Official accused of pushing local TV reporters

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- A television reporter has filed a complaint accusing the University of Notre Dame's executive vice president of grabbing her arm, while another reporter says he pushed her.\nThe reporters from stations WNDU and WSBT said the incidents occurred when they were on campus Thursday to cover a Mass for Chad Sharon, an 18-year-old freshman who has been missing since Dec. 12.\nNotre Dame campus police are investigating the complaint against the Rev. Timothy R. Scully, which was filed Friday by Bonnie Druker of WNDU, which is owned by the university.\nA message seeking comment was left Tuesday at Scully's office, which referred all calls to the university's public relations office.\nUniversity spokesman Matthew Storin described the incidents as "an unfortunate misunderstanding at an emotional time for Father Scully and everyone in Fisher Hall."\nScully "would be the first to admit he overreacted," Storin said. "We now consider the matter to be behind us."\nStorin declined to comment on whether the university would take disciplinary action against Scully, who has been Notre Dame's executive vice president since July 2000. Scully also is chairman of WNDU's board of directors.\nScully, who lives in the same building as Sharon, confronted the crews from the two television stations over parking in reserved parking spots outside the Fisher Hall dormitory, according to police reports.\nScully told the Observer, the student newspaper on campus, that he apologized to Druker. "It was a misunderstanding between Bonnie Druker and myself prior to the Mass," Scully said.\nDruker told police that Scully grabbed her arm and pinched her while talking about the location of the vehicles.\nWSBT-TV reporter Jennifer Kuk said Scully shoved her.\n"He pushed me on the arm to get me in the vehicle," she told the South Bend Tribune for a story Tuesday. "He shook his finger in my face and said, 'I want you out of here.'"\nAt Scully's order, Kuk and the WSBT crew left campus without covering the event, she said.