Eels lock Nathan Brown is taking on the judiciary on Tuesday night in a bid to avoid a two-game suspension after being charged for high tackle offence. 

Brown was charged with a grade-two careless high tackle over a 64th-minute hit on Roosters lock Victor Radley in Saturday night’s loss by Parramatta at Bankwest Stadium.

The Eels star, who has two non-similar offences over the past two years, is seeking a downgrade of the charge after entering an early guilty plea. 

Radley has accepted a fine of $700 for a high shot of his own on Eels skipper Clint Gutherson. 

Bulldogs winger Christian Crichton is the only other player charged in round six yet to have his matter resolved.

He could be suspended for two matches for a shoulder charge on Sharks fullback Matt Moylan on Monday night. He has been charged with a grade-one offence for the tackle in the 34th minute but can have the ban halved with an early guilty plea.

Broncos forwards Patrick Carrigan and Tom Flegler have each accepted a one-game suspension after being charged over incidents in Thursday night’s loss to Newcastle in Gosford.

Carrigan was facing a two-match ban over a grade-two conduct charge for his late hit on Knights halfback Mitchell Pearce in the 59th minute. He reduced the ban to one game with an early guilty plea.

Flegler has also be banned one match after he entered an early guilty plea over a 43rd-minute incident involving Newcastle forward Sione Mata’utia.

Dragons winger Jordan Pereira is out for two games for a hit on Corey Thompson in the 23rd minute of St George Illawarra’s win at Suncorp Stadium. He could have been banned for three weeks if he did not enter an early guilty plea. 

Tigers trio Harry Grant, Josh Aloiai and Sam McIntyre will avoid suspensions after entering guilty pleas for with grade-one offences in their team’s win over North Queensland.

Warriors hooker Wayde Egan is out of Friday’s clash with Melbourne after entering an early guilty plea over an incident involving Rabbitohs star Latrell Mitchell.

Egan was charged with a grade-two contrary conduct charge after he appeared to rake his hand across Mitchell’s face on Friday.

Panthers five-eighth Jarome Luai has avoided a ban by entering an early guilty plea for a dangerous contact – head/neck charge resulting from a tackle on Melbourne’s Felise Kaufusi.

 

Player	Jordan Pereira
Club	Dragons
Time minute of match	23rd
Charge/Incident	High tackle – careless
Charge Grade	3
Result	Guilty – early plea
Matches to serve	2
Points/fine calculation	225
Carry-over points	25
Misconduct on whom?	Corey Thompson

 

Player	Sam McIntyre
Club	Tigers
Time minute of match	33rd
Charge/Incident	Dangerous contract – other
Charge Grade	1
7yrs Incident free for discount?	No
Base penalty for charge	100
Result	Guilty – Early plea
Matches to serve	0
Points/fine calculation	75
Carry-over points	75
Misconduct on whom?	Corey Jensen

 

Player	Josh Aloiai
Club	Tigers
Time minute of match	55th
Charge/Incident	Contrary Conduct
Charge Grade	1
Result	Guilty – early plea
Matches to serve	0
Points/fine calculation	$800
Carry-over points	N/A
Misconduct on whom?	Peter Hola

 

Player	Harry Grant
Club	Tigers
Time minute of match	60th
Charge/Incident	Dangerous contact – head/neck
Charge Grade	1
Result	Guilty – early plea
Matches to serve	0
Points/fine calculation	75
Carry-over points	75
Misconduct on whom?	Kyle Feldt

 

Player	Victor Radley
Club	Roosters
Time minute of match	56th
Charge/Incident	High tackle – careless
Charge Grade	1
Result	Guilty – early plea
Matches to serve	0
Points/fine calculation	$700
Carry-over points	N/A
Misconduct on whom?	Clint Gutherson

 

Player	Nathan Brown
Club	Eels
Time minute of match	64th
Charge/Incident	High tackle – careless
Charge Grade	2
7yrs Incident free for discount?	No
Base penalty for charge	200
Result	Plea – Guilty, disputes grading
Prior Similar Offences in last 2 years (50% loading)	0
Prior Non-Similar Offences in last 2 years (20% loading)	2
Carry-over points	17
Misconduct on whom?	Victor Radley

Player	Wayde Egan
Club	Warriors
Time minute of match	65th
Charge/Incident	Contrary Conduct
Charge Grade	2
Result	Guilty – early plea
Matches to serve	1
Points/fine calculation	150
Carry-over points	50
Misconduct on whom?	Latrell Mitchell

 

Player	Jarome Luai
Club	Panthers
Time minute of match	78th
Charge/Incident	Dangerous contact – Head/neck
Charge Grade	1
Result	Guilty – early plea
Matches to serve	0
Points/fine calculation	75
Carry-over points	75
Misconduct on whom?	Felise Kaufusi

 

 

 

Player	Christian Crichton
Club	Bulldogs
Time minute of match	34th
Charge/Incident	Shoulder charge
Charge Grade	1
7yrs Incident free for discount?	No
Base penalty for charge	200
Early guilty plea	180
Guilty	240
Prior Similar Offences in last 2 years (50% loading)	0
Prior Non-Similar Offences in last 2 years (20% loading)	1
Carry-over points	0
Misconduct on whom?	Matt Moylan

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) — A 19-year-old man charged with the shooting death of one Washburn University football player and the wounding of a second player filed a motion in April seeking to replace his defense attorney.

