By Joe Piasecki
Pasadena Sun

 

The task of assigning blame for a violent clash between an adult and a teen last year at John Muir High School is now in the hands of jurors in an Alhambra courtroom, where former Mustangs football coach Ken Howard is standing trial for misdemeanor battery.

In opening arguments Friday, Pasadena Deputy City Prosecutor Joon Kim said Howard “broke the golden rule” — and the law — when he improperly searched a 16-year-old student during a hunt for weapons on campus and then lashed out physically after the boy mouthed off.

Photographs displayed in court showed bruises on the teen’s neck, shoulder and back that Kim said Howard caused by putting the boy in a headlock and slamming him against lockers on Sept. 28, 2011. Howard faces up to a year in jail if convicted.