Prosecutors have charged former Marian High School and Notre Dame basketball standout Demetrius Jackson with battery, stemming from his alleged behavior at a recent practice.
Court records say Assistant Coach Brian Foster reported the incident to Mishawaka police, who then reviewed video of the March 10 practice. Prosecutors say the video shows Jackson was practicing with the team when he headbutted Foster’s 18-year-old son Brandon, who is a player on the team, and grabbed him by the neck. When Coach Foster intervened, Jackson headbutted and shoved him too.
The video also shows Jackson later grabbing Coach Foster by the shirt and throwing him to the ground.
The school last week fired head coach Robb Berger without publicly saying why. That came after the Indiana High School Athletic Association suspended him for a game for violating a rule that prohibits non-roster players from practicing with the team.
The 31-year-old Jackson told police that people had been giving him “cheap shots” during the practice, and that coaches had asked him to play more physically to prepare the team for an upcoming playoff game. But police said Berger and other coaches interviewed said that wasn’t true.
Jackson faces two misdemeanor battery counts. Both Fosters are alleged victims in the case. They told police Jackson had been guarding Brandon and “started trash talking the eighteen-year-old. Brandon Foster confronted him about his behavior, and Mr. Jackson said "This is my court, I can say whatever . . . I want."
Jackson graduated from Marian in 2013 before playing at Notre Dame and being picked by the Boston Celtics in the NBA draft’s second round. In 2019 he bought Marian a new gym floor, which still bears the words “Demetrius Jackson Court.”
Court records say another coach told police he saw Jackson grab Brandon Foster by the neck and saw red marks left on his throat. When the coach confronted Jackson about putting his hands on a kid, Jackson replied, "I did and I did it to his dad, too, and I'll do it to you." The coach and Coach Foster then tried to persuade Jackson to leave the practice, but he refused.
Two coaches told police that they had “never seen conduct like Jackson's on the court before in their seventeen and twenty-eight years of experience.”
