By PAUL STRELOW pstrelow@thestate.com CLEMSON — The decision on whether Clemson sophomore safety DeAndre McDaniel can play pending a criminal charge appears to be in coach Tommy Bowden's hands. McDaniel will remain enrolled in school following a hearing with the university's judiciary review board. Nick Lavery, one of McDaniel's attorneys, said the board decided it was not going to make an official decision on McDaniel's case at this time. Thus he was neither expelled nor suspended from school, allowing for the likelihood he will be allowed to play this season until his legal situation is resolved. However, Lavery said the board reserved the right to revisit the case if more evidence is presented. McDaniel was arrested June 21 for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature after an incident with his girlfriend at his off-campus apartment. The woman, who was not identified, was treated at Oconee Memorial Hospital after the incident for a sprained neck and chest and facial bruises, according to the Central Police Department's incident report. However, she did not provide a written statement or medical records for Wednesday's hearing as requested by the board, Lavery said. Two of the three witnesses who submitted written statements to the university refuting some of the women’s account testified on McDaniel's behalf at the hearing. School officials only would confirm that McDaniel remains a student and that Bowden is still in the process of gathering information about the case. Bowden is expected to address McDaniel's situation Monday. Clemson begins practice Aug. 1 and opens the season Aug. 30 against Alabama. The next step in the legal case is the discovery phase, in which the prosecution and defense exchange information in preparation for a trial. Because of the nature of the misdemeanor charge, McDaniel's case was turned over to the 13th Solicitor's Office instead of being handled by municipal court, which more than doubled the expected time frame for a resolution. It takes between six months to a year for a Solicitor's Office case to go to trial, Central police chief Kerry Avery said this week.
Your comments
We encourage an open – and civil – exchange of affirming and dissenting opinions on our stories. We invite you to respectfully comment on our content as part of our interactive community.
Click here to read our comment guidelines and learn about our commenting system. Report abuse by clicking the "Report Abuse" link.
Hide this FAQ and policy statement
Having trouble commenting?
You must be signed in to comment. You can sign in using your account at thestate.com or your Facebook, Twitter or Disqus accounts.
If you are logged in and still unable to comment, you might need to log out and log back in, delete your browser's stored cookies or change your browser's cookie settings to allow "third-party" cookies.
For more on managing browser cookies, view our help document here.
Fullscreen view recommended
How do I report abuse on comments I deem inappropriate?
Yes. Report abuse by clicking the "Flag" button.
What are some of the features of Disqus commenting?
You can select how comment threads are organized. Some people prefer to read the newest comments first, while others prefer to read the oldest comments first. Others prefer to sort on comments that have the best rating (highest number of "likes") or are the most popular now (highest number of "likes" and replies). The choice will be yours. You can lock in your personal preference by selecting from among the options presented in the "Sort by" drop down menu that appears above the comments you are reading. This setting follows you across the site as your read articles and can be changed at your convenience.
You will have the option of subscribing via email to a comment thread by clicking the "Subscribe by email" button at the bottom of the comment box. New comments will be sent directly to your email inbox, where you may read and respond by email.
You will be able to subscribe via RSS to a comment thread by clicking the "Subscribe by RSS" button at the bottom of the comment box. This link will include step-by-step instructions on how to set up the RSS subscription.
If you are logged in using your Facebook account, you will be able to share your comments on specific articles to your Facebook profile page, just by clicking the "Share on Facebook" link directly beneath the comment box. This is a per-post selection, so each time you comment on an article or reply to another comment, you will need to indicate your interest in sharing the post to Facebook.
Will I need to register?
You can register with thestate.com to comment, or log in with an existing Disqus, Facebook or Twitter account. If you have forgotten your thestate.com username and password, you can have the information resent to you by clicking here.
What about my avatar?
We have created a default avatar for readers that log in using their thestate.com username and password. If you want to display a unique avatar, you can upload one to Disqus, Facebook or Twitter, and then comment on thestate.com stories using that account instead.
Will I be able to indicate my approval of a comment?
Yes, by clicking the button labeled "Like."
Will I be able to "reply" to comments?
Yes. The ability to reply to specific comment posts will remain a core of thestate.com commenting.
We ask that you remain civil, and that you follow these guidelines:
Do not resort to personal abuse. You may disagree with the content of an article, with the reporter or with other readers’ comments, but do not attack anyone personally. Do not libel or defame anyone or violate their privacy.
Keep your comments succinct and stay on topic. Comments that bear no relation to the story will be deleted.
Do not use foul language. Don't try to camouflage profanity with asterisks or other symbols or foreign phrases.
Avoid hate speech. Abusive comments, racist rants or defamatory statements about any group will be deleted.
Do not use threatening language. Repeated bullying or taunting will be cause for banning your account.
Use standard English grammar and observe accepted rules for capitalization, punctuation and spelling. Do not post a comment using all capital letters.
Do not post spam or advertising of any kind.
Do not add images to your comments.
Do not link to Web sites outside of thestate.com.
Do not use an avatar that is offensive or portrays someone in a negative light. Do not misspell or emphasize letters in a person's name to ridicule them or portray them in a negative manner.
Do not report comments as abusive simply because you disagree with them. Report them only if they violate these guidelines.
We reserve the right to delete posts that do not follow these guidelines. Posts that violate these guidelines or are otherwise offensive should be reported immediately. Click the "flag" link under the offending comment.
If a post is determined to have violated the guidelines listed above, it may be (1) blocked or (2) deleted from our system.
Users who continue posting comments that violate these guidelines may, at our discretion, be blocked from submitting future comments as well.
Read the terms of service for our Web site here.
If I run into problems or want to share feedback, who should I contact?
For problems with article commenting, or feedback on the changes, please email online@thestate.com.
