Matthews, LeMay, James DeLoach and John Taylor are due to be arraigned in Athens-Clarke County court Thursday.
I wonder how blind justice will be.
Tag Archives: Checkgate
Where’s the moral outrage now?
Here’s a helluva lede:
The dispute between two Florida State teammates that allegedly led to a December shooting and an attempted murder charge for a third-party man has now also reportedly resulted in the arrest of one of the Seminoles involved.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported that redshirt freshman offensive lineman Ira Denson was arrested Tuesday and charged with illegal use of a credit card and petty theft.
Herbstreit’s Twitter feed? Crickets. Herbie’s too busy with March Madness, I guess.
Fisher’s dismissed Denson from the team. But that’s hardly relevant if you want to vent about coaches and programs creating lax atmospheres in which players don’t seem all that concerned about the consequences of their bad actions. Of course, it’s possible Herbstreit views FSU as a place where there’s little history of poor behavior… yeah, that’s it. That’s the ticket.
All of which is why I think Jerry Hinnen gets what we’re morally outraged about with regard to this bullshit.
“Maybe ya’ll wanted to hear about football.”
Technically it was a nondescript first day of spring football practice. But because four of his players were arrested and jailed on theft charges 18 hours before it started, Georgia coach Mark Richt was greeted by a couple of dozen media members and cameras from all four of Atlanta’s network television stations after the 90-minute practice concluded.
None of them got the answer they were seeking: How does he plan on punishing the four offending players?
Kinda rude of Mark not to accommodate them.
Today, in two Tweets
Really can’t think of a better way to sum up the day’s developments than with this:
Um… make that hiring Bruce Pearl.
And this.
True dat.
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands, Georgia Football
Never leave a man behind.
The quality of Jimmy Williamson’s mercy is not strained.
A Georgia assistant athletic director who works in finance met with UGA police on March 3 to report the checks cashed twice and police began to investigate. Warrants were issued for the arrests of the players on Monday–after students returned from spring break–and a Clarke County Magistrate Court judge signed the warrant.
“We normally don’t take out warrants on students during spring break because we’re afraid they may get stopped,” Williamson said. “I don’t want one of them to get stopped for some traffic violation and then that county lock them up. We would do that for all students.”
Yeah, damn it. If anybody’s gonna do any locking up, it’ll be Jimmy’s guys. Woof, woof!
Filed under Crime and Punishment, Georgia Football
Checkgate and the NCAA
This would, hands down, be the cherry on top of the Checkgate sundae.
Besides having to report the matter because it’s a fraud, UGA was concerned with running into an NCAA compliance issue because players were receiving extra benefits.
If the NCAA sanctioned Georgia over this – and I’m not saying it will – but, damn. Just, damn.
Although I have to admit I wouldn’t be totally shocked if it did. The sad thing is that the athletic department actually had to worry about it.
Filed under Georgia Football, The NCAA
Mark Richt has lost control of Kirk Herbstreit.
Nice of you to shoot from the hip, Herbie.
After taking crap about his tweets from several quarters, Herbstreet backtracks clarifies his observations.
Little testy there, eh?
Here’s the thing: insults aside, I can’t find fault with Herbstreit’s last point on its face. Hell, I share the sentiment. But – and it’s a big but – when’s the last time you saw him go off like that on another program or another head coach who suffered through multiple bouts of knuckleheadedness? And again, all of this coming before any of us know exactly what’s behind this set of charges. (Let us not forget how Williamson’s crew once arrested a Georgia player for failing to give his middle name.) It’s a rush to judgment that may turn out to be embarrassingly premature. But even if things turn out to be serious, Richt’s got a track record of dealing appropriately with that sort of conduct. It’s not really necessary to spout off so carelessly like that so early.
There’s a reason why a lot of college coaches ban their players from Twitter.
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UPDATE: Kirk, he’s on the mother.
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UPDATE #2: When you’ve lost Jeff Schultz…
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UPDATE #3: I’m inclined to give Herbstreit the benefit of the doubt here and say he stepped up and did the right thing.
Case closed. At least until the next hasty tweet.
Filed under ESPN Is The Devil, Georgia Football
“Their mugshots were not immediately available.”
If it’s spring break, it must be jail time.
Four University of Georgia football players were arrested Monday night and charged with misdemeanor theft by deception, according to Athens-Clarke County jail records
Within two hours, all four players were released on bond, booking records show. Details regarding what led to the arrests were not available late Monday. But UGA police Chief Jimmy Williamson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the alleged thefts involved the university’s athletic department.
Uriay LeMay, a wide receiver, was charged with four counts of theft by deception. His bond was set at $6,000, jail records show. Tray Matthews, a safety, was charged with three counts of theft by deception. His bond was set at $4,500.
Jonathan Taylor and James DeLoach, defensive linemen, were each charged with two counts of theft by deception. Bonds for both Taylor and DeLoach were set at $3,000.
There’s a part of me that won’t be surprised in the least if this turns out to be something really stupid in nature. But there’s another part of me that’s pissed off because nobody seems to learn that stupid behavior has consequences, despite all the recent examples.
Mudcat’s car rides again.
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UPDATE: In case you were wondering…
“Theft by deception” is explained thusly by the Georgia Code of Law:
(a) A person commits the offense of theft by deception when he obtains property by any deceitful means or artful practice with the intention of depriving the owner of the property.
(b) A person deceives if he intentionally:
– (1) Creates or confirms another’s impression of an existing fact or past event which is false and which the accused knows or believes to be false;
– (2) Fails to correct a false impression of an existing fact or past event which he has previously created or confirmed;
– (3) Prevents another from acquiring information pertinent to the disposition of the property involved;
– (4) Sells or otherwise transfers or encumbers property intentionally failing to disclose a substantial and valid known lien, adverse claim, or other legal impediment to the enjoyment of the property, whether such impediment is or is not a matter of official record; or
– (5) Promises performance of services which he does not intend to perform or knows will not be performed. Evidence of failure to perform standing alone shall not be sufficient to authorize a conviction under this subsection.
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UPDATE #2: Seth Emerson has the gory details.
The players are charged with what amounts to double-dipping: Each allegedly took normal stipend checks from UGA and deposited them via a mobile ap, and then also cashed them somewhere else, according to UGA chief of police Jimmy Williamson.
The UGA athletics department detected the checks clearing twice and contacted the UGA police, Williamson said.
Can you say fucking morons? I thought you could. Of course you’re going to get caught doing this and of course the athletic department is going to report it, if for no other reason than it has to assume you’re not a bunch of fucking morons and that somebody else stole your checks.
Jesus. Maybe we shouldn’t blame Grantham entirely for last season’s communication difficulties, unless it’s his fault he didn’t realize how much he needed to dumb things down for some of his audience.
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UPDATE #3: There are days when I wonder if Richt thinks it’s even worth getting out of bed.
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UPDATE #4: And I didn’t think I could laugh about this yet.
Filed under Crime and Punishment, Georgia Football
Get The Picture 