Sports complex that welcomed thousands to wrestling tournament found not guilty of violating COVID restrictions
A sports complex that welcomed thousands of people to Happy Valley for a wrestling tournament in September 2020 was found not guilty Tuesday of violating local health restrictions.
Centre County Judge Brian Marshall acquitted C3 Sports of breaching College Township’s coronavirus ordinance. The three citations could have resulted in hundreds of dollars of fines.
Marshall conceded the nonprofit was not “particularly responsible” by playing host to the three-day tournament, but added the township’s ordinance was “not very artfully written.”
The ordinance contained at least one typographical error and did not properly define all of the terms listed in the ordinance.
“They drafted a horrible, horrible ordinance,” defense lawyer Karen Muir said after the one-day bench trial. “This created a nightmare for C3 Sports.”
More than 2,500 people from at least a dozen states flocked to the sports complex less than six months after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Centre County.
Township decision-makers, who became aware of the tournament the day before it was scheduled to begin, said they unsuccessfully scrambled to shut it down.
The township was concerned the tournament could become a “super-spreader event for COVID-19,” Manager Adam Brumbaugh wrote in a statement. Christ Community Church pastor Mitch Smith pushed back against that Tuesday.
“If we’d have been told not to have the event, we wouldn’t have had the event,” Smith testified.
The nonprofit shared its mitigation plan with the township before the tournament began, Smith testified. Those who attended had their temperature checked and were asked to wear masks.
But the plan was neither approved nor rejected, former State College police officer Adam Salyards testified. Added borough police Lt. Chad Hamilton: “It looked like a pre-COVID wrestling tournament.”
The tournament was organized by Curtis Krazer and John Hughes, two eastern Pennsylvania men who paid C3 Sports about $7,800 to rent the venue.
Each were convicted in April of violating the ordinance and cumulatively paid more than $2,000 in fines. Each were fined the maximum amount.
C3 Sports was found guilty by District Judge Casey McClain of fire, zoning and health code violations. The nonprofit paid its fines for the fire and zoning violations, but appealed the health code violations.
“On balance, we believe justice has been served,” Centre County Deputy District Attorney Sean McGraw said after the trial. “... We feel the community has not been deprived of justice in any way.”