Francisco A. Mendez is charged with offenses on April 28, 2019, of:
– Premeditated first-degree murder of Dwane Simmons, 23.
– Attempted first-degree murder of Corey Ballentine, who was wounded.
– Three counts of attempted first-degree murder of Channon Ross, Kevin Neal and James Letcher, who were with Simmons and Ballentine.

The five men were Washburn University football players. Of the 12 charges Mendez faces, five are tied to events on April 28, 2019.

Mendez is to appear before Shawnee County District Court Judge Cheryl Rios on Thursday when the judge will hear motions seeking the judge to appoint another defense attorney represent Mendez and to continue the Mendez case.

Mendez earlier has asked the judge to appoint a defense attorney to replace KiAnn Caprice, Mendez’ current attorney. The judge has denied it.

During a phone call played during another hearing, Mendez said Caprice hadn’t filed a lot of motions he wanted her to file, and he intended to fire Caprice in six months.

In a handwritten motion signed by Mendez, he asked the judge to replace Caprice “for failing to provide the defendant ‘effective’ assistance of counsel.”

Three areas “raise major concern,” Mendez wrote.

They are a “significant breakdown” in communication between Mendez and Caprice, including an “irrevocable breakdown” in the attorney-client relationship, Mendez wrote.

She has failed to investigate Mendez’ case in his best interest, Mendez said.

“She has the responsibility to investigate, including interviewing witnesses, testing physical evidence consulting with appropriate experts,” and investigating the credibility of prosecution wigtnesses, Mendez wrote.

Caprice also has failed to file meritorious motions on his behanlf, Mendez wrote.

The shootings occurred outside 1287 S.W. Lane, where Simmons was fatally wounded, and Ballentine suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks. Ballentine played the 2019-2020 season on the New York Giants football team.

Mendez’ nine-day trial has been scheduled to start on July 13, but it’s expected that no jury trials in Shawnee County District Court will be conducted before September 1 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The courthouse re-opened to the public on Monday after it was closed for three months since mid-March.

Of the 12 charges he faces, Mendez also is charged with two counts of two aggravated robberies on April 27, 2019, in what is referred to as the “Central Park robbery.”

Mendez is also charged with five aggravated robberies on April 30, 2019.

According to testimony during Mendez’s preliminary hearing, Ballentine, Simmons and three other members of the WU football team were standing at S.W. 13th and Lane celebrating Ballentine’s good fortune to be drafted into professional football on the New York Giants when Ballentine and Simmons were shot.

ATLANTA (AP) — Local law enforcers are now being investigated in the shooting of a black man who was chased down by two white men in Georgia.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and federal authorities to probe how local prosecutors handled the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. It took more than two months and the release of a video of the shooting before Gregory and Travis McMichael were charged with murder and jailed.

“Unfortunately, many questions and concerns have arisen regarding, among other things, the communications between and actions taken by the District Attorneys of the Brunswick and Waycross Circuits. As a result, we have requested the GBI to review in order to determine whether the process was undermined in any way,” Carr said in a statement Tuesday.

Carr also appointed a black district attorney from suburban Atlanta on Monday to take over, making her the fourth prosecutor in charge of a case that’s prompted a national outcry over suspicions that race played a role in delaying arrests.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said federal prosecutors also are considering whether hate crimes charges are warranted, and that Carr has been asked to “forward to federal authorities any information that he has.”

Cobb County District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes replaces prosecutor Tom Durden, who Carr said asked to be replaced by a prosecutor with a large staff as “this case has grown in size and magnitude.”

Holmes is based in metro Atlanta, far from the coastal Georgia community in Glynn County where the shooting happened, and is “a respected attorney with experience, both as a lawyer and a judge,” said Carr, a Republican.

Holmes served four years a magistrate judge before Gov. Brian Kemp appointed her last July to succeed GBI Director Vic Reynolds as district attorney. The Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys Council said she’s one of only seven black district attorneys in the state.

An attorney for Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, asked Holmes to “be zealous in her search for justice.”

“In order for justice to be carried out both effectively and appropriately in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, it is imperative that the special prosecutor has no affiliation with the Southeast Georgia legal or law enforcement communities,” attorney Benjamin Crump said in a statement.

