Attorney says Foreman tested negative for pot
The attorney for D’Onta Foreman said Friday that the Texans rookie running back tested negative for marijuana.
Houston attorney Chip Lewis, who represents Foreman, said the third-round pick from the University of Texas volunteered to take a urinalysis test at a Houston lab, and the results came back negative Friday.
After Foreman was arrested in Austin last week on charges of marijuana and unlawful gun possession, Lewis said his client had not smoked marijuana and would prove it by taking the test.
“The lab has returned D’Onta’s results,” Lewis said. “He is crystal clean, everything negative for any illicit drugs, marijuana, absolutely nothing.
“It illustrates what D’Onta has said since his arrest that he was not smoking marijuana. He did not possess marijuana. It makes it clear that he was telling the truth. He was not using marijuana.”
Lewis said he is confident the charges against Foreman will be dropped.
Bengals’ Jones to sit for opener
Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones was suspended for the regular-season opener against Baltimore for his role in an altercation at a downtown hotel earlier this year.
Jones had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge stemming from the January incident — the latest in a history of off-the-field legal issues for the NFL veteran. The NFL said the suspension was for a violation of its personal conduct policy.
Police said Jones kicked and used head-butting as he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a hotel employee. He was arrested outside the hotel, and police video showed him protesting that he had not done anything to deserve it, loudly demanding, “Let me go!” and at times struggling with officers while yelling obscene insults. Video of Jones in the back of a police cruiser at one point showed him telling an officer: “I hope you die tomorrow.”
Jones apologized in court for his behavior and specifically to Cincinnati police Sgt. Jarrod Cotton. His attorneys said he had been receiving treatment, including for anger management.
In exchange for Jones’ plea, Municipal Court Judge Dwane Mallory dismissed misdemeanor counts of assault and disorderly conduct at the prosecutor’s request. He sentenced Jones to time already served — two days — on the obstructing official business count. The Hamilton County prosecutor had earlier dismissed a felony count alleging Jones spit on a jail nurse.
Jones can appeal the suspension within three days. Otherwise, he will be eligible to return to the active roster on Sept. 11 after the opener against the Ravens. Jones may participate in all preseason practices and games.
Jones was suspended as a member of the Tennessee Titans by the NFL throughout the 2007 season and was suspended again during the 2008 season as a member of the Dallas Cowboys. Jones pleaded an equivalent of no contest to a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct in a 2007 Las Vegas strip-club melee. Jones was blamed for instigating violence that led to the shooting by someone else of two club employees, one left paralyzed from the waist down. He was ordered to pay more than $12.4 million in damages.
Tennessee made the Atlanta native the sixth overall pick out of West Virginia in the 2005 draft. The Bengals signed him in 2010.
Oher being sued by Uber driver
Offensive lineman Michael Oher, who faces misdemeanor charges of assaulting an Uber driver in Nashville, Tenn., has been sued in connection with the incident.
Girma Berkessa said in the complaint that an “extremely intoxicated” Oher pushed him to the ground, kicked him and called him a homophobic slur several times April 14. The complaint said Oher “acted maliciously, intentionally, willfully, wantonly, recklessly and/ or negligently.”
Lawyers for Oher did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
A hearing on Oher’s misdemeanor assault case that had been scheduled Friday was reset for Oct. 31.
Oher, who played his first five NFL seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, played for the Tennessee Titans in 2014 before the team released him less than one year into a four-year contract.
Oher, the subject of the movie “The Blind Side,” was released by Carolina on Thursday after he failed a physical because of concussion issues.