LAS VEGAS (AP) – Kathy Urbanski wants to know if suspended NFL player Adam “Pacman” Jones will testify that he spoke with the man believed to have shot her husband and two others minutes after a fight inside a Las Vegas strip club.
“I want to see what he does, who he implicates,” Urbanski said. “If he’s not going to implicate anyone, I’m going to be absolutely furious. I really am sick of it. I just hope the victims have rights in this situation. Obviously, the criminals do.”
No one has been charged in the Feb. 19 shooting at the Minxx Gentlemen’s Club. Police haven’t identified a suspect in the shooting that left her husband, Tommy, paralyzed and living in a hotel while their home is renovated to be wheelchair accessible.
Under a plea agreement obtained by The Associated Press, the Tennessee Titans’ cornerback intends to plead no contest to one charge of conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct, a gross misdemeanor, in return for a promise to suspend a sentence of one year in county jail.
“Our biggest emphasis was to clear him of any involvement in the shooting whatsoever,” said Manny Arora, Jones’ Atlanta-based attorney.
Las Vegas police have identified Jones as the person who incited a Feb. 19 fight inside the Minxx Gentlemen’s Club minutes before three people were shot outside.
Attorney Robert Langford in Las Vegas would not say if Jones could identify the gunman and said he could not comment because of the ongoing police investigation.
“He has agreed to testify in whatever hearings come up regarding the shooter,” Langford said.
But Langford said Jones did not know the identity of a man whose photo was released by police in June. The photo was obtained from surveillance cameras, and police want to question the man, who they think lives on the East Coast.
Clark County prosecutor Victoria Villegas confirmed there’s a plea agreement but declined to discuss the negotiations until the deal is filed with the court. That had been scheduled for Tuesday but was moved to Thursday after a scheduling conflict.
Under the deal, Jones will plead to a gross misdemeanor in exchange for a suspended one-year jail sentence. He also must attend an anger management program, complete 200 hours of community service within a year and submit to random drug testing. Jones already is subject to the NFL’s drug testing program.
“While I think we would’ve been successful at trial, it could’ve been six months to a year away, and he may have lost another year of eligibility by going forward. In the real world, sometimes you have to make these difficult decisions for what’s best for your career, and we didn’t want this dragging on any further,” Arora said.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Jones for the season in April for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. Off to a 6-3 start, the Titans haven’t missed Jones and said last week the team would address Jones’ future when he’s reinstated.
Goodell and Jones met Nov. 2 to discuss the suspension, but Goodell chose not to shorten Jones’ punishment.
The Las Vegas shooting case was a factor in that decision, and the NFL Players Association is asking Goodell to reconsider. Arora said he hopes the NFL recognizes this plea says Jones “didn’t even commit any disorderly conduct in the club.”
The NFL declined to comment Tuesday.
Two of Jones’ co-defendants also intend to take plea deals, Langford said.
Robert “Big Bob” Reid, 37, of Carson, Calif., is to plead no contest to conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct and face a suspended jail sentence. Sadia Morrison, 25, of New York, will plead no contest to a felony battery charge in return for dropping other felony charges.
Urbanski, co-worker and bouncer Aaron Cudworth and club patron Natalie Jones have each filed civil lawsuits seeking damages from Jones. Urbanski’s lawsuit also seeks damages from the NFL, the Titans and the owners of Harlem Knights, a Houston strip club that hosted events at the Minxx club during the NBA’s All-Star weekend, Feb. 17-19.
Arrested six times since the Titans drafted him in April 2005 from West Virginia, Jones has other criminal cases pending. A felony count of obstruction in Georgia from a February 2006 arrest has been postponed, and public intoxication and disorderly charges in Tennessee from August 2006 were delayed until January pending an outcome in the Las Vegas case.
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AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report.
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