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RB Maurice Clarett (B1G Freshman of the Year, National Champion)

Typical. Now that Clarett's in the big paypacket league, he's probably trying to stall so he can pile some money up before serving time, just in case! :slappy:

And Rugby, keep your attention focused on the future Mrs Rugby, not the charge of the light brigade! :biggrin:

Good advice, Steve. Anyway, with BKB and me, it would be the Charge of the Lightweight Brigade. :biggrin:
 
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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/saraceno/2006-07-27-saraceno-clarett_x.htm

Clarett proves being home again isn't always good
Updated 7/28/2006 3:03 AM ET

About a year ago, Maurice Clarett was in training camp preparing for what he and his remarkably buckeye-green handlers figured to be the start of a spectacular pro career. It promised, they believed, to be one filled with big-time touchdown runs and large direct deposits. Why else would a busted college dropout spurn a signing bonus in excess of $400,000 for larger incentives based on a rather dubious future in the league? It was a mirage that also mesmerized none other than laser-focused Mike Shanahan.

A year later, the banished former Ohio State star is back home in Youngstown. He is out of shape, unemployed and accused of being a criminal. His girlfriend is pregnant. And, like a naïve young boy, he's still daydreaming about playing pro football. Maybe one day he will, though it probably will be in Cincinnati the way the Bengals are assessing character these days.

For now, it's the EIFL, not the NFL.

If the Eastern Indoor Football League doesn't pan out, it's not as if he is too old to try something else.

He is all of 22.

In dog years, he must feel 122.

Sort of gives new meaning to the phrase "Longest Yard."

Clarett recently informed the fledgling indoor league that he plans to sign with the Ohio-based Mahoning Valley franchise after the area's Arena2 Football League declined to get into a, um, bidding war. He has yet to sign and no one seems to care much. A poll by The Columbus Dispatch showed that almost 80% of respondents wouldn't pay to watch him play football on a fancy rug.

Big Ten cynics wonder if he'll have to take a pay cut from his days on campus in Columbus, which ended with (scandalous!) accusations. Clarett insisted that coach Jim Tressel, staff and boosters arranged for him to obtain passing grades and monetary benefits, allegations the school denied.

Anyway, if Clarett does play in the EIFL, he will be playing for the HitMen. We're not making this up.

You can't make up this kind of stuff.

The irony drips like sweat on a July afternoon. The team's logo is a weasely looking hoodlum wielding a large pistol. For his sake, maybe the league will fold before it unfolds. Only three teams are on its website. The HitMen have two players on the roster. (Neither is named Fat Tony).

If Clarett could fall any farther any faster, he would be Marcus Dupree. Or maybe Mike Tyson.

No job. No degree. No discernable non-football skills.

He has fewer options than your average unemployed steelworker. Clarett has not carried the football in a game since the denouement of his college "career" in the national championship game more than three years ago. During the fall of 2002, he rushed for more yards than any freshman ever at Ohio State. By 2003, he was suspended from the team for filing a bogus police report. He tried to enter the draft as an underclassman, but ultimately lost an appeal.

Two years later, Denver's brainy coach thought so much of Clarett that the Broncos selected him 101st in the 2005 draft. Maybe Shanny figured that anyone with his pedigree and potential could be plugged into the Terrell Davis-Reuben Droughns-Mike Anderson-Olandis Gary-Clinton Portis rotation of 1,000-yard running backs.

For once, I felt superior to a certified NFL genius — I just never believed Clarett would make it. It had less to do with lack of polish, durability and moral issues than it did with his speed — or lack thereof. (At the NFL combine 18 months ago, Clarett's best time in the 40 was a dismal 4.72, leading pundits to nickname him "Slow 'Mo.")

Since then, he has had nothing but trouble.

In two weeks, Clarett is scheduled to go to trial on felony counts of aggravated robbery and carrying a concealed weapon. He allegedly flashed a gun and robbed two people in an alley, scuttling plans to sign with an NFL Europe team. He faces a possible 25-year prison sentence, if convicted. He told reporters recently, "I'm not worried."

You wonder if this isn't another Maurice Moment. This is the same guy who showed up in court Thursday not understanding that his attorneys were dumping him, not the other way around.

"You mean, they want to fire me as a client?" he asked.

Yes, Maurice. You got Trumped. Again.

Clarett has new attorneys to defend him as he ponders signing that minor league football contract for a fledgling circuit that is supposed to begin play in five months. The news of another new minor league this week would've been a viable alternative for him, except ... you must have a degree to play.

At one time, he was considered the best prep player in the nation. In college, No. 13 was fortunate enough to play before more than 100,000. In the minor leagues, he might be lucky to have 1,500 rooting for him in The Thunderplex.

Who says you can't go home?

***

E-mail Jon Saraceno at [email protected]
 
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I heard a brief interview with his new counsel this morning. They basically are saying he is innocent of all charges and their are numerous things about the case that don't make sense and they are looking forward to their day in court.

