The record-setting running back with the Mighty Mouse tattoo won’t be asked to save the day again as a police officer in California.
Tyler Ebell still holds the single-season state record of 4,494 rushing yards he set in 2000 at Ventura High, and the 5-foot-8 scatback went on to star at UCLA, setting a freshman record by rushing for more than 100 yards in six consecutive games while earning second-team All-American honors.
After three years in the Canadian Football League, Ebell became a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy, seemingly the epitome of a high school and college football hero giving back to his community. Yet in 2022, Ebell was fired after an internal affairs investigation found he “committed repeated acts of serious misconduct and grossly violated the foundational principles of a law enforcement officer.”
Ebell was accused of pursuing and carrying on a sexual relationship with Nastaza Schmidt, an inmate in the jail where he worked. The Sheriff’s Office referred his case to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, and Ebell surrendered his certification with the agency earlier this month.
Without the certification, Ebell cannot work as an officer in any state police agency, as first reported by the Ventura County Star.
Ventura County settled a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Schmidt and another woman in 2023 by paying them $49,999. The lawsuit accused Ebell of pressuring Schmidt into a relationship by promising to help her minimize her criminal charges.
Schmidt died two years ago, her body found on the lawn of a Thousand Oaks home after she had fled on foot from a self-storage facility she and two men were attempting to burglarize. The Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that Schmidt, 34, died of “probable cardiac arrest,” and had a potentially lethal amount of methamphetamine in her system.
Schmidt already had a criminal history of burglary when she was arrested in 2020 and charged with identity theft, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of burglary tools. Ebell was one of the arresting officers, and according to the lawsuit filed in federal court by Schmidt in January 2023, he showered her with favors while she was incarcerated, insinuating that she would repay him with sexual favors when she was released.
The day she was let out on bail, Ebell picked her up at the jail, took her to her grandparents house and they had sex, the lawsuit alleged. Soon thereafter, Ebell’s wife and two children took a trip to Canada and Schmidt stayed at his house for more than two weeks, according to the lawsuit.
USC safety Troy Polamalu causes UCLA running back Tyler Ebell to fumble during a game at the Rose Bowl on Nov. 23, 2002.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The lawsuit also alleged that Ebell assaulted Schmidt when he confronted her and her ex-boyfriend at her grandparent’s house and that Ebell insisted she get an abortion when she became pregnant with his child.
Ebell was seen with Schmidt at a restaurant by two off-duty deputies Dec. 30, 2021, triggering an internal affairs investigation. Ebell resigned from the Sheriff’s Office a year later.
According to the lengthy internal affairs report, Ebell told detectives that he was “going through a lot of emotional stuff, and I made a ton of poor decisions not typically my character. I was looking for an escape and I found it in a friend, and it was the wrong friend in the wrong place. And I did a lot of things that I would never normally do when I’m in the right mindset.”
The result has been a steep fall for Ebell. In 2006, he and former UCLA teammates Ricky Manning Jr. and Maurice Jones-Drew were involved in an alleged assault stemming from an attack on a man in a Denny’s restaurant in Westwood at 3 a.m. Ebell was charged with felony assault but a judge downgraded it to a misdemeanor, and that charge was eventually dropped because of insufficient evidence.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the three allegedly harassed a man working on a laptop computer at the restaurant. “The group began by making comments that the victim looked like a geek or a nerd,” LAPD Det. Robert Lewis told reporters.
The victim asked the group to stop and complained to a Denny’s manager before someone in the group punched him in the face. He then was punched and kicked until losing consciousness, according to Lewis.
The incident occurred three weeks after Jones-Drew had been drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars. He wasn’t charged and went on to a nine-year NFL career that included three Pro Bowl appearances and All-Pro recognition in 2011.
Manning Jr., a defensive back, had received a $21-million contract offer from the Chicago Bears only days earlier. He signed the deal and a few months later pleaded no contest to felony assault and was sentenced to three years probation, one year of anger management counseling and 100 hours of community service.
Ebell wasn’t considered big enough for the NFL, but he led the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL with 1,318 total yards in 2007 before a ruptured Achilles tendon ended his career a year later. He returned to the hometown where at age 14 he’d sat in a Hells Angels hangout for that Mighty Mouse tattoo and became a peace officer, a job that ended for good in California this month.
