The former University of Florida star basketball player was also charged with having an open container of alcohol. From AP-
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Authorities in Gainesville have charged Chicago Bulls forward and former Florida star Joakim Noah with possession of marijuana and having an open container of alcohol.
Gainesville police spokesman Sgt. Rick Roberts said Noah was arrested around 1:50 a.m. Sunday after an officer spotted him on a sidewalk holding a plastic cup containing an amber drink, a violation of city law. During a search at the station, officers found marijuana in his pocket.
Noah was released after signing a notice to appear before a judge — standard procedure for such offenses. He could face up to 6 months in jail and a $500 fine for the marijuana charge.
Noah won’t go to jail, and may not even be fined but sentenced to community service. Anyone else have an opinion?
The charges involve a shooting last February in Georgia. From AP-
BLAKELY, Ga. - New Orleans Saints defensive end Charles Grant has been indicted on a charge of involuntary manslaughter stemming from a February altercation at a nightclub.
Grant, who was stabbed in the neck during the fracas, was charged by an Early County grand jury that also charged Laquient Macklin with felony murder and feticide in the shooting death of Korynda Reed, 23. Reed died after being taken to the Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan, after the fight early Feb. 3.
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District Attorney Charles M. Ferguson could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.
Sheriff’s Capt. Will Caudill said at the time of the melee that there was no known connection between Grant and Reed. He said the fight started inside the club and then moved outside, and Grant was attacked after shots were fired.
Woodrow Gray was indicted on a charge of aggravated assault in the knife attack on Grant, a former University of Georgia star from nearby Colquitt.
Grant was selected by the Saints in the first round of the 2002 NFL draft. He had 2 1/2 sacks in 2007 while starting 14 games for the Saints and has 38 1/2 over his six-year career.
In addition to Grant and Macklin, and Marshae Stromer, Anthony Wilson, Jarvis Tinson, Rodreaco Gray and Woodrow Gray were charged with involuntary manslaughter for alleged participation in the fight.
I have no opinion in regards to the charges. The tragedy in this story involves the young mother who lost her life. God bless her family.
Jay Bergman was an institution at UCF where he had been baseball coach for 28 years. From the Orlando Sentinel-
The University of Central Florida fired baseball coach Jay Bergman because he was accused of sexually harassing a team equipment manager, a university source has confirmed.
Bergman used a bat to simulate raping equipment manager Chris Rhyce in early March, said the university source and two other sources with knowledge of the allegation. The university source asked for anonymity because he is not authorized to speak for UCF.
The three sources said Rhyce told the university in a written complaint that he was held down on the field, fully clothed, by a baseball staff member before a March 7 game while the players watched. Bergman was said to have grabbed a bat and shoved it toward Rhyce’s buttocks.
Bergman coached for almost 26 years at UCF.
File this under embarrassing ways to taint or destroy a long career. The UCF Baseball field is named for Bergman.
I’m inclined to believe the allegations. Bergman was suspended for one game in 2006 for inappropriate behavior towards one of his players. The lawyer for Bergman is denying what happened (of course), and the school is clamming up. (of course) Go to the link and read the Orlando Sentinel article to form your own opinion.
AUSTIN, Texas - Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson was charged with failing a sobriety test while operating a 30-foot boat, then resisting arrest before being hit with pepper spray and dragged ashore by officers.
Benson faces charges of boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest after the incident Saturday night on Lake Travis, Travis County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Roger Wade said Sunday.
Benson was released from jail early Sunday on a $14,500 bond. The charges are class B misdemeanors, each punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. A call to Benson’s agent was not immediately returned.
Benson was operating the boat with 15 passengers aboard when he was stopped by a Lower Colorado River Authority officer for a random safety inspection. He failed a field sobriety test on the officer’s boat and was uncooperative when the officer tried to take him ashore, the authority said.
Players getting arrested for DUI or being intoxicated are regular occurences. The only reason Benson stands out, is because he did it while boating. Leave it to NFL players to find many different ways to get in trouble with the law.
What would an NFL football off season be without an arrest or two or three. From AP-
Cleveland Browns defensive back Kenny Wright was arrested Thursday after police said he led them on a quarter-mile foot chase that began in the parking lot of the police station.
