July 2012 Archives

Los Angeles Lakers forward Matt Barnes was arrested for threatening a police officer in Manhattan Beach, Calif., on Monday night, the Associated Press reports.

Police say Barnes, 32, was walking when he was recognized by a cop. The officer arrested Barnes on an outstanding warrant for driving on a suspended license. During his arrest, police say Barnes made a verbal threat to the arresting officer.

Matt Barnes was taken to jail and was released after posting $25,000 bail, according to Yahoo! Sports. But that's not all he paid for.

Victim 2 in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal, perhaps better known as Sandusky's shower victim, has finally come forward and is threatening to sue Penn State University, the Associated Press reports.

During Sandusky's criminal trial, then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary testified he witnessed Victim 2 being abused in the Penn State locker room. Unlike some of the other victims, Victim 2 never stepped forward during the criminal trial, but McQueary's testimony was enough to help convict Sandusky.

The victim, who remains unnamed, recently released a statement through his attorneys saying that he suffered "extensive sexual abuse over many years both before and after the 2001 incident Michael McQueary witnessed," the AP reports. The victim's lawyers say that the conduct of Penn State officials in covering up Sandusky's abuse facilitated the continued abuse of their client and they indicated that they intend to file a lawsuit.

Egypt, always the newsmaker, has made headlines for providing their Olympic athletes with fake Nike knockoffs as official training gear.

Synchronized swimmer Yomna Khallaf tweeted that the training gear provided by the Egyptian Olympic Committee wasn't actually Nike. The bags had the Nike logo but they also had Adidas-labeled zippers, according to her tweet.

Somehow it seems unlikely that the supplier intended to provide two brands rolled into one.

The Egyptian government has now admitted that the gear provided was counterfeit and Khallaf reports that athletes will be getting real Nike gear for the Olympic Games.

Sure it was a knockoff but based on the reports the gear probably wasn't stolen, so no harm no foul. Right?

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant was arrested earlier this month after allegedly beating up his mother.

Dez Bryant's mother, Angela Bryant, now reportedly doesn't want to pursue charges against her son, perhaps ending the prosecutor's case.

Prosecutors still haven't decided if they will drop the case. But without their star witness behind them, it's not clear what kind of case they can bring against the wide receiver.

Stromile Swift, the second overall pick from the 2000 NBA draft, pleaded guilty to stalking a woman in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Swift received a suspended sentence of six months in jail and was ordered to serve 18 months on supervised probation.

The stalking arrest stems from a series of intimidating acts the former LSU star and NBA journeyman committed against Chaquinita Pouncy.

Cal Ripken Jr.'s mother was abducted from her home at gunpoint Tuesday night. After being reported missing, the 74-year-old Violet Ripken was found Wednesday morning in her car, not far from home.

Violet Ripken appears unharmed and she is currently resting with her family, reports The Washington Post.

Police are still looking for the suspect, described as a white man in his late 30s-to-early 40s, who was last seen wearing camouflage pants. It wasn't reported if there was a robbery of Violet Ripken's home and no possible motive was given.

Detroit Lions cornerback Aaron Berry was arrested for the second time in two months and has been released by the team.

Over the weekend, Berry was arrested in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on three charges of simple assault. Details of the incident were not reported, but Berry apparently brandished a weapon during the incident, reports the Huffington Post.

This most recent incident followed Berry's DUI arrest last month also in the central Pennsylvania region.

It has been another bad week for the NFL and crime. When you start the week with Dez Bryant beating his own mother, you know it can only go downhill for there.

Today, Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kenny Britt was arrested for drunk driving. Hours later, it was reported that yet another Detroit Lion, Corey Williams, also faced a DUI charge. These two followed an incident earlier this week when Seattle Seahawk Marshawn Lynch was arrested for a DUI in California.

A journeyman boxer was arrested in a clever FBI ploy to collect DNA evidence worthy of a CSI episode.

Martin Tucker is a 32-year-old welterweight with a career 8-10 record. He hadn't won a fight in seven years. That is, until his victory over previously undefeated up-and-comer Michael Torres in April.

During the fight, Torres snuck a couple shots past Tucker's defense and was able to bloody the veteran fighter, reports the Boxing Scene. 

Little did Tucker know at the time, but these shots would lead to FBI evidence linking Tucker to a 2009 bank robbery.

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant was arrested for allegedly assaulting his own mother.

All forms of assault are bad, but how low do you have to go to reportedly assault your own mom?

Bryant is accused of slapping his mom and grabbing her by her hair. Bryant stands at six feet two inches and weighs 220 pounds. His mother, Angela Bryant, called 911 herself, reports ESPN.

