Bengals' Henry out of jail after serving two days
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry sidestepped the media like he was trying to shake off a defensive back after getting out of jail Saturday morning.
Henry slipped out a side door of the Kenton County Jail in northern Kentucky after serving a two-day jail sentence, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Henry was ordered to serve jail time after pleading guilty to giving alcohol to minors in his hotel room last spring.
After exiting from the east side of the courthouse instead of the main entrance typically used by prisoners shortly before 9:15 a.m., Henry left in a black Cadillac Escalade with tinted windows, the newspaper reported.
Henry drew a two-game suspension this season for violating the league's conduct and substance abuse policies, and could get a harsher punishment for his latest convictions.
Henry has become the symbol of Cincinnati's extensive off-field problems -- nine players arrested in the last nine months, two of them suspended by the league during the season. Henry had four arrests in the last 14 months.
He avoided jail time in the first three cases, but was taken to the Kenton County Jail on Thursday after a judge accepted his guilty plea for letting minors drink in the hotel room he rented.
"You embarrassed yourself," Kenton County District Judge Greg Grothaus told Henry. "You embarrassed a lot of people, teammates, friends and family, the city, the fans and myself."
Grothaus gave Henry a 90-day sentence, and suspended all but two days. Prosecutor Ken Easterling wanted Henry to spend some time in jail.
"Looking at his history and the amount of times he's gone before other courts and not gotten jail time, the reason we sought jail time was to send a very clear message to him that this is going to be the response every time you get in trouble in our community," Easterling said. "So I hope, as the judge indicated, that he gets the message."
Meanwhile, the Bengals' myriad off-field problems prompted team president Mike Brown to say his staff would take a different approach come draft day.
"There may be some gifted athletes we won't pick that we might have picked a year ago," Brown told the Enquirer on Friday. "I've never thought the word 'cancer' was appropriate for a human being. People aren't cancerous. They misbehave. I would not use that word. But he deserved to be scolded, and it did not displease me that the judge did that. We're trying to do the same thing with Chris, to send a message to other players."
When the Bengals' season ended with an 8-8 mark, coach Marvin Lewis sent the message that he was cracking down on player misconduct. Since then, cornerback Johnathan Joseph has been arrested and charged with possession of marijuana.
Six of the Bengals' picks from the last two drafts have been charged with crimes.
"It's good that this case involving Chris has been resolved," Lewis said in a statement. "Now Chris must continue to strive to mature and grow both as a player and as a person."
In the last two days, Henry accepted plea agreements to end the last two court cases against him.
In neighboring Clermont County, he entered a guilty plea on Wednesday to reckless operation of a vehicle. He was arrested last June on a drunken-driving charge, but the results of a breath test were thrown out because the machine was improperly calibrated. Henry had registered 0.092 on the blood-alcohol test, above the state's legal limit of 0.08 percent.
He was fined $250, given a suspended 30-day jail sentence and prohibited from using alcohol or drugs as part of the agreement. He will have to take random drug tests.
Henry's lawyer, Bob Lotz, declined to comment. Clermont County prosecutor Don White said the plea agreement was offered some time ago.
"His attorney is trying to put everything together, get everything taken care of at one time," White said.
On Thursday, Henry settled the case involving underaged drinking. He originally was charged with three counts of unlawful transactions with a minor.
Police said he brought alcohol for three females -- ages 18, 16 and 15 -- in a Covington, Ky., motel room on April 29. One of the three, Monica Beamon, 18, was charged with murder in Cincinnati last September.
Witnesses said Henry was not drinking and did not buy the alcohol. He pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor violation of a city ordinance commonly referred to as a "keg law."
As part of his sentence, Henry has to give speeches to high school and middle school students in the area.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has been troubled by the Bengals' series of arrests. When he visited the team last September, he reminded them of their responsibility to stay out of trouble.
A few days later, linebacker Odell Thurman was arrested on a drunken-driving charge, and Henry was a passenger. Thurman, already serving a four-game suspension for skipping a drug test, had the punishment extended to the full season.
Henry wasn't charged in that matter, but got a two-game suspension for his marijuana and weapon cases that were already settled. He could receive a longer suspension for the two latest convictions.
Source: ESPN.com