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.
Vick will play in the MFL again. Guaranteed. As long as Jerry Jones and Al Davis are owners, there will be a market for these types of guys. He will do a “I was wrong dance” and beg forgiveness and donate millions to the animal rights groups to silence any protests they might have. He probably will not have any money left after he gets out of jail, so the funds will have to come from future contracts
There is absolutely NOTHING Vick could say on this that would convince me that he should still be able to play in the NFL.
I don’t think so....68 million dog owners...that is a heck of a base for the NFL to piss off.
COOL I wonder if Al Davis would take Michael Vick off waivers when his suspesion is up that only team that I could think of wouldn’t mind getting Michael Vick Oakland Raiders it really sad
I AM Raider fan
I would have prefered that they suspend him permanently
Apparently, the CFL has a rule that forbids any team from signing a player who is under NFL suspension. The "Ricky Williams" rule.
Would that the facts about abortion made Americans just as sick and angry.
One of them is my own father he has Pit bull that really hit close to home for my family
“Unless he admits to the gambling part,”
Did you notice how much his admission focused on absolving himself of any profiteering in gambling - house percentages and side bets?
Seems fair. If I admitted to these activities in a court of law I would be fired from my job, too.
I would love to see what Cleveland’s “Dog Pound” would look like should Michael Vick ever return to play....
Doubt it. Pete Rose is *still* waiting.
Yikes...Ray Lewis wasn’t even suspended. Where the heck is the players union ?
I haven’t seen the announcement on NFL.com, it may be that the NFL waits a week or two before giving out it’s verdict. He will be banned, I fail to understand the all the cynicism, I’m guessing the cynics don’t follow the NFL.
Wasn’t he boinking Joey Heatherton at the time?
Vicks has been rubbed........
He bin vaporized.........
What a pal!
Anyone who believes this tripe -- Vick spent all the money on dog fighting just so his friends can take all the winnings home with them -- then I have a bridge to sell you...
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