Inmate testifies former University of Oklahoma football player Adrian Cooper beat him

BY NOLAN CLAY

Published: November 14, 2008

A federal inmate testified Thursday that former University of Oklahoma football player Adrian Cooper "blindsided” him at an El Reno prison camp, injuring him so severely he gets scared anytime he is close to where the attack took place.

Cooper, 40, is on trial in federal court in Oklahoma City. Jurors in the assault case could begin deliberating today.

Cooper’s defense attorney said Cooper admits he hit Ramiro P. Valdez on Jan. 11, but claims Valdez struck first.

Cooper claims Valdez wanted to be beaten because he thought he could leave prison early.

Valdez, 60, an admitted methamphetamine seller, told jurors Cooper elbowed him as he checked his prison money account, then struck him in the face. "That’s all I remember. He just hit me. Knocked me out, cold-cocked,” Valdez said. "I had blood all over me.”

Valdez admitted asking an FBI agent if he qualified for early release, but said that idea came from another inmate after he had been injured.

A surprise witness Thursday told jurors Cooper offered him a $5,000 bribe in prison to say Valdez hit first.

The prosecution witness, meth dealer Joshua "Chickenhawk” Lewis, said he "didn’t see any of it” because he was reading in his cell.

He said he decided not to take the bribe because he might get more prison time.

But under questioning by a defense attorney, he revealed another inmate told him Valdez had thrown the first punch in the incident.

Cooper went to prison in 2006 for cheating clients out of almost $1 million while a stockbroker. He was sentenced to serve six years and three months after pleading guilty to securities fraud and money laundering. He was a tight end at OU then spent six seasons in the National Football League.

Valdez suffered a concussion, facial cuts, a split lip, a broken leg, a broken nose, a knee injury and double vision that required surgery to fix.

He said his troubles with Cooper started after he refused to drive Cooper outside the prison camp. He said another time Cooper cursed him and called him a little cockroach when he asked if Cooper knew where some food was.

Prosecutors wanted to put on testimony about other aggressive behavior by Cooper before and after prison, but the judge blocked almost all of that.