Cops Flag Youth Football Coach For Ref Assault

OCTOBER 16--A youth football coach whose rap sheet dates back 25 years and includes 20 arrests is locked up after he allegedly slugged a referee Saturday during a game in south Florida.

The attack was filmed by a spectator at the West Park Saints-Miramar Patriots contest.

Dion Robinson, 43, can be seen on the video making a speed rush to clock Andrew Keigans, the 41-year-old referee. Pictured in the adjacent mug shot, Robinson is an assistant coach of the West Park squad.

According to a Broward County Sheriff's Office report, Keigans said that the confrontation began after he called an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when Robinson made a "derogatory comment from the sidelines."

Incensed by the call, Robinson "barged the field and confronted the referee, all along being held back by the head coach Antonio Lane." At this point, the head referee ended the game, deputies reported.

Robinson--simultaneously limping and pulling his sagging shorts up--chased after Keigans, smacking the ref in the face with a roundhouse left, which knocked him to the turf. The coach of the Miramar team, Patrick Manuel, videotaped the assault and provided cops with his footage.

When investigators contacted Lane, he refused to identify the member of his coaching staff who had slugged Keigans.

Robinson was subsequently identified and arrested for battery on a sports official, a felony. He is being held in lieu of $1000 bond at the Broward County jail.

Robinson's rap sheet, obtained from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, runs 33 pages and includes a variety of felony convictions, including robbery and cocaine distribution. He has also been collared for cocaine possession; aggravated battery; resisting arrest; battery on a law enforcement officer; indecent exposure; and aggravated assault with a firearm. (3 pages)