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Where's the justice?!!!
No jail for Adam (PACMAN) Jones in club melee.
It's now official: NFL player Adam "Pacman" Jones won't face jail time in connection with a brawl inside a Las Vegas Valley strip club.
At the Regional Justice Center downtown Thursday, the 24-year-old Tennessee Titans cornerback formally accepted a plea deal that gives him probation. In exchange, he must testify against the person who shot three people at the Minxx strip club immediately after the fight in the wee hours of Feb. 19, at the end of Las Vegas' NBA All-Star game weekend. One of the wounded, a bouncer, was left a quadriplegic.
Police said Jones had threatened the club's staff just before the shooting, and witnesses said Jones was seen inside the club with the man who fired the shots.
The gunman had not been arrested and charged for the shooting as of Thursday. Clark County District Attorney David Roger said this week that Jones had provided the authorities with some information about the shooter, but Roger said he couldn't elaborate because the shooting was still being investigated.
Jones pleaded no contest to one count of conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct, a gross misdemeanor.
Under the agreement, Jones will receive a one-year suspended sentence, must complete 200 hours of community service, submit to random drug testing and attend an anger management class.
The probation and community service requirements might be fulfilled near Jones' home in Tennessee, said his lawyer, Robert Langford. Jones already is subject to the NFL's drug testing program.
Authorities dropped two felony coercion charges against Jones in exchange for the guilty plea.
Jones, who is seeking reinstatement to the Titans, said little during the brief arraignment. He wore a black button-up shirt with white pinstripes that was not tucked into his pants.
As he walked into the crowded arraignment room in the basement of the courthouse, Jones doffed a blue Texas Rangers baseball cap, handed it off, and answered "Yes, sir," to Hearing Master Kevin Williams when Williams asked him if he understood the plea deal.
Jones stood in the arraignment room with his attorney.
When Williams asked Jones for his plea to the charges, he replied, "No contest, sir."
Jones' two co-defendants, Sadia Morrison, 25, of New York, and Jones' bodyguard, Robert "Big Rob" Reid, 37, of Carson, Calif., were arraigned alongside Jones and agreed to similar deals. The trio had been expected to enter pleas Wednesday, but the hearing was delayed a day because Reid missed his flight out of Los Angeles, Langford said.
Outside the courthouse Thursday, passers-by stared at the throngs of reporters and photographers circling Jones as he walked from the courthouse steps to a waiting car.
"What the hell?" asked Nathan Walley, who was walking away from the courthouse as Jones walked out. "It's just stupid."
A cameraman for the local ABC affiliate KTNV-TV, Channel 13, said Jones pushed him after accidentally walking into his camera. "It wasn't a big deal," said the cameraman, Jason Valle.
Jones' plea agreement enraged Tommy Urbanski and his wife, Kathy. The shooting left Tommy Urbanski paralyzed, and the couple has been living at a Residence Inn since Aug. 25 while their house is being renovated to make it handicapped accessible.
Urbanski, who has struggled through numerous surgeries, said that if he had a chance to speak to Jones, he wouldn't say anything, because if he did say something, "it would probably just be a bunch of curses."
The Urbanskis also are eager to see the person who fired the shots brought to justice.
"I want the guy who shot me," Urbanski said. "If he's (Jones) getting probation just because the district attorney wants to go light on him, I'll be pissed."
Authorities said Jones started the fight inside the strip club at 4636 Wynn Road, near Arville Street and Tropicana Avenue, after he threw hundreds of dollars onto the stage for a visual effect known as "making it rain." Jones "became irate" and got into a fight with bouncers in the club after strippers started taking the money, police said.
The shooting occurred near the front of the club after Jones and his entourage had been kicked out.
Jones has been arrested six times since the Titans drafted him in April 2005 from West Virginia and has other criminal cases pending.
A felony count of obstruction in Georgia from a February 2006 arrest has been postponed, and August 2006 public intoxication and disorderly charges in Tennessee were delayed pending the outcome of the Las Vegas case.
In April, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Jones for the season for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy. Goodell upheld the suspension after he met with Jones in early November.
The Urbanskis have filed a civil suit against Jones seeking damages. So have the other two people wounded by gunfire in the shooting, Minxx bouncer Aaron Cudworth and patron Natalie Jones.
"He's (Jones) come within inches of ruining both our lives," Kathy Urbanski said. "I would never say he ruined our lives because I don't want to give him that much power."
