Posted on 08/24/2007 2:49:07 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Atlanta Falcons Quarterback To Plead Guilty To Lesser Charges
(CBS News) RICHMOND, Va. The National Football league has suspended Michael Vick indefinitely after he pleaded guilty to charges related to dogfighting on Friday.
Vick filed his plea agreement in federal court Friday admitting to conspiracy in a dogfighting ring and helping kill pit bulls. He denied ever betting on the fights, only bankrolling them.
The Atlanta Falcons quarterback is scheduled to formally enter his plea Monday in U.S. District Court. He signed the plea agreement Thursday.
"Most of the Bad Newz Kennels operation and gambling monies were provided by Vick," a summary of facts in the case said, echoing language in plea agreements by three co-defendants who previously pleaded guilty.
The statement said that when the kennel's dogs won, the gambling proceeds were generally shared by Vick's three co-defendants — Tony Taylor, Purnell Peace and Quanis Phillips.
"Vick did not gamble by placing side bets on any of the fights. Vick did not receive any of the proceeds of the purses that were won by Bad Newz Kennels," the summary said.
According to the statement, Vick also was involved with the others in killing six to eight dogs that did not perform well in testing sessions last April. The dogs were executed by drowning or hanging.
"Vick agrees and stipulates that these dogs all died as a result of the collective efforts" of Vick and two of the co-defendants, Phillips and Peace, the statement said.
In the plea agreement, the government committed to recommending a sentence on the low end of the federal sentencing guideline range of a year to 18 months. However, the conspiracy charge is punishable by up to five years in prison, and the judge is not bound by any recommendation or by the sentencing guidelines.
U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson, who will accept Vick's plea, has a reputation for imposing stiff sentences, according to lawyers who have appeared in his court. Vick will not be sentenced for several months.
"Our position has been that we are going to try to help Judge Hudson understand all the facts and Michael's role," Vick's lead defense attorney, Billy Martin, said in telephone interview. "Michael's role was different than others associated with this incident."
Martin said Vick will "speak to the public and explain his actions," but he declined to say whether that will occur in court or in a news conference after Monday's hearing.
It is not uncommon in plea agreements for the defendant to plead guilty to only one charge and to negotiate with prosecutors over the specific facts to which he’ll admitting, CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen said. In this case, prosecutors may not care that he’s not admitted to gambling so long as he gets a significant prison sentence.
The U.S. attorney's office, which has declined to comment on the case, said it would issue a statement after the hearing.
The case began in April when authorities conducting a drug investigation of Vick's cousin raided the former Virginia Tech star's Surry County property and found dozens of dogs, some injured, and equipment commonly used in dogfighting.
A federal indictment issued in July charged Vick, Peace, Phillips and Taylor with an interstate dogfighting conspiracy. Vick initially denied any involvement, and all four men pleaded innocent.
Taylor was the first to change his plea to guilty, saying Vick financed the dogfighting ring's gambling and operations. Peace and Phillips soon followed, disclosing that Vick joined them in killing dogs that did not perform well in test fights.
The sickening details outlined in the indictment and other court papers prompted a public backlash against Vick, who had been one of the NFL's most popular players.
Vick was barred from the Falcons training camp, but neither the NFL nor the team have taken further action.
Meanwhile, Vick's father said he asked his son to give up dogfighting, or to at least put property used in the venture in the names of others to avoid being implicated, according to a report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In The Journal-Constitution report posted on the newspaper's Web site Thursday night, Michael Boddie, who is estranged from Vick and the quarterback's mother, also said some time around 2001 his son staged dogfights in the garage of the family home in Newport News, Va.
Boddie told the newspaper Vick kept fighting dogs in the family's backyard, including dogs that were "bit up, chewed up, exhausted." Boddie claimed to have nursed the dogs back to health.
The indictment against Vick does not mention the parents' former home in Newport News.
In the report, Boddie dismissed the idea that Vick's longtime friends were the main instigators of the dogfighting operation.