On another note.....Maurice just became a father 10 days ago.
 
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:slappy:

Hitmen coach Jim Terry said Thursday that Clarett has not signed a contract with the team yet, pending a fire marshal's inspection of the team's home field. Clarett's proposed contract includes attendance incentives which cannot be finalized until the fire marshal determines the capacity of the team's arena.
 
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lantern
Clarett hires new legal team



Don Howard

Issue date: 8/1/06

Maurice Clarett will still appear in court Aug. 14, but he will do so with a new defense team.

Thursday morning, Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge David A. Fais granted the request of Clarett's now former attorneys, William Settina and Robert Krapenc, to withdraw as counsel for the former Ohio State football star.

Their request came after Clarett informed them July 20, by letter, that he had chosen to "go in another direction."

Clarett told Fais he wanted to keep Krapenc and drop Settina.

"I was comfortable with Mr. Krapenc, but Mr. Settina wanted to be out front," he said.

Krapenc then told Fais that he had spoken with Clarett Saturday and explained that would not be in his (Clarett's) best interest.

After granting the withdraw request, Settina and Krapenc stepped aside and Clarett's new attorneys, Dominic L. Mango and Michael C. Hoague, joined him at the defense table.

After commenting that Mango and Hoague had filed their paperwork to represent Clarett too early because his other attorneys had not been released, Fais addressed the short window that remains before Clarett's trial date.

"The court is telling you that Aug. 14 is a firm date," Fais said to Mango and Hoague. "Do you believe you can effectively represent this client?"

"Yes, I believe we can," Mango said.

Clarett agreed that his new legal team can effectively mount a defense in the short time that remains.

"On Friday, March 31, I met with Mr. Settina and Mr. Krapenc and set a trial date," Fais said. "I made it clear that there would be no further continuance."

"There will be a trial on that date or a resolution," Fais said.

Afterwards, Clarett and his attorneys quickly headed for the elevators, which seemed to open on cue as they walked up to them.

"He's innocent," Hoague said.

When asked why he switched lawyers, Clarett was brief.

"These guys are better," he said.

Clarett would not respond to Settina and Krapenc's claim that he failed to pay them for their services.

"That will be addressed," Hoague said as the elevator doors closed.

Hoague was involved in a road rage case in 1998 while he was a Delaware County Municipal Court judge. The incident almost cost him his law license for six months. Mango was a city prosecutor in Delaware from 1999-2001.

Clarett is charged with four counts of robbery, two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of carrying a concealed weapon. The charges stem from a Jan. 1 incident, when Columbus police say Clarett robbed two people with a gun outside of the Opium Lounge. The report states that he stole one victim's cell phone and showed a handgun in his waistband.

Clarett helped Ohio State win the 2002 National Championship, scoring the winning touchdown in the second overtime of the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. He sat out the following season after being charged with falsifying a police report.

Clarett's claims that he received improper benefits while playing at OSU led to an investigation by the NCAA. The university was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Clarett then dropped out of school and sued the NFL in an attempt to enter their draft one year early. He lost the case, but was drafted in the third round of the 2005 draft by the Denver Broncos, who cut him during the preseason.

Clarett remains free on a recognizance bond.
 
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Afterwards, Clarett and his attorneys quickly headed for the elevators, which seemed to open on cue as they walked up to them, but unfortunately Clarett had to take the stairs because he wasn't quick enough to get on the elevator before the doors closed.
 
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Dispatch

8/5/06

Motion to move Clarett trial out of Columbus is rejected
Despite well-known defendant, jury can be seated, judge says

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Bruce Cadwallader
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

20060805-Pc-B5-0500.jpg
</IMG> Former Ohio State football player Maurice Clarett, accused of robbing two victims on Jan. 1, is to go to trial Aug. 14.


A judge denied a request yesterday by attorneys for Maurice Clarett to move his trial on a charge of aggravated robbery out of Columbus, where they don’t think an impartial jury can be found.

"I am confident we will be able to seat a fair and impartial jury in this case," Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David W. Fais told the attorneys. "If we run into some kind of obstacle, we’ll deal with it then."

The request was one of seven motions discussed during a contentious hearing between an assistant prosecutor and the attorneys, whom Clarett recently hired after firing his first two attorneys.

Fais scolded him for being 45 minutes late for the hearing. Clarett was delayed in Youngstown because he was taking care of his daughter, born 17 days ago to his girlfriend, said one of his attorneys, Michael Hoague. The child was born prematurely and went home from the hospital today.

Hoague and Richard Piatt, Clarett’s other attorney, also challenged a photo array Columbus police showed the robbery victims. In it are five black men wearing jail clothes and frowning and Clarett smiling in street clothes.
"I’m sure his distinctive, boyish smile is recognized in this community," Hoague said of the former Ohio State University running back.

Fais agreed to hold a hearing on that issue with the witnesses and a police detective on the day of trial, which is set for Aug. 14.