The McMichaels told police they chased Arbrey because they believed he matched the appearance of a burglary suspect caught on surveillance video in their subdivision just outside Brunswick, a working-class port city of about 16,000 that also serves as a gateway to island beach resorts.

Arbery was hit by three shotgun blasts, according to an autopsy report released by the GBI; one shot grazed his right wrist, and the other two struck him in the chest. Blood tests for various drugs and alcohol all came back negative.

Many have expressed frustration with the investigation, suggesting the defendants’ race and law enforcement ties protected them until the video was shared and outrage grew. Gregory McMichael is a former Glynn County police officer who worked 20 years as district attorney’s investigator before retiring last year.

Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, have been jailed since Thursday. Neither man had lawyers at their first court appearances on Friday, done by video link from the Glynn County jail. With courts largely closed because of the coronavirus, a grand jury can’t be called to hear the case until mid-June.

Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself because the elder McMichael had worked under her. District Attorney George Barnhill of the neighboring Waycross Judicial Circuit was brought in, but stepped aside about a month later because his son works for Johnson as an assistant prosecutor. Durden then got the case, but it didn’t appear to advance until the emergence of the video.

Carr’s letter to the GBI accuses the first two prosecutors of leaving his office was in the dark about their actions. “Unknown and undisclosed to the Attorney General,” it says, Barnhill told Glynn County Police that he didn’t see grounds for any arrests.

The phone at Barnhill’s office in Waycross rang unanswered Tuesday.

President Donald Trump said Monday he’s following the case “very closely” and that Arbery “looks like a wonderful young guy.”

“Certainly the video, it was a terrible looking video to me,” Trump said. “But you have a lot of people looking at it and hopefully an answer’s going to be arrived at very quickly.”

Wanda Cooper Jones has said she thinks her son was simply jogging in the neighborhood before he was killed.

The leaked video shows a black man running at a jogging pace. A truck is stopped in the road ahead of him, with one white man standing in the pickup’s bed with a handgun, and another beside the open driver’s side door with what appears to be a shotgun or rifle. The running man attempts to pass the pickup on the passenger side, moving briefly out of view. A gunshot sounds, and the video shows the runner grappling with the gunman in the street. A second shot can be heard, and the running man can be seen punching the other man. A third shot is fired at point-blank range. The running man staggers a few feet and falls face down.

A man who says he recorded the video on his phone said he’s received death threats. William R. Bryan, identified as a witness in the police report, has not been charged.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Bryan told WJAX-TV in an interview. “I was told I was a witness and I’m not sure what I am, other than receiving a bunch of threats.”

Copyright 2020 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

A person holds a sign while watching a rally to protest the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery Friday in Brunswick Ga. Two men have been charged with murder in the February shooting death of Arbery, a black man in his mid-20s, whom they had pursued in a truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s attorney general has asked state law officers to investigate allegations of misconduct by local prosecutors in the killing of a black man who was chased by a white father and son, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced this morning.

The GBI said Attorney General Chris Carr requested the investigation of how the district attorney offices in Brunswick and Waycross handled the Feb. 23 killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. More than two months passed before the arrests of Gregory and Travis McMichael. They were charged with felony murder and aggravated assault after video of the shooting appeared online and prompted outrage.

“Unfortunately, many questions and concerns have arisen regarding, among other things, the communications between and actions taken by the District Attorneys of the Brunswick and Waycross Circuits. As a result, we have requested the GBI to review in order to determine whether the process was undermined in any way,” Carr said in a statement this morning.

Carr also appointed a black district attorney from suburban Atlanta on Monday to take over the case, making her the fourth prosecutor in charge of a case that’s prompted a national outcry over suspicions that race played a role in delaying arrests.

Carr also has asked federal authorities to investigate how local police and prosecutors handled the case. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement that Carr has been asked to “forward to federal authorities any information that he has.”

Federal prosecutors are also considering hate crimes charges, Kupec said. This would allow for a separate federal case against the gunmen.

Cobb County District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes takes over the case from prosecutor Tom Durden, who the state’s attorney general said asked to be replaced by a prosecutor with a large staff as “this case has grown in size and magnitude.” Holmes is based in metro Atlanta, more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the coastal Georgia community in Glynn County where the shooting happened.

“District Attorney Holmes is a respected attorney with experience, both as a lawyer and a judge,” Carr, a Republican, said in a statement. “And the Cobb County District Attorney’s office has the resources, personnel and experience to lead this prosecution and ensure justice is done.”

Holmes served four years a magistrate judge in suburban Cobb County before Gov. Brian Kemp appointed her last July to succeed GBI Director Vic Reynolds as district attorney. According to the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys Council, Holmes is one of only seven black district attorneys in the state.

An attorney for Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, applauded the appointment of a new lead prosecutor.

