Huntley Johnson, workin’

Soon to be appearing in a major season opener against Michigan…

Florida WR Antonio Callaway pled guilty to possession of drug paraphenalia and fined $301 in court costs this morning.

— Robbie Andreu (@RobbieAndreu) July 17, 2017

For some reason, I can’t figure out the Afroman lyric that fits this fact pattern.

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Beyond scooters

Behold, the most Georgia-sounding arrest of the offseason took place in Nashville, not Athens:

Vanderbilt football player Sam Dobbs was charged with misdemeanor reckless endangerment when he landed a drone in a large crowd in downtown Nashville on Fourth of July night, according to Metro police.

Police said Dobbs flew his drone at 9:55 p.m. Tuesday over a large crowd in the First  Avenue and Gay Street area during Nashville’s Let Freedom Sing Celebration, an event that drew an estimated 240,000 people. He was among 17 individuals charged with various crimes during the celebration.

And Dobbs hails from Douglasville!  How did we ever let him get away?

Jimmy Williamson’s got to be kicking himself right now.  What a lost opportunity…

I would have committed sexual assault, but then I got high.

Huntley Johnson’s already done a lot of heavy lifting in support of his client, Florida wide receiver Antonio Callaway.

Callaway’s attorney, Huntley Johnson, also has been critical of the university’s actions. He previously accused UF of allowing a Title IX official to serve as the “prosecutor, the investigator, the judge” in the case. Johnson also alleged that the Florida official, Chris Loschiavo, had a conflict of interest because he did consulting work for an outside group with ties to Clune.

The university fired Loschiavo and determined he had “both a conflict of interest and lack of independence.” Two other university officials, dean of students Jen Day Shaw and general counsel Jamie Lewis Keith, have recently left, too.

“The removal of those three people has completely changed the dynamic,” Johnson said, “and we are cautiously optimistic that Florida’s going to do better in that regard in the future.”

We’re about to find out, boss.

The University of Florida is under federal Title IX investigation for its handling of a December 2015 sexual assault accusation against star receiver Antonio Callaway, the complainant’s attorney confirmed.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is looking into a complaint filed by Callaway’s accuser, her attorney John Clune said Friday.

The complaint was filed Aug. 10, according to a letter to the university obtained by the Tampa Bay Times. That’s five days after UF held a student-conduct hearing on the case and two days before Callaway was found not responsible by the university for any wrongdoing. Clune and his client boycotted the hearing because the outside lawyer chosen to preside over the case was a Gators booster and member of the school’s Hall of Fame.

Gee, UF sure seems to have a hard time finding anyone who can handle a hearing without a conflict.

Or maybe it’s just a matter of whether Johnson’s on the case.  Take, for example, this tidbit that Mark Schlabach turned up:

Callaway was accused of sexual assault by the woman in December 2015 but was cleared in the August hearing. He had been suspended from the team following the accusation but was fully reinstated after the hearing.

Quarterback Treon Harris was accused of attempted sexual assault by the woman and ultimately transferred to Tennessee State. Sources had told ESPN that Harris agreed to leave Florida as part of a plea deal related to the Title IX case. He also apologized to the woman, the sources said.

Or maybe Harris wasn’t wasted on the night in question.  Pot can be your friend, kids!

Bringing a pellet gun to a gun fight

So much for vigilante justice in Nashville, Tennessee.

A Vanderbilt University football player’s plan to recover his stolen iPhone sparked a shooting outside a Nashville Target on Monday night and led to two of his teammates being shot, according to police.

The shooting, which took place at the store at on White Bridge Road, stemmed from an arranged meeting between two groups — a trio of football players and the thieves who Metro police say stole the phone and fired the shots.

Both groups brought weapons, police said, although one side — the players — had only a pellet gun.

As of Tuesday, the shooting suspects remained at large and both injured players were expected to recover, police spokesman Don Aaron said.

When pellet guns are outlawed, only football players will have pellet guns.  Or something like that.

He’s on the case, man.

I don’t know if you’ve been following the latest sexual assault mess at Michigan State, but one aspect of it goes to show that sometimes there’s a price to pay for dumbassery.