"I wish people would stop sugarcoating it," Boddie told The Journal-Constitution. "This is Mike's thing. And he knows it ... likes it, and he has the capital to have a set up like that."
More than 50 pit bulls seized from Vick's property faced a Thursday deadline to be claimed or be euthanized.
Federal prosecutors filed court documents last month to condemn 53 pit bulls seized in April as part of the investigation into dogfighting on the Vick's property. No one has claimed any of the dogs, which are being held at several unspecified shelters in eastern Virginia, the U.S. Attorney's office said.
The report said Boddie and the quarterback have had a volatile relationship for years and that his son has refused to speak with him directly for the last 2½ half months.
Boddie, 45, lives in an apartment his son has paid the rent on for the last three years. Vick, who has a $130 million contract with the Falcons, also gives him a couple of hundred dollars every week or two, the father told the newspaper.
In the report, Boddie also said he asked Vick for $1 million, spread out over 12 years, Vick declined, the father said. Recently, Boddie asked Vick, through an assistant, for $700,000 to live on.
It’s nice to get posts from someone who is, excuse the expression, an@l.
Vick has agreed to be a SNITCH!
-snip-
Vick did what cowards do. He not only hid behind some legalese, he agreed to cooperate with the government in turning in others. Maybe you view that as being a team player. But there's another view:
There goes the street cred
Page 5 of the plea agreement reads:
The defendant agrees to cooperate fully and truthfully with the United States, and provide all information known to the defendant regarding any criminal activity as requested by the government. It states this includes testimony at grand juries and trials. Vick also must submit to a polygraph test at the whim of the government.
Nobody agrees to such mandates unless they're backed to the edge of a cliff, with the cavalry approaching.
-snip-
The shark still looks fake.
(It’s a Back to the Future reference...)
indefinitelyNot good enough. But then, OJ Simpson's bust is still at the NFL Hall of "Fame." So. What more could you expect, even in this moronically faux-Puritan 'American' age.
Not that DMX hasn’t had a host of issues but the one thing in this world he ALWAYS spoke lovingly about was his dog (or dogs, really.) His lawyer says he hadn’t been at the property and it is in the desert, so there is a chance that (the drugs and weapons ARE his, I’m certain or at least he’d tend to have them around) but I don’t think DMX engaged in dog fighting or torture like Vick.
DMX, in spite of all his personal demons, always talked about his pets. I can’t see him knowingly engaging in that kind of activity. But then he has been using crack for years, so there’s a chance he’s backslid even further than what one would expect.
Yes, Lance Rentzel, but the Bambi nickname was someone else, IIRC.
Think 'Bambi' played for San Diego, just can't think of his name at the moment. Ah, Lance Alworth.
I think your right Alworth was Bambi.
I think Vick will have to be dealing with IRS soon.
Why?
If you lied to your employer and engaged in criminal acts would you get your job back?
He needs to be suspended......From a rope.
GOOD VERY VERY GOOD. I THOSE OTHER IDIOTS OUT THERE LEARN FROM THIS...
THERE ARE MORE I AM SURE..
DUMB JUST PLAIN DUMB. ALL ATHLETIC SKILL AND NO DAMN BRAINS.
Here’s the money quote from Goodell’s presser on the suspension:
In disciplining Vick, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Vick’s admitted conduct was “not only illegal but also cruel and reprehensible” and regardless whether he personally placed bets, “your actions in funding the betting and your association with illegal gambling both violate the terms of your NFL player contract and expose you to corrupting influences in derogation of one of the most fundamental responsibilities of an NFL player.”
If that’s not “don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out” then I’ve never fired anybody. He’s clearly setting the ground for saying that even though Vick hasn’t admitted to gambling what he’s admitted to is close enough, and gambling is a lifetime ban. Of course in Goodell’s perfect world Vick spends at least 10 years in jail and it just doesn’t matter.