No jail for Adam (PACMAN) Jones in club melee.
It's now official: NFL player Adam "Pacman" Jones won't face jail time in connection with a brawl inside a Las Vegas Valley strip club.
At the Regional Justice Center downtown Thursday, the 24-year-old Tennessee Titans cornerback formally accepted a plea deal that gives him probation. In exchange, he must testify against the person who shot three people at the Minxx strip club immediately after the fight in the wee hours of Feb. 19, at the end of Las Vegas' NBA All-Star game weekend. One of the wounded, a bouncer, was left a quadriplegic.
Police said Jones had threatened the club's staff just before the shooting, and witnesses said Jones was seen inside the club with the man who fired the shots.
The gunman had not been arrested and charged for the shooting as of Thursday. Clark County District Attorney David Roger said this week that Jones had provided the authorities with some information about the shooter, but Roger said he couldn't elaborate because the shooting was still being investigated.
Jones pleaded no contest to one count of conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct, a gross misdemeanor.
Under the agreement, Jones will receive a one-year suspended sentence, must complete 200 hours of community service, submit to random drug testing and attend an anger management class.
The probation and community service requirements might be fulfilled near Jones' home in Tennessee, said his lawyer, Robert Langford. Jones already is subject to the NFL's drug testing program.
Authorities dropped two felony coercion charges against Jones in exchange for the guilty plea.
Jones, who is seeking reinstatement to the Titans, said little during the brief arraignment. He wore a black button-up shirt with white pinstripes that was not tucked into his pants.
As he walked into the crowded arraignment room in the basement of the courthouse, Jones doffed a blue Texas Rangers baseball cap, handed it off, and answered "Yes, sir," to Hearing Master Kevin Williams when Williams asked him if he understood the plea deal.
Jones stood in the arraignment room with his attorney.
When Williams asked Jones for his plea to the charges, he replied, "No contest, sir."
Jones' two co-defendants, Sadia Morrison, 25, of New York, and Jones' bodyguard, Robert "Big Rob" Reid, 37, of Carson, Calif., were arraigned alongside Jones and agreed to similar deals. The trio had been expected to enter pleas Wednesday, but the hearing was delayed a day because Reid missed his flight out of Los Angeles, Langford said.
Outside the courthouse Thursday, passers-by stared at the throngs of reporters and photographers circling Jones as he walked from the courthouse steps to a waiting car.
"What the hell?" asked Nathan Walley, who was walking away from the courthouse as Jones walked out. "It's just stupid."
A cameraman for the local ABC affiliate KTNV-TV, Channel 13, said Jones pushed him after accidentally walking into his camera. "It wasn't a big deal," said the cameraman, Jason Valle.
Jones' plea agreement enraged Tommy Urbanski and his wife, Kathy. The shooting left Tommy Urbanski paralyzed, and the couple has been living at a Residence Inn since Aug. 25 while their house is being renovated to make it handicapped accessible.
Urbanski, who has struggled through numerous surgeries, said that if he had a chance to speak to Jones, he wouldn't say anything, because if he did say something, "it would probably just be a bunch of curses."
The Urbanskis also are eager to see the person who fired the shots brought to justice.
"I want the guy who shot me," Urbanski said. "If he's (Jones) getting probation just because the district attorney wants to go light on him, I'll be pissed."
Authorities said Jones started the fight inside the strip club at 4636 Wynn Road, near Arville Street and Tropicana Avenue, after he threw hundreds of dollars onto the stage for a visual effect known as "making it rain." Jones "became irate" and got into a fight with bouncers in the club after strippers started taking the money, police said.
The shooting occurred near the front of the club after Jones and his entourage had been kicked out.
Jones has been arrested six times since the Titans drafted him in April 2005 from West Virginia and has other criminal cases pending.
A felony count of obstruction in Georgia from a February 2006 arrest has been postponed, and August 2006 public intoxication and disorderly charges in Tennessee were delayed pending the outcome of the Las Vegas case.
In April, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Jones for the season for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy. Goodell upheld the suspension after he met with Jones in early November.
The Urbanskis have filed a civil suit against Jones seeking damages. So have the other two people wounded by gunfire in the shooting, Minxx bouncer Aaron Cudworth and patron Natalie Jones.
"He's (Jones) come within inches of ruining both our lives," Kathy Urbanski said. "I would never say he ruined our lives because I don't want to give him that much power."