Past Allegations Against Trainer Surface at Local University

RALEIGH, N.C. — Complaints have surfaced against a member of the Campbell University Athletic Department during an investigation into student athletes over-medicating at another school.

Craig Moriwaki was accused of overusing prescription drugs with softball players at the University of Washington when he worked as an athletic trainer before leaving that job in 2002.

According to his bio found in a Campbell media guide, he was hired as an assistant athletic trainer at Campbell, but the school said he now works as a strength coach.

His past concerned at least one person so much that they filed an anonymous complaint with the North Carolina State Board of Athletic Trainers, asking them to investigate whether he should be allowed to work at Campbell.

When WRAL approached Craig Moriwaki on Campbell campus in Buies Creek on Wednesday, he didn’t want to talk about his past at the University of Washington. His Seattle attorney, Robert Chadwell, did not respond to phone calls about the investigation.

But WRAL has learned that there was both a state and federal investigation into the prescription drug situation with UW’s softball team. The doctor that Moriwaki worked under, Dr. William Scheyer, was criminally charged and surrendered his medical license.

Scheyer entered a plea agreement to charges that he obtained prescription drugs by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception and subterfuge.

The UW internal investigation in 2004 found both Scheyer and Moriwaki at fault for overusing and overmedicating players. However, Washington State U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Emily Langlie said Moriwaki never faced criminal charges.

“(Moriwaki) was open and cooperative with the investigation,” Langlie said.

“With the investigation, we did not find evidence to warrant criminal charges in the investigation."

In the UW investigation, trainers said they saw Moriwaki call in prescriptions without first consulting with Scheyer. Three players told the investigative panel that after receiving pills from Moriwaki, they played impaired and/or under the influence of medication. The medications ranged from painkillers to birth control pills.

Now the past is raising questions for Campbell. If he did work, as his bio said, as an assistant athletic trainer at Campbell University, he never obtained his North Carolina license to be an athletic trainer, which is required to work at the university level.

In August, his national certification as an athletic trainer was suspended. The only reason given by the National Board of Certification on its website is that it was suspended due to a potential public risk.

Kevin Allran, the president of the North Carolina Board of Athletic Trainer Examiners, said his board is reviewing two anonymous complaints against Moriwaki. They don’t allege that he has dispensed medicine at Campbell, but they do question why he was allowed to be employed there.

Allran said it’s possible that if Moriwaki worked as an athletic trainer without a state license, he could face misdemeanor charges. However, he said his board has never before sought criminal charges.

Campbell's athletic director, Stan Williamson, said the university was aware of Moriwaki's past when he was hired. While he declined to go on camera, Williamson issued a statement about the investigation in Washington, saying: "Our information is that he was never criminally charged. It's in his past and given the evidence, we believe that he is innocent."