The shine of Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein was definitely starting to fade in the years following his last championship with the Boston Red Sox and his abrupt departure to take on the Cubs job.

But his star apparently never dimmed for a Massachusetts woman who allegedly followed him from Boston and appeared at his doorstep in Chicago.

Kathleen Kearney, 44, says she showed up in front of Epstein's Chicago home to invite him to go church. However, Theo Epstein quickly pointed out that Kearney was the same stalker who had followed him around in Boston, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Jason Kidd refused a breathalyzer test at the scene of a car accident early Sunday where police charged him with a DUI.

On Saturday night Kidd, who just signed as a free agent with the New York Knicks this month, had attended a benefit in East Hampton. Shortly after he left the party, Kidd crashed his Cadillac Escalade, according to TMZ.

Kidd was driving when his car left the road and hit a telephone pole, according to the police report. He hit the pole hard enough to snap it in half but luckily no other cars were involved.

He refused a breathalyzer at the scene and a chemical test later at a hospital but that doesn't mean police have no evidence against him.

Giovanni Ramirez has sued LAPD Chief Charlie Beck for defamation, a year after Ramirez was wrongly accused of beating San Francisco Giants' fan Bryan Stow.

In March 2011, Stow traveled to Los Angeles to watch his Giants take on the Dodgers. Decked in the orange and black of the Giants, Stow made an easy target for the jeers of Dodger fans.

However, the jeers became violent and Stow was beat unconscious by two suspects when leaving the game. The story made national headlines and in their rush to find a culprit, the LAPD fingered Giovanni Ramirez as the "primary aggressor." Ramirez was Hispanic and tattooed, so he fit the bill. The problem was he wasn't even at the game.

Joe Paterno and other high ranking Penn State officials failed to take action against Jerry Sandusky because they didn't want the negative publicity against the school, according to an internal investigation led by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.

On multiple occasions, Paterno and school officials were made aware that Jerry Sandusky may have been sexually assaulting young boys, the Freeh report found. Yet Penn State officials failed to take steps to alert authorities or prevent Sandusky from bringing children onto campus, reports Yahoo! Sports.

And so Sandusky remained free and abused more boys, and was still allowed nearly full access to Penn State facilities. The Freeh report focused on two incidents in which Paterno and school officials failed to take action.

There was a time when Olympic competition meant that the best amateur athletes would compete against each other.

Amateur athletes would compete solely for the love of the game and were not marred by things like money (money being what distinguishes amateurs from professionals).

But this illusion that Olympic athletes were unpaid amateurs has been wiped away for the most part ever since the 1992 Dream Team. Now Olympic advertising is heavy and accepted -- so long as you make money for an Olympic sponsor and not your own. But this policy is now being pushed with athletes seeking to sell their own skin with tattoo advertising.

It's been a rough offseason for the NFL North. The Detroit Lions have had their fair share of legal troubles ranging from DUIs to drug possessions. Now formerly squeaky clean Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has been arrested following an altercation at a Houston nightclub.

Peterson, 27, originally from Palestine, Texas, was allegedly hanging out outside a club right around closing time. An off-duty cop who was working security approached Peterson and his group and told them to leave, reports The Associated Press.

The cop then left to tell some other loiterers to leave before noticing that Peterson and his group had stayed put.

Penn State administrators including Athletic Director Tim Curley supposedly had a plan in place to report Jerry Sandusky to authorities back in 2001, according to Penn State email messages leaked to news reporters.

Then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary had just walked in on Sandusky in the Penn State showers with a 10-year-old boy, and the administrators developed a plan of action that actually made sense: Report Sandusky to law enforcement.

However, these plans were allegedly derailed after the administrators had a talk with Joe Paterno, as suggested by the leaked emails, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

Promising San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith had better stop his current trend of off-the-field issues, or he could find himself out of the NFL despite leading all rookies in sacks last year.

Since the end of his rookie year in January, Smith has already been involved in two criminal incidents. Early Saturday morning, Aldon Smith was reportedly stabbed at a party at his home that also involved two shootings.

Ever since Michael Jordan retired (the first time), his legacy has been taking some shots. First there was his comeback attempt with the Washington Wizards, then a divorce from his wife, gambling allegations, and his unsuccessful tenure as head of the Charlotte Bobcats.

Now Michael Jordan is taking some surprising hits from an unlikely source -- his son.

Michael Jordan's son, Marcus Jordan, was arrested after allegedly getting into a drunken altercation with several women and then police, Reuters reports.