Titans' Jones to face 2 felony charges

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LAS VEGAS - Suddenly there is more at stake for suspended NFL player Adam "Pacman" Jones than the 2007 season. Jones must surrender to face felony charges in Las Vegas that he sparked a fight and threatened to kill people during a melee inside a strip club moments before three people were shot outside, authorities said.
Whether that changes the disciplinary status of the talented but troubled Tennessee Titan remained an open question. The larger question is whether Jones will remain free or if he will trade in his jersey for prison uniform.
If convicted of the two felony charges stemming from his involvement in the strip club brawl, Jones faces a maximum of up to 12 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, authorities said. Jones also faces questioning from Atlanta authorities about a shooting outside a strip club there.
Since Jones was drafted by the Titans in April 2005, he has been involved in 11 separate police investigations. He has been arrested five times in a little more than two years, but has not been convicted of any crimes.
Jones had agreed not to appeal a one-year suspension that a league spokesman said Wednesday would be reviewed after the Titans' 10th regular-season game. His team owner said the Titans were moving on.
"We are moving forward as a team, and do not expect to comment on any future matters concerning him until his suspension is completed," Titans owner K.S. "Bud" Adams Jr. said in a statement describing the team as focused on the 2007 season.
Officials had said a condition of reinstatement was adhering to team restrictions and no further "adverse involvement with law enforcement."
Jones was not identified Wednesday as the shooter in the Feb. 19 shooting outside the Minxx club several blocks off the Las Vegas Strip near the end of NBA All-Star weekend.
His Las Vegas lawyer, Robert Langford, has said he believed police had no evidence linking Jones with the shooting outside.
However, Jones is described in Las Vegas Justice Court documents as a combatant and the leader of an entourage that seemed to include the shooter, as well a bodyguard who battled club employees and a woman who hit a bouncer in the head with a champagne bottle and attacked several other club employees with a chair and a stanchion.
Jones is accused of threatening to kill a bar bouncer who restrained him, and a cocktail waitress told police she overheard an associate meet Jones outside the club with an exhortation to "smoke" the same bouncer, who was later wounded.
Clark County District Attorney David Roger said arrest warrants were being sought for Jones, Robert "Big Rob" Reid of Carson, Calif., and Sadia Morrison of New York.
Police used a news conference announcing the charges to release surveillance camera images of a person who Capt. James Dillon said detectives wanted to identify and question in the shooting that left one bar employee paralyzed and two others with less serious wounds. Police said the man may live on the East Coast.
"We've had to dig and pry to try to get to the truth," Dillon said of a four-month investigation that led to Wednesday's criminal complaint.
Dillon said Las Vegas police had been in contact with Atlanta authorities, who said this week they wanted to question Jones about a shooting early Monday after a fight at an Atlanta strip club. The two cases were not related, authorities said.
The 23-year-old Jones faces two counts of felony coercion stemming from allegations he bit a bar bouncer on the ankle and threatened to kill club employees, according to the Las Vegas criminal complaint.
Reid, 37, who police identified as Jones' bodyguard, faces one felony coercion charge alleging he attacked a bouncer who tried to restrain Jones.

Morrison, 25, faces charges including coercion, felony assault with a deadly weapon and battery stemming from allegations that she hit a bouncer in the head with a champagne bottle and attacked several other club employees with a chair and a stanchion.
Coercion is the act of threatening or physically interfering with a person trying to do something that he or she has a right and responsibility to do.
The charges are slightly different from those that police sought in March, but that Roger declined to file.
"We wanted to make sure we had a lock-tight case before we started filing charges and releasing reports," the district attorney said.
Langford was expected to contact police to arrange the surrenders of Jones, Reid and Morrison. Langford did not respond Wednesday to repeated messages seeking comment.
A Las Vegas police report says Jones showered dancers on stage with money from a black plastic trash bag — an act of tipping known as "making it rain." When two dancers began fighting over the money, Jones allegedly grabbed one by the hair and punched her.
Jones is accused of swinging his fists and threatening the life of club employees who police said tried to intervene, and is seen on videotape punching a man who police identify as his own business manager.
A police report says Jones was seen gesturing as if he had a gun outside the club, where he walked away with a man wearing a baggy black T-shirt and blue jeans. Minutes later, police say a man wearing a baggy black T-shirt and blue jeans stood next to a palm tree and fired five or six shots toward people at the front of the club. A bouncer who Jones fought with was wounded in the chest and left forearm. Another bouncer, Thomas Urbanski, was shot in the left hand and the torso, and was left paralyzed from the waist down. A female club patron was wounded in the head, police said.




Titans' Jones to face 2 felony charges - Yahoo! News