December 10, 1998
Howard Pankratz, Denver Post Legal Affairs
Used with Permission
A former college football player, accused of ethnic intimidation in an attack on a Denver cab driver, pleaded guilty Tuesday and was sentenced to the maximum two years in jail. Moments before his sentencing, former Colorado State University tackle Steven Trammell apologized for the April 15 incident during which he slugged, kicked and verbally assaulted Ethiopian cab driver Gebreselassie Zemariame
"I just want to apologize," Trammell, 22, said. "I understand what I did was wrong. I’m ashamed of what I did."
Prosecutor Leonard LeVine said Trammell deserved jail time because of his conduct, which included calling Zemariame a "Nigerian n----."
Zemariame testified at a June hearing that he because terrified after Trammell and Robert Cieslinski, another tackle for the Rams, leveled racial slurs at him after becoming upset about the route he was driving from downtown Denver to an Englewood hotel.
In return for Trammell’s guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges of ethnic intimidation, a felony, and criminal mischief, a misdemeanor.
Cieslinski was not charged because the state’s ethnic intimidation law requires a person to cause bodily injury or property damage or have the intent to do so.
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