Former USC, LSU players charged with robberies

Jan 22, 2016 - 5:27 AM LOS ANGELES (AP) One former football player from the University of Southern California and another from Louisiana State University were charged Thursday with a string of robberies and a carjacking in Los Angeles, authorities said.

Ex-USC tight end Bryce Dixon and former LSU defensive tackle Trey Lealaimatafao, both 19-year-olds who were dismissed from their teams last year, were each charged with five counts of second-degree robbery and one count each of carjacking, attempted carjacking and assault with a deadly weapon. They could each get more than 15 years if convicted on all counts.

Both men pleaded not guilty at their arraignment Thursday afternoon and were told to return to court next month.

Prosecutors say the crimes and the arrests took place Tuesday. Dixon and Lealaimatafao would stop people, threaten them, and steal their belongings, prosecutors alleged.

Joshua Ritter, attorney for Dixon, did not immediately return an after-hours message seeking comment. No one answered an after-hours phone call at the public defender's office, which is representing Lealaimatafao while he seeks a private attorney.

Lealaimatafao, a redshirt freshman who had yet to take the field in a game for LSU, was dismissed after an arrest on allegations of hitting a woman outside a bar after she tried to stop him from robbing her unconscious boyfriend.

Dixon was dismissed from the team at USC over sexual misconduct allegations, though a judge overturned Dixon's expulsion, allowing him to return to USC as a student.