The 30-year-old Wright faces a misdemeanor charge of unlawful restraint, a misdemeanor charge of evading arrest and a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana. He remained in the Pearland City Jail on Thursday night pending a bond hearing Friday.
Pearland police said officers were investigating a disturbance in the police station parking lot around 11:30 a.m. Thursday. When officers approached Wright, he took off running and was eventually caught in a nearby subdivision.
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Police said they found 1.875 ounces of marijuana in Wright’s vehicle.
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Wright, who attended Northwestern State in Louisiana, was a fourth-round pick in the 1999 draft by the Minnesota Vikings. The nine-year veteran also has played for Houston, Jacksonville and Washington. He has seven career interceptions
Wright is a journeyman player at best. Being arrested won’t further his chances of staying in the NFL.
Once again a Cincinnati Bengal is in trouble with the law.
Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry has been accused of punching an 18-year-old man in the face and breaking his car window with a beer bottle, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
Henry, 24, was charged with misdemeanor assault and criminal damaging in the Monday incident in Cincinnati. A warrant for his arrest was issued in Hamilton County Municipal Court.
The player has had a string of problems with police. He most recently was in court last week after being ticketed for driving with expired Kentucky license plates. He paid $149, according to the Hamilton County Municipal Court records.
Henry, who was arrested four times during a 14-month span, was suspended by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for the first half of last season for repeatedly violating the league’s conduct policy.
Henry may be suspended again if the charges are true.
Update- Henry doesn’t have to worry about a suspension now. Cincinnati tired of his antics, have cut the wide out.
TAMPA, Fla. - Police say two Montreal Canadiens players have been arrested outside a Tampa nightclub. The 23-year-old defenseman Ryan O’Byrne has been accused of stealing a woman’s purse, and the 29-year-old right wing Thomas Kostopoulos has been charged with resisting an officer, a Tampa police report says.
Make a bet alcohol had something to do with this. Now what fate awaits Kostopoulos and O’Byrne? Immigration frowns on law breaking foreigners. Deportation and a ban from entering the US for 10 years? Only makes sense, CIS wants to deport widows of US citizens. They need to be tough on immigrants! Why should hockey players born in Canada be different?
BLAKELY, Ga. - New Orleans defensive end Charles Grant was stabbed in the neck, and a pregnant woman was shot and killed early Sunday in an altercation at a nightclub in southwest Georgia.
Grant was assaulted and had an injury to his neck, according to a statement released by Capt. Will Caudill of the Early County Sheriff’s Office. Grant was transported to Early Memorial Hospital, where he was treated and later released.
Early County Sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of a fight around 1 a.m. Sunday at a nightclub in Blakely, which is about 190 miles southwest of Atlanta.
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In the incident, 23-year-old Korynda Reed of Blakely was shot, police said. She was transported to Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan, Ala., where she died. Early County Sheriff Jimmie R. Murkerson said Reed was pregnant.
No arrests have been made, and the case remains under investigation.
This article states that ‘Grant has been released after being detained as one of several potential witnesses or suspects.’ The pregnant woman was supposedly shot. My condolences to her family.
The Maple Leaf forward did it as he left the penalty box during a game last night.
Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nik Antropov has been suspended for three games for throwing his stick in the direction of the referees when he left the penalty box after the Carolina Hurricanes won Thursday night, 3-2, in overtime.
It was the culmination of a difficult night for the Maple Leafs, who were seething about the officiating after the game in Raleigh, N.C.
Nik Antropov, who has played in all 53 Maple Leafs games this season, will miss three after throwing his stick toward the referees.
Antropov was called for hooking Cory Stillman with 2:36 left in overtime, and Rod Brind’Amour scored the winner during the power play. When Antropov departed from the penalty box, he slammed his stick on the ice, then tossed it along the boards, but toward the referees. He was assessed two game misconduct penalties, the second of which was for abuse of an official and carries an automatic three-game suspension.
Antropov, 27, has played in all 53 Leafs games this season and has 41 points (18 goals, 23 assists), second-best on the team behind only captain Mats Sundin.
According to the NHL rulebook, a three-game suspension is levied when “any player or goalkeeper who, by his actions, physically demeans an official or physically threatens an official by [but not limited to] throwing a stick or any other piece of equipment.”
