Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Special Treatment For Colts Player?

When Indianapolis police arrested Colts running back Kenton Keith early Sunday morning outside a west side nightclub, he was charged with "disorderly conduct, resisting law enforcement, public intoxication and contributing to the delinquency of a minor for allegedly helping a 19-year-old get into the club." "But prosecutors chose to file only a single trespassing charge," reports the Star's Jon Murray. Who needs to hire Jim Voyles to get a good plea bargainl? It looks like he's already getting all the help he needs from the prosecutor's ofice. At the time of his arrest, WRTV had this report:

The officer said in the report that, when threatened with arrest for not leaving, Keith responded repeatedly he "would not be quiet."

"He kept hollering he was a Colts player, that he wasn’t doing nothing wrong, that he would leave when he got ready," the officer said in the report.

Police also said Keith admitted helping a 19-year-old enter the club to attend a party there Saturday night, resulting in the contributing to the delinquency of a minor charge. Police said the teen appeared to be drunk.

The officer also claimed Keith smelled of alcohol and had glassy eyes.

15 comments:

Bart Lies said...

I honestly don't know how he avoided being tased.

artfuggins said...

Are you sure he wasnt a Pacer player...he certainly would fit into the Pacer organization quite well.

Unknown said...

This is a Prosecutor's Office that does a very poor job of charging people and leaves charges against people when the Prosecutor's Office has no chance to win the case. I've had a client who had charges pending against him for several months, while the Prosecutor's Office had video evidence he was nowhere near the crime. Even then they wouldn't dismiss the charges until a few days before the trial. It was completely and utterly disgraceful...they knowingly kept an innocent man in jail for 3 months.

I generally don't believe the "special treatment" argument, but in this case, given the history of Brizzi's office, it may be true.

impdmne said...

Is the prosecutor friends with Irsay? Follow the perks.

Unknown said...

You don't need any special treatment for Brizzi's office to wimp out on the charges. That's standard procedure. There's a reason people commit multiple felonies and get back out on our streets in a few months. It's because those multiple felonies get pleaded down to a misdemeanor.

Concerned Taxpayer said...

I guess Brizzi doesn't want to lose his new seats in the playhouse.

Chris Worden said...

I'd like to see more of this story. We've got a LOT of great people at IMPD, but I'm also aware of how staggeringly consistent every officer's story is when they encounter someone who won't do what they say. All of a sudden they have bloodshot eyes, speak with a slurred tongue, etc. It's as if they've been prepped by the lawyers to know how to get probable cause, so it's the same in every case. How they let the "contributing to the delinquency slide" is a real mystery, but I can honestly see a guy doing nothing wrong being asked to leave because someone else is starting problems with him, and his claim about being a Colts player might be a defense to WHY somebody would say he was acting improperly. People want to take a crack at these guys ALL the time. Personally, if I were a professional athlete, I'd be afraid to leave my house.

Indy4U2C said...

Why does Cloud 9 have a liquor license with all of the illegal activity taking place there, including violence????

Carl Brizzi is the weakest prosecutor we've had since I remember. He has let pro athletes with drugs in their car off on charges, hasn't charged Monroe Gray & James Greeson with Ghost Employment.

jabberdoodle said...

If we charged all the sports figures a fee for all the dismissed and downgraded criminal charges, we could afford the new arena.

Great role models. GO (straight to jail) COLTS !!! AND PACERS !!!

Indy4U2C said...

right on, Jabberdoodle!

-And as for your comment, Ipopa: Pacers & Colts know that their own "Get out of a criminal case free" card is to shout "I am a Pacer/Colt!" -As pointed out in this thread, it works with Carl Brizzi! If the officer had not mentioned the Carl Brizzi's "Get out of a criminal case free" statement in his report, it's likely the Colt would have been treated/charged just like any other obnoxious, disorderly, drunk refusing to leave a troubled bar.

Bart Lies said...

It's unfathomable that AT THE MINIMUM the 'contributing to delinquency of a minor' charge wasn't retained.

That seems like a pretty clearcut criminal act.

Anonymous said...

ipopa, bartlies,

The reason that the contributing to the delinquency of a minor charge didn't stick was because that statute actually requires that a minor be involved. The person who was involved was 19, and not a minor. The IC is 35-46-1-8:

http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title35/ar46/ch1.html#IC35-46-1-8

A person at least eighteen (18) years of age who knowingly or intentionally encourages, aids, induces, or causes a person less than eighteen (18) years of age to commit an act of delinquency (as defined by IC 31-37-1 or IC 31-37-2) commits contributing to delinquency, a Class A misdemeanor.

If anyone should be in trouble, it is the club owner, who is responsible for ensuring its patrons are of legal age.

No surprise that these off-duty cops didn't investigate the very business that is writing their checks. The very first sentence of the police report includes "I was working part-time security" . Here's a link to the police report:
http://www.indystar.com/assets/pdf/BG106358421.PDF

This is a perfect example of why police officers either shouldn't be permitted to use their authority in off-duty jobs or that all off-duty jobs should be arranged through the PD, where the businesses would actually have to pay the department directly, who would then pay the officers for overtime.

Unknown said...

Well, dokkaq, it could be worse...it could be reserve deputies. I've always said that anyone will to act as a cop paid only by the use of a car and the right to carry a gun, is the last person who should be a police officer.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Keith has a way of skating on criminal charges it seems. Did anyone hear no blood alcohol test was taken? From a Canadian news report on his latest arrest:

"Keith spent four seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders before joining the Colts last season. Keith was charged with aggravated assault after an incident at Regina nightclub on July 2, 2006. That charge was stayed on Nov. 6, 2007, after Keith had joined the Colts. The Crown said that the charge couldn't be supported and the evidence was in support of Keith in the alleged brawl."

Anonymous said...

Alcohol tests are not typically administered for PI arrests since the intoxication is determined by the individual's behavior, rather than BAC.

It's also fairly normal (in Marion County) for no charges to be filed on a vanilla PI arrest with no aggravating circumstances.