries occurred in DUII crash

A University of Oregon assistant football coach seeking to enter DUII diversion had an expert testify at a court hearing Tuesday, Oct. 27, to dispute claims of injury that could bar him from the program.

Ra’Shaad Samples, a member of the Ducks coaching staff beginning with the 2024 season, backed into the front of a parked vehicle in downtown Eugene early April 12. Samples, 31, drove away but pulled over after about a block and a half when followed by the vehicle he struck, according to video and testimony given Tuesday.

Four people in the parked vehicle testified they sustained injuries from the collision. Under Oregon law, injuries to anyone other than the DUII driver are listed as disqualifying for participation in diversion, a program that allows participants to avoid a criminal conviction.

Assistant Judge Robert Schrank in Eugene Municipal Court said he would issue a ruling as soon as later this week on whether Samples is eligible for diversion or whether he faces the possibility of conviction on a misdemeanor DUII charge.

Samples faces two additional misdemeanor charges in municipal court.

In addition to a charge of reckless driving filed against Samples soon after his initial citation, Samples has also been charged with hit and run with property damage. 

Tuesday, Samples pleaded not guilty to both of those charges. Schrank said each of the charges carries a maximum penalty of 364 days in jail and a fine of up to $6,250.

Testimony from those in parked vehicle

Samples did not testify Tuesday during the hearing, which lasted more than four hours. 

Bryan Boender, a defense attorney for Samples, in an opening statement said he intended to prove by a preponderance of evidence that “physical injury did not occur.”

Steven Young, 44, testified he was in a parked Dodge Ram with three others at West Eighth Avenue and Olive Street when the vehicle was struck by a Ford F-150 driven by Samples.

“We just kind of got jolted back and forth,” said Young, who wore a black hoodie with a cartoon image of the Ducks mascot.

He and others in the vehicle testified they did not experience immediate pain, but did so later.

Young said he hurt his left shoulder. That night, he said it felt like something was poking him. Young said the pain persists to the present day.

He testified that he received a net insurance payment of about $7,000 after settling with Samples’ insurance. The other three people in the vehicle who testified also reported getting similar payments.

One of the vehicle occupants, whom Lookout Eugene-Springfield is not naming because according to statements she was 17 at the time of the collision, said she was “in agonizing pain” by about 7 a.m. on the morning of the collision.

“I fell backward. I ended up hitting my tailbone on something, I don’t know what it was,” she testified. The witness also testified the injury caused her to experience numbness in her legs.

“I had to take a shot in urgent care to make the pain go away,” the witness testified.

Expert testimony

During the hearing, video from a dash-mounted camera was played, showing the collision.

Wilson Hayes, an expert in biomechanics, was called by Boender to give his analysis of the collision.

“That Ram truck briefly sways back and forth,” Hayes said, calling attention to the video and the parked vehicle occupied by Young and others.

“That vehicle, we can put it in qualitative terms, hardly moves at all,” Hayes said after showing his findings based on motion in the video.

Citing how the Ram truck essentially did not move or barely moved, “the forces on the occupants are extremely small,” Hayes testified.

Hayes, citing the woman’s testimony, also questioned how a collision to the front of the Dodge Ram could cause someone to fall backward.

“If a vehicle is struck in front … you don’t go back into the seat, you go forward first,” Hayes said. “That’s what the laws of physics say.”

Hayes also noted “precious little damage to the bumpers of these two vehicles,” citing photographs.

Hayes said he concluded after his analysis that from the collision there was no “scientifically reliable biomechanical mechanism” for the type of injuries described in testimony by those in the parked vehicle.

Questioning actions, motives

Young’s video also showed Samples not stopping after the collision. 

The video showed Young attempting to follow Samples, catching up and then, while both are driving, shouting to Samples that his truck had collided with Young’s. 

At one point in the video, Samples can be seen running a red light. The video shows Samples and a passenger pulling over near the Hult Center, about 1½ blocks from where the collision took place.

“He told me his name was Desean Jackson,” Young testified, stating also that the man he only later knew to be Samples “kept offering me $1,000” rather than exchanging insurance information.

“I told him I wasn’t going to take it,” Young said, stating that he wanted the man’s ID and insurance information. “He could have given me that. We could have went on our way.”

Young said he then asked his nephew in the vehicle to call Eugene police.

Boender asked Young about past instances in which he received payment after vehicle collisions.

“How many civil injury claims have you made?” Boender asked.

“I couldn’t tell you. I’ve been in a lot of accidents,” Young said.

Boender also brought up past criminal convictions for Young, the most recent occurring in 2007. Boender questioned Young about who he reached out to after the collision.

“I sent a couple of emails to Dan Lanning letting him know about the situation with Mr. Samples,” Young testified.

Young also testified that he texted Samples asking to meet with him after the collision.

Boender read some of the texts. In one text, Young referred to a plan to provide video of the collision to someone in the news media.

Boender read aloud one text from July he said was from Young to Samples: “I’m really debating releasing this video. Would you like to sit down and talk?”

Young denied that the text was intended as a threat. He later testified that he wanted to meet to find out if Samples had faced any accountability. 

Young said the people in the vehicle included his nephew and other teenagers, and Young said he wanted to find out more about whether Samples had been held accountable “mostly because how kids view the University of Oregon coaching staff,” he testified.

Lanning in August reportedly said the university takes “these matters seriously” and that there had been “accountabilities” for Samples.

Earlier this month, Ducks wide receiver Evan Stewart was arrested by Springfield police on suspicion of DUII.