Monroe Dispatch - No Struggle, No Progress

The last of three Carroll High School football coaches who were involved in an ugly incident during a football game in Franklin Parish in 2022 is slated to be sentenced Monday, August 14, 2023. Drouzon Quillen was one of four coaches who were situated above(not in) the press box. He asserts that it was his idea for the coaches to go back to the Carroll side of the field before the incident happened because late in the third quarter, the game was basically over. He said he was in contact with Carroll personnel, and just moments before the Franklin Parish Sheriff confronted them, they were in the process of leaving on their own. Quillen felt that there wasn't any reason for them to remain on the Patriot's side of the stadium, and he had received word that Monroe security would be making its way to them. Quillen also said being in the same area with Patriots fans made him feel uncomfortable because of the closeness between them and their fans, seeing how frustrated they had become with the outcome of the game. He said the three coaches were coming down a ladder to access the press box door when they met the sheriff at the bottom, who was dressed in plain clothes. They did not see a badge on the sheriff, nor did he acknowledge himself as the sheriff, but instead when into a tirade of obscenities using the f-word many times. A verbal confrontation soon started, with the coaches wanting to know why they were being talked to in that manner. Quillen said that he could smell the odor of alcohol on the sheriff, and at one point, he allegedly tried to choke one of the coaches. They began walking down the bleachers, with Quillen being the last, with the sheriff walking behind him with his hand on his back. Quillen said that the sheriff continued to use obscenity, calling him "boy" while pushing him down the steps of the bleachers in a very aggressive manner. Quillen said that at one point while walking down the steps, he almost fell because of complications from a recent hip surgery, telling the sheriff to please stop pushing him. Quillen said that the sheriff became the aggressor when he placed his hand on his shoulder close to his neck as if he was going to choke him. By this time, the fans were yelling at the coaches when the altercation started. Quillen said that he and the sheriff were entangled with each other when fans began to punch them, call them the n-word, and throw drinks at them. Quillen maintains that he and the coaches did not use obscene words as some media outlets initially said they did. It was more or less "words of frustration" when a player might blow a play, but not the kind of words that the sheriff used on them. They were outside in the open and could hear offensive comments from others about Carroll, calling the school and the team "trash". Quillen had a trial on August 3, 2023, as he could have witnesses testify on his behalf and was allowed to present video evidence to bolster his case. Regarding the fans from Franklin Parish being involved, the sheriff was alleged to have said at trial that he "was proud" of the fans "helping to diffuse the situation". At the conclusion of the trial, he was not found guilty of "inciting or participating" in a riot but of battery on a police officer. Quillen faces 15 days to six months in jail at his sentencing Monday. He said that if offered a plea, he might have accepted it. He said they were within a few feet of going back to where they decided to go before the sheriff arrived. Despite the situation, he contends that they were cooperating in what was a stressful and tense situation. He says that all of that could have been avoided if not for the actions of the sheriff.