Hoague and Piatt also asked the judge to tell prosecutors to give them the home address and phone records of the two people who told police Clarett robbed them in an alley on Jan. 1.

One of the victims said the robber took his cell phone, but Assistant County Prosecutor Tim Mitchell said he does not have the records for that phone number.

Hoague repeatedly asked him to provide the details, causing Mitchell to ask angrily, "Am I to believe I am repeatedly being called a liar? I can’t turn over what wasn’t sought."

Hoague, who took over Clarett’s defense on July 27, said he was "shocked and dismayed" that the phone records don’t exist. After the hearing, he told reporters, "What are they hiding? You do an investigation and you don’t find if the phone has been used after the robbery? "

Fais granted a defense request to have jurors visit the alley behind the former Opium Lounge at 346 S. High St. where the incident took place. Hoague described it as a "seedy area with rat traps."

Hoague also wanted more specifics from prosecutors on the gun and how the robber showed it to the victims.

"We don’t want a trial by ambush, your honor," Hoague told the judge, which caused Fais to bristle.

"There is no such thing as a trial by ambush in this courtroom, and I’ll tell you that right now," he said.

Clarett also is charged with robbery and carrying a concealed weapon. He has pleaded not guilty.
[email protected]
 
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Link

Clarett Defense Questions Robbery Investigation

Aug 04 2006 11:26PM

Reported by Patrick Bell

A request for a change of venue for the trial of a former Ohio State University football
2006_08_04_Clarett_Defense_Question_Robbery_Investigation.jpg
player led to a fireworks Friday at the Franklin County Courthouse.
Not only did a judge chastise Maurice Clarett for being late for his own hearing, but a heated argument also broke out between defense attorneys and prosecutors.
Clarett arrived nearly an hour late for the proceeding, as Judge David Fais noted.
"I can't wait 45 to 50 minutes for each individual person to come into my courtroom, Judge Fais told Clarett.
I... I apologize, Clarett responded.
One of his attorneys offered an explanation.
"His daughter was born 17 days ago. She was premature. And he had to go up there to get her, attorney Michael Hoague said.
The pre-trial motion hearing came 10 days before Clarett's trial date. The former Ohio State football star is charged with armed robbery after a couple was help up downtown early the morning of January 1.
Defense attorneys want the trial moved on grounds of pre-trial publicity.
"Mr. Clarett has been the subject of adverse publicity in both local print and broadcast media, Hoague contended.
Judge Fais denied the motion. Moments later, fireworks erupted when defense attorneys asked to see call records from a cell phone allegedly stolen by Clarett.
"It's a cell phone that was taken! There's got to be cell phone records! I can't believe they haven't looked at that to see if it was used after the crime!" exclaimed Hoague.
Prosecutors fired back at the defense.
"I'm telling you, we didn't (check the records), assistant prosecutor Tim Mitchell retorted. That tells me you're calling me a liar. Is that what you're saying? Because I would really like some clarification on this," Mitchell continued.
2006_08_04_News_ClarettCourthouse.jpg
The hearing ended a short time later. Clarett told 10TV he wasn't phased by Fridays outcome, saying he still thought he could get a fair trial.
"I think I can, after I heard everything today," Clarett said.
His attorneys, however, were still fuming.
"What are they hiding? What are they hiding? Hoague asked rhetorically. You do this investigation and not find out if the phone was used after the robbery? Come on!"
A status conference -- a meeting with both sets of attorneys and the judge -- will be held Wednesday and the trial itself scheduled to begin Monday August 14.
 
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he's headed for a longer sentence. he just got arrested AGAIN:

Clarett Arrested; Police Find Arsenal Of Weapons Inside SUV

Officers Use Mace, Taser Gun To Subdue Ex-Buckeye Player

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Police said they used Mace and a Taser gun to arrest former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett Wednesday morning after they found an arsenal of weapons inside an SUV he was driving.Clarett was taken into custody at about 3 a.m. in a restaurant's parking lot off Brice Road following a brief chase, NBC 4's David Wayne reported.

Police said they spotted an SUV that was driving erratically along Brice Road and then followed it as it drove onto Interstate 70.The SUV was then seen making a U-turn along the interstate. Officers placed stop-sticks on the road but the SUV continued driving and exited along Brice Road.The vehicle then stopped in the restaurant's parking lot and Clarett was arrested.Officers said Clarett, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was uncooperative and police used a Taser gun and Mace to subdue him.Police then found an arsenal of weapons inside the SUV, including a loaded assault rifle and handgun. A hatchet, clothing and an open bottle of vodka were also taken from the vehicle.The SUV was registered to Clarett's uncle, Wayne reported. Clarett is scheduled to go on trial next Monday on an aggravated robbery charge stemming from an incident that allegedly occurred early on New Year's Day.

link

for the record, i edited this article. i cut out "Wayne reported" after about 8 sentences.
 
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