Terrence Jennings and Jerry Smith will not miss any game time, only face once charge

There were two new developments in the case against two Louisville basketball players. If you remember, over the weekend Jerry Smith and Terrence Jennings, both expected to start this year for the Cardinals, were arrested after a fight at Kye's, a bar in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Rick Pitino spoke with ESPN.com, telling Dana O'Neil that:

They will be punished and are being punished right now. But no, they will not miss game time.

So that settles that debate. It looks Gary Parrish was right.

The other news that came out today was that the two players would only be facing one charge stemming from the altercation - a single count each of resisting law enforcement. The police report initially stated that both Jennings and Smith would be facing multiple charges, including disorderly conduct and battery of a law enforcement official. But as Clark County prosecuting attorney Steve Stewart told the Jeffersonville Evening News:

People don't understand that police make a recommendation in the report, but the prosecutor makes the decision what charges will be filed.

Ok, so it was Stewart's decision to only file one charge each against Jennings and Smith. Understandable, I guess. The cops were off-duty and only wearing t-shirts, albeit t-shirts that said police on it.

That said, it would have been nice if Mr. Stewart had made us aware of any mitigating circumstances (h/t Rush the Court, who always do their due diligence):



I know I am insinuating a pretty serious accusation, and I know that Stewart no doubt takes his job very seriously, but lets look at the facts: Jennings got in a fight in a bar, was seen by the cops "shoving" people, was taken to the ground where he, as Pitino put it, took some "pretty good blows" and had to be tazed not once, but twice, before Smith interfered with the police to the point that he, too, was arrested. Should I mention that Jennings, who doesn't turn 21 until Nov. 2nd, also had alcohol in his system?

Maybe witnesses came forward that said Jennings didn't deserve the second jolt of electricity. Maybe Stewart was trying to avoid excessive force accusations against these cops. Maybe the fact that they were off-duty played a factor.

But isn't it possible that Stewart didn't want to see two starters from the same school he received his law degree get a couple extra charges?

To be fair, I spoke with someone who works as a prosecuting attorney in Connecticut (different laws than Indiana, but same premise), and they said that many attorneys don't like to charge a person with more than one crime for a single event. Instead of assuming that Stewart gave these kids a break because he went to Louisville's law school, my guess is that Stewart took this as a single event; that it wasn't fair to pile on extra charges for one offense. Apparently, this is a pretty standard procedure, so I think that Stewart should be given the benefit of the doubt.

The bigger issue is that Pitino won't make these two miss any game time. If "any time you defy a police officer, it's serious", as Pitino was quoted as saying, then shouldn't these two players be punished for their defiance of a police officer?

If scuffling with some cops doesn't get you at least a game suspension, what does?

Again, if we are going to be fair, there is some precedence. In July of 2008, West Virginia point guard Joe Mazzulla was arrested for a very similar offense - he and a teammate got into it with a couple off-duty cops at a Pittsburgh Pirates game. They didn't miss any game time in 2008-2009 season as a result. Mazzulla was arrested again this past spring, and while he was suspended indefinitely from team activities over the summer, he has since been reinstated and won't miss any game time this season.