NHL senior vice president of hockey operations Mike Murphy confirmed from the league office in Toronto that Antropov would be suspended for three games, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail.
I haven’t seen a video of the incident, but if Antropov threw his stick anywhere in the direction of the refs, the Maple Leaf player has gotten off lightly for his actions. Not surprisingly, since the NHL has handed out light penalties for far worse actions than Antropov’s. That the league contiues this policy may not be anything new, but I feel outrage should still be expressed till the NHL does something about these hooligans.
He is charged with killing a woman in Broward County Florida.
FORT LAUDERDALE - Jim Leyritz, the former Major League Baseball player known as “The King,” was arrested and charged with DUI manslaughter Friday morning following an accident that killed another driver, police said.
Leyritz, 44, was traveling north-bound on Southwest Seventh Avenue when he passed a red light and crashed with another car around 3:30 a.m., said Fort Lauderdale police spokeswoman Kathy Collins.
The accident happened at the intersection of Southwest Second Street and Seventh Avenue. A 30-year-old woman traveling west-bound on Second Street was ejected from her car, Collins said.
She was pronounced dead at Broward General Medical Center.
Leyritz was charged with manslaughter and DUI property damage after an investigation, Collins said.
Leyritz played with the New York Yankees in the ’90s, earning his nickname after htting the last home run in Game 4 of the 1999 World Series.
If found guilty and sent to jail, it will be a shame will Leyritz’s famous homer gets bloted out by one foolish night of excess.
The controversial left winger is probably facing another suspension from the NFL. From AP-
NEW YORK - Chris Simon stepped away from the New York Islanders before the NHL had a chance to toss him out.
That might be next for the troubled forward.
Simon and the Islanders agreed Monday he should take a paid break from hockey following his latest penalty for attempting to injure an opponent.
He had already missed the first five games of this season while completing a 25-game ban — his sixth NHL suspension — meted out in March. Simon played in only 26 games before he found more trouble on the ice.
He is likely in line for another long penalty after he took down and stepped on Pittsburgh’s Jarkko Ruutu last weekend. Simon is scheduled to have a hearing with NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell on Tuesday in Toronto.
“The actions of Chris Simon on Saturday do not reflect what the New York Islanders stand for,” Islanders owner Charles Wang said in a statement. “They were reckless, potentially dangerous and against our team concept of grit, character and heart.
“We know Chris as a respected teammate and as a gracious man away from the playing surface and believe strongly that he has earned our continued support. The Islanders are going to provide some time for Chris away from the team and give him the counseling he needs and the compassion he deserves. When Chris is completely ready, he will be a member of our team again.”
Wang’s defense of Simon is idiotic. Here’s the video of last Saturday’s incident.
Simon is a thug who deserves a suspension for a year at least, I’d ban him entirely if I was the NHL. Two strikes and you’re out. Go look what he did last year. This player is indefensible and if Islander management think this leave changes anything, they’re as warped as Chris Simon is.
REIMS, France - Formula One star Lewis Hamilton has been banned from driving in France for speeding, a French police spokesman confirmed on Tuesday.
The 22-year-old Briton, who finished runner-up in the world drivers’ championship in his debut season this year, has been banned for a month after being caught speeding at 122mph in a Mercedes by police on a motorway near the northern town of Laon.
The speed limit on French motorways is 85mph.
“He admitted the offence immediately and was really very polite,” the police spokesman said, adding that Hamilton had said in his defence that the motorway was “very clear” at the time.
“It’s a section of motorway which is used regularly by foreigners who have a tendancy to speed,” the spokesman added.
The McLaren driver, who was also ordered to pay a 600 euro fine, will appear before a court in Laon in January.
No word yet if Hamilton will be allowed to drive in next year’s French Grand Prix. That formula one race, which was facing an uncertain future past 2007, is on next year’s race schedule.
Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison Monday for his role in a dogfighting conspiracy that involved gambling and killing pit bulls.
The suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback could have been sentenced up to five years by District Judge Henry E. Hudson. Vick was dressed in a black-and-white striped prison suit and apologized to the court and his family.
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Vick acknowledged he used “poor judgment” and added, “I’m willing to deal with the consequences and accept responsibility for my actions.”
