30-second summary
- Adam “Pacman” Jones has been arrested several times during his career
- One incident that led to his arrest resulted in a man dead and another paralyzed
- Jones was arrested for allegedly cheating at a casino in Indiana
- He has now copped a plea deal, admitting to guilt for the charges of cheating at gambling and resisting law enforcement
Background to this case
Adam “Pacman” Jones is an NFL free agent who has been on the wrong side of the law several times in recent years. The latest of these brushes with the law was for allegedly cheating at a casino in Indiana.
This arrest took place on February 27 at the Rising Sun Casino in Indiana. Casino officials claimed that Jones was cheating during the course of play at a table game. They complained to the local police, who arrested Jones shortly afterward.
The Indiana Gaming Commission issued a statement that Jones was put in the Dearborn County Jail after being arrested at the casino at approximately 3 am.
The facility is in the Cincinnati region, where Jones played for a large portion of his career. As soon as Jones became aware of the allegations against him, he “immediately became verbally combative and disorderly.”
Jones has been a success over the years in the NFL. He was initially drafted in 2005 to the Tennessee Titans and he was named to the All-Pro first team in 2014. Last season, he played just seven games for the Denver Broncos before being released. He has not been signed by any other team at this point.
Latest happenings with the case
According to reports, Jones has agreed on a plea deal for the casino incident. Court filings indicate that he will plead guilty to the charges of resisting law enforcement and cheating at gambling.
Under the proposed agreement, he will be sentenced to 545 days in jail on the cheating charge, with 531 days suspended, and 365 days for resisting arrest, with 351 days suspended. He will be credited with two days of time served and four days of good time and will spend only 10 days in jail.
Jones will also be on probation for 18 months, during which he must avoid drugs and alcohol and he is forbidden to enter the Rising Star Casino.
Charges of public intoxication, disorderly conduct, intimidation, and battery against public safety officials would be dropped under the plea deal. The deal still has to be approved by a judge.
Previous brushes with the law
Jones, unfortunately, has been involved in numerous incidents involving the law over the course of his career. Not long after being selected by the Tennessee Titans in the 2005 draft, he was arrested on charges of assault and vandalism. These charges were eventually dropped.
In 2006, he was arrested on two separate occasions and he was involved in a serious incident in 2007. This took place at a strip club in Las Vegas when three people were shot and one of them died. The club security guard was shot dead and a former professional wrestler, Tommy Urbanski, was paralyzed from his waist down after being shot.
Jones got a plea deal for his involvement in this incident. This led to a suspended sentence, with a year of probation. A judgment in a civil suit required him to pay $11m (£8.3m) to Urbanski and $1.3m (£1m) to an Aaron Cudworth. As a result, the NFL suspended Jones for the 2007 season.
He has since played for the Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati Bengals, and Denver and he was arrested for other incidents in 2011, 2013 and 2017. It’s likely that his NFL career has now ended.