DMX, in spite of all his personal demons, always talked about his pets. I can’t see him knowingly engaging in that kind of activity. But then he has been using crack for years, so there’s a chance he’s backslid even further than what one would expect.
___________________
LMAO...hahahahahaha..
Oh wait. Are you being serious?
DMX has already been charged with Animal Cruelty once before, a few years ago.
There was a quote by Michael Vick from a few years ago where he mentioned his love of dogs, and his love of animals in general.
So what if DMX said he loves his dogs. I’m sure he does.....loves them like a domestic abuser loves his wife.
It’s not the same thing at all.
Vick had a conflict of self incrimination with that.
BTW....I don’t have a job but I have engaged in criminal acts on occasion in my youth....and no....it did not affect my work. I’m old now and own businesses and have employees...nevr been good at working for anyone cept dad and grandad
The lying part I would not like.
I have an ex-cockfighter in my employ right now and I confess it does not bother me...at all.
Dog fighting would though...I don’t like it but the hanging and drowning dogs after the fight bothers me more.
Yet...admittedly I don’t find animal killing to rise to serious incarceration offense like many here. No doubt about that.
and yes I have pets.....and children.....and I know the difference.
what is cap money?
“Vick is done. 100% done”
stick a fork in him, a nice dull fork, stuck deep and slow
high-priced lawyers fleece him for millions
michael vick doesn’t know what screwing is till he’s been screwed by a lawyer
I was listening to WPGC in DC an “urban” radio station, his peeps think he is being railroaded ala OJ...one caller, a woman, said “I’m from the south, they have crow fights, cocks fights even bug fights...it ain’t nothin’, the white man (the Falcons owner and NFL, I presume) is only afraid of his wallet. Give him a fine and let him back on the field he’s the best quarterback in the game.”
One exception to how the salary cap works is that money given to a player up front when they sign the contract is called a signing bonus, and it is a one time initial payment to the player, that can be in the millions. Each new contract could come with a signing bonus.
The money that is paid to a player as a signing bonus, does not count entirely against that years salary cap for the team. Instead, that monetary amount is spread out across the entire life of the contract and counts against each subsequent years salary cap.
For example, say a player gets a $10 million salary bonus along with an annual $1.5 million salary on a 5 year contract. The annual salary of $1.5 counts entirely against the salary cap during each season, as expected. However, the $10 million signing bonus doesn’t count entirely against the salary cap in the initial season of the contract. Instead it is spread out across all years of the contract. (I do not know if the spread is linear or slightly graduated, I’ll assume linear) Thus, the team will have $2 million count against the salary cap each of the 5 seasons of the contract.
Note also that if the player is cut after three seasons (common occurrence), he no longer gets his $1.5 million salary and the team doesn’t have to pay him, nor does the $1.5 million count against the salary cap for the final 2 seasons. However, the team still has to count the $2 million per year for the final 2 seasons for the $10 million signing bonus that was paid to the player.
Now, the $2 million for the final 2 years counts against the salary cap if the TEAM cuts/waives the player. However, if the NFL (the commissioner) suspends that player (i.e. Pacman Jones, Michael Vick) the final prorated salary cap money from the signing bonus is NO longer counted against the salary cap. Thus, in our example, the team would have an extra $2 million to spend on player salaries for this year and $2 million for next season.
“michael vick doesn’t know what screwing is till he’s been screwed by a lawyer”
The paper mentioned trying to get back his $22 million signing bonus. His income is effectively cut to near zero. He has lived lavishly.
So yes, lawyers from BOTH sides will be knawing and chewing on anything left of his net worth.
It is not out of the question he could go to jail for a couple of years, get out and find himself flat broke in a few years.
Justifiably.
I would rather watch surfing on TV or in person. This weekend is Mickey Munoz’ 70th birthday celebration; a pioneer of the modern surfing era.
Hobie Alter, Phil Edwards, Greg Noll, et all.
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