News

Former Badger in custody for alleged threats

The University of Wisconsin Police Department said Sunday a former Badger football player is in custody in Indianapolis after he made concerning phone calls to UW officials, prompting a police response in Madison.

Leonard Taylor, 32, now of Indiana, allegedly made threatening phone calls to several employees of the Athletic Department last week.

Taylor will be held in Indiana pending the extradition process to Wisconsin, which will begin sometime next week. UWPD could offer no further comment Sunday afternoon.

A sign was placed outside the Athletic Office in Kellner Hall adjacent to Camp Randall warning employees and students to look out for Taylor as well as his vehicle.

UWPD said in a statement Thursday it believed Taylor was making the calls from Indiana but wanted to warn the campus just in case.

“There were some specific phone call threats being made,” UW spokesperson Amy Toburen said. “It was just a precautionary measure that they put out that notification.”

Taylor was a defensive back for the Wisconsin Badgers from 1995 to 1998. He then played a brief stint with the Madison Mad Dogs, a now-defunct indoor football team.

Wisconsin court records show that in January 2005, Taylor was found guilty of four counts of misdemeanor harassment and violating a restraining order against a woman he had been stalking. He was found guilty of a similar charge in July 2005.

Records also show the court twice delivered injunctions against Taylor to not engage in “certain conduct” against two different women, once in 2001 and once in 2005.

UW Senior Associate Athletic Director Vince Sweeney declined comment Sunday afternoon.