Question of Jurisdiction Slowing Iti’s Appeal

Villa Park student Martin Iti’s fight to resume his basketball career has become mired in a debate over who has jurisdiction to decide his fate.

A Southern Section official said Wednesday that Iti’s attorney, Ronald E. Lais, needed to appeal Iti’s yearlong athletic suspension through the section’s hearing committee.

Leon Smith, president of the Century League, informed Lais in a written statement that he must appeal the suspension through the Orange Unified High School District.

Lais, citing a section bylaw, said the appeal should be heard by the Century League, of which Villa Park is a member. He sent Smith a letter on Monday asserting that after traveling to his client’s native Australia recently to review his academic history, he believes that Iti has two remaining semesters of athletic eligibility.

But section media relations director Thom Simmons said Wednesday that Lais is misinterpreting the section bylaws and should appeal directly to the section’s hearing committee.

Lais said he does not intend to follow that path. If the matter goes unresolved by the start of the basketball season on Nov. 1, Lais said, he will file a lawsuit against the Century League and the section for failing “to follow their own guidelines.”

Iti, a junior, was declared athletically ineligible last month after Villa Park Principal Fran Roney determined he had misled officials about his academic history.