SALON

Friday, May 3, 2013 2:00 AM UTC

Utah soccer referee in coma from player’s punch

By

Topics: From the Wires, ,

Utah soccer referee in coma from player's punchJohana Portillo, center, and her sister Ana Portillo hold hands while Dr. Shawn Smith looks on during a news conference Thursday, May 2, 2013, at Intermountain Medical Center, in Murray, Utah. Ricardo Portillo, a Utah soccer referee, is in a coma after being punched by a teenage player unhappy with one of his calls _ and his family says their only hope is for a miracle. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)(Credit: AP)

MURRAY, Utah (AP) — A longtime Utah soccer referee is in a coma after being punched by a teenage player unhappy with one of his calls — and his family says their only hope is for a miracle.

Ricardo Portillo, 46, has swelling in his brain and his recovery is uncertain as he remains in critical condition, Dr. Shawn Smith said Thursday at the Intermountain Medical Center in the Salt Lake City suburb of Murray.

Police say a 17-year-old player in a recreational soccer league punched Ricardo Portillo after the man called a foul on him and issued him a yellow card.

The teen has been booked into juvenile detention on suspicion of aggravated assault. Those charges could be amplified if Portillo dies.

The attack Saturday wasn’t the first time Portillo has been assaulted by an angry player while referring, said his oldest daughter, Johana Portillo. He’s had his ribs and leg broken before.

Smith declined to speak about what caused the injuries or divulge Ricardo Portillo’s prognosis due to the ongoing police investigation. But Johana Portillo, 26, said her father is on the brink of death.

“I know he didn’t, he doesn’t want to leave us,” she said, crying. “We hope for a miracle that he will be ok.”

Johana Portillo wasn’t at the Saturday afternoon game in the Salt Lake City suburb of Taylorsville, but she said she’s been told by witnesses and detectives that the player hit her father in the side of the head after he issued the yellow card.

“When he was writing down his notes, he just came out of nowhere and punched him,” she said.

His friends who were there told her Ricardo Portillo seemed fine at first, but then asked to be held because he felt dizzy. They sat him down and he started vomiting blood, triggering his friend to call an ambulance. The referee has been in a coma since Saturday.

Johana Portillo said her father’s passion is soccer, and he’s been a referee in the recreational league for eight years. Five years ago, a player upset with a call broke his ribs. A few years before that, a player broke his leg, she said. Other referees have been hurt, too.

“People don’t know it’s a game,” Johana Portillo said. “We’re all there to have fun, not to go and kill each other.”

His daughters begged him to stop refereeing — his second job — but he continued because he loved soccer.

“It was his passion,” she said. “We could not tell him no.”

The league is not affiliated with the Utah Youth Soccer Association or any city or town recreation department. It is called the Liga Continental, said the referee’s brother-in-law Pedro Lopez, who also gets paid to referee in the league.

Johana Portillo said the family doesn’t know the teenager who threw the punch, and they haven’t heard from him or anyone in his family.

Friday is Ricardo Portillo’s youngest daughter’s 16th birthday, and the family was planning to leave on vacation Thursday, Johana Portillo said. Instead, they have set up a bank fund in case their father dies.

“If my dad doesn’t make it, we want to make his last wish come true,” Johana Portillo said. “To see his family again.”

She said his sisters are trying to come from Guadalaraja, Mexico. The referee hadn’t seen his sisters in the 16 years since he moved to Utah.

“It’s just not fair,” said Johana Portillo, holding back tears. “This person caused us a lot of pain. I want justice for my dad, and we’re going to get it. … If he spends time in jail forever, it’s not enough. They are not going to bring my daddy back.”

___

Follow Brady McCombs at https://twitter.com/BradyMcCombs.

More Brady McCombs.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
    Reuters/Jason Reed

  • Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
    AP/A.M. Ahad

  • Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
    AP/Elise Amendola

  • Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
    AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani

  • Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
    AP/Manish Swarup

  • Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
    AP/Jeff Roberson

  • Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
    AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel

  • Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
    AP/Liu Yinghua

  • On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
    AP/Rogelio V. Solis

  • The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
    AP/David J. Phillip

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Facebook has been used to find ex-lovers, childhood BFFs or the one who got away. He used it to find the guy who, without his consent, made him his drug mule.
258 points259 points | 24 comments
vote
“This could be a career ender for Michele Bachmann”
168 points169 points | 77 comments
vote
Poll: 3 in 10 voters say “armed revolution might be necessary” - 29% say they believe they'll have to act "in order to protect our liberties" in the next few years
43 points44 points | 18 comments
vote
"New evidence reveals big banks still illegally foreclosing on thousands of homes – and weak settlement allows it."
28 points29 points | comment
vote
Are millennials delusional? New research suggests that members of "Generation Me" are warped by a profound sense of entitlement
25 points26 points | 19 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "The Shelter Cycle": Raised in a cult

Recommendations