Before the hearing started, Michael Vick’s brother, Marcus Vick, sat with his right arm around their mother, comforting her as she buried her head in her hands and wept.
Vick pleaded guilty in August, admitting he bankrolled the “Bad Newz Kennels” dogfighting operation and helped kill six to eight dogs.
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In a plea agreement, he admitted bankrolling the dogfighting ring on his 15-acre property in rural southeastern Virginia and helping kill pit bulls that did not perform well in test fights. He also admitted providing money for bets on the fights but said he never shared in any winnings.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank called the sentencing “another step in his legal journey.
Vick deserves every day he has to spend in jail. What he did to those animals was absolutely disgusting.
Even money says Vick doesn’t play another down in the NFL. Check back in sometime 2009 or later to see if I am right.
Vick’s humility at sentencing comes off as fake to me. He was rarely humble when playing pro football, why should anyone believe Vick is sorry now.
The Irish jockey was just cleared of race fixing charges also. From AFP-
Six-time British champion jockey Kieren Fallon has failed a drugs test, his lawyer said on Saturday, a day after he was cleared of race-fixing charges when a two-month trial collapsed.
The 42-year-old Irishman tested positive for a banned substance after a race in Deauville, France, in August, said Fallon’s solicitor Christopher Stewart-Moore, although a B-sample second test result is still awaited.
“I can confirm that the story is true but it is a matter we are dealing with together with (French racing authority) France Galop and it is something we are not able to comment on.
“I am not in receipt of the actual B-sample results,” he added, saying the positive test came after he rode “Myboycharlie” in the Prix Morny at Deauville on August 19.
French racing authorities imposed a six-month suspension on Fallon from December last year, after he tested positive for a prohibited substance in June 2006.
The news comes a day after Fallon voiced relief but also anger following the collapse of a high-profile race-fixing trial against him and five co-defendants at the Old Bailey in London.
The six were accused of conspiracy to defraud online betting customers by trying to cheat in 27 races to make horses lose, but the judge ruled there was no case to answer.
The drug test and the race fixing allegations are probably unrelated. Few people understand the measures jockeys have to take to keep riding. They eat and purge to keep their weight dozens of pounds below normal for their heights. It often causes both major physical ailments and sometimes mental health issues.
Moore’s neck was broken a result of hit placed on him by then Canuck player Todd Bertuzzi. From AP-
TORONTO - Todd Bertuzzi’s on-ice attack on Steve Moore might have been ordered by former Vancouver Canucks coach Marc Crawford, according to a report aired on CBC’s “The National” Wednesday night.
Bertuzzi grabbed Moore from behind during a 2004 game, punched him on the side of his head and then landed on top of Moore, driving his head into the ice. The bloodied Colorado player was removed on a stretcher.
Moore sustained a broken neck and a concussion. He filed a lawsuit against Bertuzzi, the Canucks and their parent company in Ontario in February 2006.
A statement of claim filed in court by Moore’s lawyer and obtained by CBC alleges that Crawford pointed to Moore’s name and number on a board in the Canucks’ locker room during the second intermission of that game and said “… (Moore) must pay the price.”
In an accompanying document, Moore’s lawyer claims Crawford’s statement was disclosed by Bertuzzi while under oath, and by Canucks general manager Dave Nonis.
A month earlier, during a Feb. 16 game in Denver, Moore checked Canucks forward Markus Naslund and that led to talk of retribution against him, culminating with the Bertuzzi hit a month later.
Crawford, now Los Angeles’ coach, didn’t want to talk about the report after the Kings’ 4-1 loss to Phoenix on Wednesday night.
Here’s the video of the infamous incident.
I felt at the time Bertuzzi(who now is with the Anaheim Ducks but spent the 06-07 season with the Florida Panthers and Detroit Red Wings) should have been kicked out of the NHL. The NHL, as seen by Commissioner Gary Bettman’s attempts to prod an out of court settlement, would rather make this ugly attack go away. Why do I get the feeling a reason why is that players in the NHL engage in retaliation all the time? Click here and here for other possible proof. The League would rather have the truth kept unknown. Breaking people’s necks doesn’t put the NHL in a good light.
