Tommy Rees Pleads Down to 2 Misdemeanors
Seems to be a lot of legal action involving football players today.
From The Chicago Tribune:
Rees, 20, plead guilty to resisting law enforcement, a Class A misdemeanor, and illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor, a Class C misdemeanor. Prosecutors dropped a second resisting law enforcement count as well as a Class A battery charge.
The plea agreement includes a 30-day suspended sentence, 11 months of probation, 50 hours of community service and letters of apology to the officers involved from Rees.
Any further discipline of Rees now rests with Notre Dame's Office of Residence Life, the school's disciplinary arm. A source said Rees already has had his hearing with Res Life, though no ruling had been set forth. Res Life can add additional penalties and/or leave discipline to Irish coach Brian Kelly.
A Notre Dame spokesman said Kelly would have no comment on the end of the legal proceedings.
Rees and linebacker Carlo Calabrese were arrested after a confrontation with police who arrived at a "loud party" less than a mile from campus early May 3. While Calabrese's legal wranglings remain unsettled -- he has been charged with misdemeanor intimidation -- a source said Calabrese already completed the Res Life process and received school-mandated community service.
Rees has an Aug. 20 hearing to determine restitution.
I'd enjoy reading the interpretation of the dropped charges from any MGoLawyers out there, so feel free to speak up. Personally, it seems like Rees got off easy for kneeing a cop and scuffling with him, but I'm also not a lawyer.
For what it's worth, a poster on NDNation said that he doesn't think ResLife will suspend Rees, although it was only one poster in a 4 comment thread.
my laptop is infected with a virus or some malware. Every time I try to log into MGoBlog, it gets redirected to Judge Judy's website...
Guarantee he will miss no gametime. He may get a tongue lashing, again from the purple faced psycho...that is all. Enjoyed thread yesterday about how painful the Michigan losses are to ND fans over the last few years, heartwarming, heartwarming I say!
To answer your question, in my opinion, it looks like Rees' attorney did a very good job to get 2 dropped, especially the battery. The battery and resisting charges were not very strong, but prosecutors are tougher on those when they involve law enforcement. Rees' attorney probably put in a lot of work to convince the DA that it would be a tough slog to get those to stick.