N.C. Central Suspends Football Coach Following Second Arrest

DURHAM - N.C. Central's football team has taken an untimely, albeit familiar, hit.

"North Carolina Central University is aware of the arrest of Henry Frazier III, head football coach, on (Monday), August 19," NCCU spokeswoman Ayana Hernandez said in a statement released Tuesday. "Coach Frazier has been suspended with full pay in accordance with university policies and procedures while the matter is being investigated by legal authorities. Dwayne Foster, assistant head coach, will serve as acting head football coach."

Frazier, who has been preparing for his third NCCU season, was charged with violating a domestic violence protective order, taken into custody and released on $5,000 bond. It's a misdemeanor offense, and Frazier is scheduled to deal with it in a Wake County courtroom on Sept. 30.

The situation is nothing like it sounds, said attorney Ralph Frasier, who represents Frazier.

"He will be vindicated," Frasier said.

According to a police report, the protective order was violated at the Cary residence of Frazier's ex-wife, Lanier Turner-Frazier, at around 2 p.m. on Monday.

Police cited no evidence of

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bodily harm to Turner-Frazier, and the report noted that no weapons, alcohol or other illegal substances were involved. The offender didn't use force to enter the residence and caused no property damage, according to the report.

That's because Frazier wasn't there; he was on campus at NCCU, Frasier said.

The police report said that a juvenile male was at Turner-Frazier's residence. That young man is the son of Frazier and his ex-wife, and he delivered a note from his father to Turner-Frazier about a parking ticket that was generated either by her or her biological daughter that Frazier has raised as his own, Frasier said.

In the note, Frazier, in a non-threatening way, explained that he'd taken care of the ticket and would deduct what he paid from Turner-Frazier's alimony, Frasier said. The letter was hand-delivered by the son, in keeping with "the pattern of practice" that Frazier and Turner-Frazier have used since their separation to communicate about financial matters, Frasier said.

The protective order appears to have been in place from a situation that reportedly was resolved about this time a year ago.

Last May, police responded to Frazier's house on Bending Branch Court in Morrisville after being notified that a domestic assault had occurred. Officers found evidence of an assault, but Frazier wasn't there.

Police later caught up with Frazier in his car not far from the house. The coach was charged with assault on a female and jailed at the Wake County Detention Center, where he was released the same day under $1,500 secured bond.

Frazier, who was earning an annual salary of $225,000, was suspended with pay while Foster stepped in as NCCU's acting head coach.

The case made its way through the legal system, and Frazier ended up signing a court document in which he admitted to getting into an argument with Turner-Frazier before trying to pray for her by rubbing anointing oil on her, although he said that's not something that she wanted to occur.

Frazier pleaded guilty with the understanding that the charge against him would go away if he completed a program aimed at helping him better understand abusive behavior.

In July 2012, less than two weeks from NCCU's first day of football practice, Frazier was reinstated.

During a press conference around that time, Frazier owned up to his mistakes, apologizing to his family, the university and his supporters for being a distraction. He said that he's a public figure whose private life, consequently, is public.

NCCU athletics director Ingrid Wicker-McCree at the time said that she had full confidence that Frazier had learned from an "unfortunate situation."

There was backlash from those disturbed about the message NCCU sent regarding the treatment of women by allowing Frazier to return to the sideline.

Charlie Nelms was NCCU's chancellor at the time, but his eventual abrupt departure from the post led to the arrival of the school's new leader, Debra Saunders-White, NCCU's first permanent female chancellor.

No timetable has been given for Frazier's return, but NCCU has a firm 4 p.m. date on Aug. 31 with Duke in the Bull City Gridiron Classic at Wallace Wade Stadium.