At least five newspapers reported yesterday that Penn State quarterback Rashard Casey had been indicted on assault charges, but a Hudson County, N.J., official said those reports were "completely inaccurate."

"There is absolutely no indictment whatsoever," said Terry Hull, Hudson County first assistant prosecutor. "That is absolutely inaccurate. Not even close.

"Rashard Casey has not been indicted. For the press to say he has is inaccurate," said Hull, referring to accounts in at least four Pennsylvania newspapers and one national paper.

The reports in question, based on anonymous sources, said that a Hudson County grand jury indicted Casey and friend Desmond Miller, both 22, on charges of assaulting off-duty Hoboken, N.J. police officer Patrick Fitzsimmons, 34, in the early morning hours of May 14 outside a Hoboken nightclub.

Hull said that of the reports he has read, "Some are accurate, some are not."

When asked to elaborate on the inaccurate reports, he said, "such as this Rashard Casey thing."

Last week, Hull said that if the grand jury had voted to indict, he would not be able to comment further on the matter.

If the case had been remanded to municipal court or "no-billed," meaning a defendant is cleared, Hull said he would have been free to speak to the public.

The grand jury, which met for the fourth and final time in this case Tuesday, took action on which Hull could not comment. That action may or may not have been a vote to indict Casey.

Hull said in order for an indictment to be handed down, the grand jury's vote, which has been sealed, must first pass through an assignment judge. Hull said that the procedure is only a formality, and the assignment judge could not overrule an indictment vote.

"At that point," Hull said, "there may be an indictment. But there has been no indictment.

"I think the problem here is that a lot of this came from sports reporters who wanted to get the story first," Hull said. "But that is unfair to the defendants and the people associated with the case.

"People are reading into what I said, and they think I'm this 'source,' " he said. "But I'm not. It makes me look bad."

Hull could not comment on the grand jury's decision.

Casey's lawyer, Dennis McAlevy, said he knew nothing of Tuesday's proceedings.

"No one in any official capacity has advised me of an indictment," McAlevy said. "When my mother was alive, she used to tell me, 'Don't believe everything you read in the newspapers.'

"As a lawyer, I'm not concerned," McAlevy said. "As a person, I am concerned, because I want this whole circus to be over so Rashard can go back to being a football player and a college student.

"I know he didn't do anything. And I can't say that about all my clients."

Should the indictment reports prove true, they will have little effect on Casey's status as a student, Penn State officials said.

Penn State spokesman Stephen MacCarthy said yesterday that the Office of Judicial Affairs could not take action on Casey without getting more information from police in Hoboken.

Penn State Sports Information Director Jeff Nelson said no one involved in the case had contacted Penn State.

Judicial Affairs can suspend or expel a student accused of committing a crime or violating a university rule. The office often acts faster than the criminal court system, especially when a student commits a crime on campus or in State College, where police share evidence with the university.

But in this case, Judicial Affairs cannot conduct an investigation because Hoboken police will not share witnesses and evidence with the university.

"If there is an indictment, they (Judicial Affairs) would once again contact the Hoboken authorities and see if they are willing to be cooperative," MacCarthy said. "If they are not . . . then we are right where we started."

That means the Office of Judicial Affairs will probably wait until the trial before making a decision about whether to punish Casey.

As of yesterday, neither Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno nor Penn State Sports Information had released a statement.

Collegian staff writer Daryl Lang and The Associated Press contributed to this report.