Michigan State University police walked former football staff member Curtis Blackwell out of the football building in handcuffs in early February, minutes after determining that he interfered with their investigation of a reported on-campus sexual assault weeks earlier.

Blackwell told investigators he had spoken with two players later identified as suspects about the incident days after it occurred on Jan. 16. That was before MSU police and the university’s Title IX office knew about the alleged involvement of the two players, records show.

Blackwell didn’t tell police or university officials about his discussions with the players until police interviewed him Feb. 8 at the Duffy Daugherty Building.

In a report submitted to prosecutors, which the State Journal obtained through an open records request, police wrote that Blackwell “took it upon himself to investigate” the incident, interviewed suspects and did not share that information he received with police or MSU’s Title IX office.

“I wasn’t doing an investigation or anything,” Blackwell told police. “I was just trying to find out exactly what happened.”

He’s not a police officer.  He just plays one in the athletic department.

What a waste

To the astonishment of absolutely no one, “Antonio Callaway has been offered a deal by the State Attorney’s Office that would see his misdemeanor marijuana possession charge dropped if he pleads guilty to misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia”.

The prosecutor explains:

State Attorney Bill Cervone said the plea deal Callaway has been offered is typical for a first-time offender, which Callaway is.

“Callaway will be treated as any other first-time cannabis offender, which he legally is despite admissions made in other contexts, and allowed to plead to possession of paraphernalia if he chooses,” Cervone told The Sun…

Um, yeah, those admissions…

Callaway was suspended from the football team in January of 2016 for a violation of the university’s Student Conduct Code that was later learned to involve an alleged sexual assault.  Ironically enough, Callaway’s defense was that he was “so stoned” on marijuana that he didn’t want to have sex on the night in question; in mid-August, Callaway was found not responsible in a Title IX hearing, clearing the way for a return to the football field.

Really, you can’t make this shit up if you tried.

The article goes on to report that Callaway and his attorney, Huntley Johnson, are considering the offer.  Why not grab it?  Welp, one reason may be that Callaway isn’t being offered deferred prosecution, meaning that if he takes the plea this month, he leaves his coach with having to make a suspension call for the Michigan game.  It’s likely that’s a decision Jim McElwain would prefer not to make.

Can Johnson help a Gator coach out one more time?  Stay tuned.

“It’s against the law. That’s the bottom line.”

On the surface, it sounds like Kirby Smart has come to terms with his inner Mark Richt on the subject of Georgia’s drug policy.

The first time Kirby Smart was asked about UGA’s stringent drug policy, the team’s new football coach merely said he understood it was in place and deferred to his administration. The next he was asked about it, he again toed the company line, saying he was a “team player.”

This time, when asked about it at SEC meetings, Smart’s answer was different. He sounded all in supporting the school’s rule.

“I’m completely in agreement with the policy we have in place at our place,” Smart said. “Different schools have different policies, but that’s beyond my control. What’s in my control is what we have in our place. And I accept that, and every player accepts that, and they’re told that from the very beginning.

Dig a little deeper, though, and it seems Kirby is doing all he can to keep a little wiggle room in play.

Receiver Riley Ridley and tailback Elijah Holyfield, both now sophomores, have each been arrested on misdemeanor charges of marijuana possession. That would, as specified in the UGA student-athlete handbook, bring a one-game suspension for a football player.

That said, Smart continued to not confirm absolutely that Ridley and Holyfield would be suspended.

“Well, we’re internally disciplining them, so it’ll come out in due time,” Smart said. “But those guys are both being disciplined internally.”

Smart, when asked whether that meant a one-game suspension, as specified in the handbook, did not elaborate.

“It’ll be handled internally,” Smart said, leaving it at that.

The opener is at home against Appalachian State, remember, so suspending the two wouldn’t be cataclysmic, at least if they’re the only two facing suspension at that time.  That makes following the playing status of those two all the more worthy of tracking.  Is it possible that the competitive disadvantage argument will force a subtle adjustment of the Georgia Way?  Stay tuned.