Condition of injured CU student worsens

Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 29, 2007 at midnight

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A University of Colorado junior is fighting for his life at a New York hospital after being savagely attacked - possibly with a bat or brick - on University Hill six weeks ago.

Boulder police arrested Howard Jordan Jacobsen, 21, on a second-degree assault charge late last week in connection with the Dec. 17 brawl that landed 22-year-old economics major Evan Couri in the hospital.

Jacobsen was subsequently released on $5,000 bail, according to the Daily Camera.

But police spokeswoman Julie Brooks on Sunday said that Jacobsen was not the person who beat Couri, a strapping young man who played football and basketball in high school.

Couri is being treated for a brain injury at the Weill Cornell Medical College, affiliated with New York Presbyterian Hospital.

His father, Ron Couri, CEO and president of his family's New Jersey-based carpet and rug enterprise, said his son has had three surgeries since the attack. He remains hospitalized after suffering an aneurysm recently that muddled his senses and caused him not to recall his own name.

Couri said his son will never play football or basketball again and can never risk hitting his head.

Brooks said the investigation was continuing and that she could not release any other details.

She said the fight, which involved several people on both sides, unfolded in the vicinity of 12th and 13th streets and Euclid Avenue in the early morning hours.

Ron Couri said the fight stemmed from a disagreement at the Walrus Saloon downtown on Dec. 16. Couri said someone in the bar made remarks about the girlfriend of one of his son's friends.

Evan Couri and three friends went to Couri's apartment on Marine Street where they received a call from Jacobsen challenging them to fight, Ron Couri said.

His son made the mistake of joining his friends as they walked to an apartment complex where they were confronted by 20 or 30 college-age men, some armed with pool cues, bricks and bats, he said.

"It was all premeditated," his father said. "Evan saw trouble coming. They found his body a half- block away. He either tried to run or he was backing up trying to get away."

His son was slammed in the head, then kicked and spat upon as he lay unconscious, Ron Couri said. Some young people from a nearby home managed to pull the seven to nine attackers off Couri and called 911, his father said. Three other young men suffered more minor injuries.

Evan Couri was released from the hospital on Christmas Eve, his father said. With DIA closed by the blizzard, he and his father flew to the East Coast out of Jefferson County.

Once home, Couri's condition deteriorated. He suffered severe headaches and a stroke. He cannot move his left arm, his father said. Then came the aneurysm.

"Every day you take it one day at a time," Couri said. "(Saturday) the angiogram came out clear. We're a little more hopeful."

His son has no memory of the attack.

Brooks said it's not unusual in the case of a fight involving many people for arrests to take time.

Ron Couri said he's giving the Boulder police a few days to work their investigation. Then he's pondering hiring a private investigator and offering a reward.

"My son was not completely innocent," Ron Couri said. "He put himself in a situation. (But) obviously no one deserves what happened to him."

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