Ex-Chicago Bear Arrested in Miami

Garrett Wolfe was arrested on Saturday im Miami on counts of retail theft, assaulting a police officer, resisting an arrest with violence, and disorderly conduct. It apparently stemmed from a $1,600 tab he racked up at a Miami nightclub and then refused to pay. Officers were then called to the scene, and when Wolfe was given an opportunity to pay again, he not only refused, but became violent and charged the officers.

It will be interesting to see how this event will be handled by the league. Wolfe was not offered a contract by the Bears so once the lockout is over, he will be an unrestricted free agent. However, the league could have some sort of punishment waiting for Wolfe once he does return. Because of the lockout and because he is not technically an employee of a team, he cannot be punished until he signs a contract. However, this will likely be viewed as a violation of the personal conduct policy of the NFL, assuming that policy is not amended as part of a new collective bargaining agreement. Even though this is a relatively minor incident, it could serve as a crucial indicator of how new issues will be handled once football resumes, as one of the players sticking points in negotiations is their feeling that the commissioner has too much unilateral power under the current personal conduct policy.

Bonds Verdict Is In

The jurors in the Barry Bonds criminal trial came back with their decision today, and Bonds was only convicted of the Obstruction of Justice charge, but the jury was deadlocked on the other three charges. This has to be considered a victory for Bonds legal team, given the severity of some of the other charges. The prosecution now faces a tough decision. Do they retry Bonds on the other three charges even though they were nowhere close to a conviction, or do they choose not to refile and risk looking they are taking a soft and defeated stance in the case? It will be interesting to see how the prosecution proceeds...

Clemens Told to Shut His Mouth

As you can imagine, judges typically do not like parties ignoring orders of the court. However, even though the judge had issued a gag order in the Roger Clemens case preventing anyone from discussing the case, Clemens was on the radio today and apparently the judge did not appreciate it. While Clemens did not discuss the case in detail while on the radio show, the judge reinstated the gag order bascially warning Clemens that if he does something similar again, he could be disciplined.

It's hard to determine who I would rather have convicted: Clemens or Bonds...

Man Arrested In Auburn Tree Poisoning

Harvey Almorn Updyke, Jr. has been arrested for allegedly posioning the large 130 year-old oak tree located in Toomer's Corner on the Auburn campus. He has been charged with first degree criminal mischief, and could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, although he would likely serve considerably less time, probably two years or less. Police traced two phone calls claiming credit for the incident to Updyke's house, and he was subsequently arrested.

Based on some of the evidence that the state's attorney will have on Updyke, including him having knowledge of what herbicide was poured into the soil and claiming credit for the attack, my guess is Updyke will attempt to reach a plea bargain with the state in exchange for a much lesser penalty. However, it will be interesting to see how that turns out given that many in the Auburb area are so livid and distrought by the event that there will be considerable local pressure on the state's attorney to get the maximum penalty allowbale for Updyke.

NFL Earns Victory Over NFLPA

In what could be a preclude to a tough and intense negotiating process to develop a new NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, the NFL owners earned a victory by allowing the players' salary to be held in an escrow account should there be a lockout, instead of the players receiving their paychecks. This is a huge blow for many of the lower earning players who rely on these checks to make ends meet and don't have multi-million dollar signing bonuses to fall back on. This could potentially create some division among the players, but NFLPA DeMaurice Smith attemtped to downplay the victory, and expects no negative emotions to result from this decision. Roger Goodell and Smith continue to try to pound out a new agreement, however, it is looking more and more likely that some sort of work stoppage will result.

Clemens Attorney to Stay

Today, Rusty Hardin obtained the appropriate waiver to represent Roger Clemens in his upcoming trial. Generally, attorneys are not allowed to represent individuals if there is a "conflict of interest," meaning the attorney has represented a confictying party is a previous case. This regulation is intended to prevent legal professionals from representing one party and learning confidential information about that party, and later representing another party who has adverse interests to the original party, whereby the attorney can utuilize the information he had obtained on the original party for his new client's advantage. Here, Hardin briefly represented Andy Pettitte several years ago, and Pettitte is expected to be one of the star witnesses in Clemens' upcoming trial. However, as mentioned above, Hardin has obtained the appropriate waivers that will allow him to represent Clemens in his tiral.

LT Pleads Guilty

In a follow up to a previous post, Lawrence Taylor pled guilty today to two misdemeanor charges stemming from arrest in May. In his plea, LT admitted to have sexual relations with a girl who was 16, but claims she told him she was 19. LT will be sentenced to 6 years probation, but must also register as a sex offender. The official sentencing will take place on March 22.