It took a couple of months, but it least appears as though there is finally a beginning to the end of a resolution to the legal and professional consequences of Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Adam Jones’ behavior early this past winter.
Joe Deters, the Hamilton County prosecutor on Jones’ case, yesterday announced that he was dropping the felony charge against him after he was accused of spitting on a nurse following his arrest, for which he is still facing multiple charges.
According to Jay Morrison via Twitter, Deters called the felony a “ticky-tack king of charge” and that Jones was spitting out chewing tobacco when it got on the nurse’s hand. The prosecutor said that the nurse’s decision to attempt to get a civil settlement out of the millionaire from the incident played a role in his decision to drop the charge, saying that she’s “been untruthful”.
The prosecutor added that he has not spoken to the NFL about anything and that Jones remains actively in treatment. He still faces three misdemeanor charges following an altercation with a security guard at a nightclub, charged with assault, disorderly conduct, and others.
Deters said that the city has jurisdiction on the rest of the charges but would suggest that they be dropped, describing Jones’ behavior as “drunken foolishness”. From Morrison, “if Pacman has cleaned up his act, I wouldn’t even pursue it. He was just being an idiot”.
“I’m treating him like I would treat anyone else in these circumstances”, he continued. “I’m not a hard ass in these types of cases”.
Hopefully the remainder of these charges will be resolved in the near future one way or the other, but the reality is that the league doesn’t need to rely upon court rulings in order to take any sort of action, should they choose to, which Steelers fans are well aware of.
It’s quite possible that the commissioner could still see fit to suspend Jones for at least a game if not simply for the dash cam video of him in the back of the police car during his intoxicated, expletive-fueled during which he said that he hoped the officer died or something like that and was spitting in the back seat.
One can’t help but wonder how the situation will play out. The Bengals have so far largely remained on the outskirts of the issue waiting for a resolution. Perhaps if the prosecutor or the commissioner come down hard enough on him they may end up releasing him after all this time. At this point I would think that is not likely that that would happen.
