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.
GO RAIDERS ! maybe they can win 3 games this year,,, lol
I know that pit bulls are brutes, but why not a bullet to the head with a .22-pistol?
Oh, that was one Lance Rentzel, and the child was ten. He was a sick puppy.
I'm thinking this is the legal equivalent of the Hail Mary for vick.
Vick will come back more popular than ever before and a better QB and all 32 NFL teams expect maybe the Falcons will offer him near record signing bonus and salary ....This is the greatest thing to happen to M. Vick...once he does he sentence, no jail time alot of community service..a huge fine(nothing he can not handle and the lawyer fees will the worst to come out of this)
This will happen, all because he said: I’m sorry”
You can’t swing a dead cat at NFL HQ without hitting a lawyer.
No doubt many advised against the commissioner taking strong action on his own; now they are simply piling on.
Right into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, where he does belong now more than ever....
Absolutely. If they were going to ban him, they would have done it already. This just means they’re going to let him back in.
"Deputies with the Maricopa County sheriff's office raided the Cave Creek, Arizona, home of rapper DMX on Friday morning (August 24), and according to a police spokesperson, 12 pit bulls were removed from the residence, all in bad condition. Police would not get into specifics but did say the animals are being tended to by veterinarians."
They don't want him admitting to anything. In fact, I'd wager they've already told him he'll get back in as long as he keeps his mouth shut about what he knows.
OH GOD I just hoping Al Davis don’t pick up Michael Vick on wavers yeah I hope they win more than 4 games this season
Yeah. Because the NFL waffled about what to do, and what was the bigger offence, gambling or animal abuse.
All Ray Lewis plead guilty to was misdemeanor obstruction of justice, in a case where no one got convicted (his co-defendants were acquitted). Vick has plead to felonies, including gambling which will always be the biggest crime in sports. The NFLPA is exactly where they should be: as far away from Vick as geographically and philosophically possible.
I hope not either and I hope they win more games than the 49ers. Cheers!
They’re saying there will be re-evaluation after all related court proceedings (including the state of Virginia stuff) are done. I think they’re hoping for a nice long sentence so it won’t matter.
Hopefully the Falcons will release him this weekend.
I’ll take that bet and you’ll lose it. Vick is done. 100% done. The reason they waited was they didn’t want any appearance of interfering with the legal process, letting a fairly full set of facts come in gives them a cleaner stance. Now that Vick has signed his first plea they can now assume that everything he’s admitted to is true, thus this suspension. Next they’re going to hope for long sentences so it won’t matter, if they don’t get those they’ll ban him for life. And no he won’t get in the HOF either, he doesn’t have the stats or the accomplishments, and now with his career truncated he’ll never get them.
The Falcons cannot release him without losing cap money. They need the NFL to suspend him for them in order for them to recover the cap money.
Probably not, releasing a player has negative cap implications, depending on when a player is released a certain portion of their salary still counts against the cap, when a player is suspended by the league it doesn’t, best to keep them on board and save the cap hit. They’ll put him on the inactive where he won’t impact the cap (with his salary that’s important) and try to get some signing bonus back.
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