“In order for justice to be carried out both effectively and appropriately in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, it is imperative that the special prosecutor has no affiliation with the Southeast Georgia legal or law enforcement communities,” attorney Benjamin Crump said in a statement. He asked that Holmes “be zealous in her search for justice.”

The McMichaels told police they chased Arbrey because they believed he matched the appearance of a burglary suspect caught on surveillance video. Arbery was hit by three shotgun blasts, according to an autopsy report released Monday by the GBI; one shot grazed his right wrist, and the other two struck him in the chest. Blood tests for various drugs and alcohol all came back negative.

Many have expressed frustration with the investigation, questioning whether the arrests took so long because the suspects are white and the victim black. The killing happened in a subdivision just outside Brunswick, a working-class port city of about 16,000 that also serves as a gateway to beach resorts on neighboring islands.

The McMichaels weren’t arrested until after the video became public and the GBI was asked to look into the killing. Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, have been jailed since Thursday. Neither man had lawyers at their first court appearances on Friday, done by video link from the Glynn County jail.

With courts largely closed because of the coronavirus, getting an indictment needed to try the men on murder charges will take a while longer still. The soonest a grand jury can convene to hear the case will be mid-June.

Gregory McMichael is a former Glynn County police officer who later worked 20 years as an investigator for the local district attorney’s office. He retired a year ago.

Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself from the case because the elder McMichael had worked under her. The first outside prosecutor appointed, District Attorney George Barnhill of the neighboring Waycross Judicial Circuit, stepped aside about a month later because his son works for Johnson as an assistant prosecutor. Durden got the case in mid-April, but the case didn’t appear to advance until the emergence of the video.

In his letter to the GBI requesting the probe of the first two prosecutors, Carr said his office was in the dark about actions taken by Barnhill before he was removed from the case. “Unknown and undisclosed to the Attorney General,” it says, Barnhill told Glynn County Police that he didn’t see grounds for any arrests.

The phone at Barnhill’s office in Waycross rang unanswered this morning.

Attorneys for Arbery’s parents and others, including Carr and the Southern Poverty Law Center, asked for a federal hate crimes investigation, since Georgia has no hate crime law allowing state charges.

At the White House, President Donald Trump said Monday he’s following the case “very closely” and that Arbery “looks like a wonderful young guy.”

“Certainly the video, it was a terrible looking video to me,” Trump said. “But you have a lot of people looking at it and hopefully an answer’s going to be arrived at very quickly.”

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, has said she thinks her son, a former high school football player, was just jogging in the neighborhood before he was killed.

The leaked video shows a black man running at a jogging pace. A truck is stopped in the road ahead of him, with one white man standing in the pickup’s bed and another beside the open driver’s side door.

The running man attempts to pass the pickup on the passenger side, moving briefly outside the camera’s view. A gunshot sounds, and the video shows the running man grappling with a man over what appears to be a shotgun or rifle. A second shot can be heard, and the running man can be seen punching the other man. A third shot is fired at point-blank range. The running man staggers a few feet and falls face down.

A man who says he recorded the cellphone video of the shooting said he’s received death threats.

William R. Bryan is identified as a witness in the police report taken after Arbery’s shooting. He has not been charged.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Bryan told WJAX-TV in an interview that aired Monday. “I was told I was a witness and I’m not sure what I am, other than receiving a bunch of threats.”

Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s attorney general has asked state law officers to investigate allegations of misconduct by local prosecutors in the killing of a black man who was chased by a white father and son, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Tuesday.

The GBI said Attorney General Chris Carr requested the investigation of how the district attorney offices in Brunswick and Waycross handled the Feb. 23 killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. More than two months passed before the arrests of Gregory and Travis McMichael. They were charged with felony murder and aggravated assault after video of the shooting appeared online and prompted outrage.

“Unfortunately, many questions and concerns have arisen regarding, among other things, the communications between and actions taken by the District Attorneys of the Brunswick and Waycross Circuits. As a result, we have requested the GBI to review in order to determine whether the process was undermined in any way,” Carr said in a statement Tuesday.

Carr also appointed a black district attorney from suburban Atlanta on Monday to take over the case, making her the fourth prosecutor in charge of a case that’s prompted a national outcry over suspicions that race played a role in delaying arrests.

Carr also has asked federal authorities to investigate how local police and prosecutors handled the case. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement that Carr has been asked to “forward to federal authorities any information that he has.”

Federal prosecutors are also considering hate crimes charges, Kupec said. This would allow for a separate federal case against the gunmen.

Cobb County District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes takes over the case from prosecutor Tom Durden, who the state’s attorney general said asked to be replaced by a prosecutor with a large staff as “this case has grown in size and magnitude.” Holmes is based in metro Atlanta, more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the coastal Georgia community in Glynn County where the shooting happened.

“District Attorney Holmes is a respected attorney with experience, both as a lawyer and a judge,” Carr, a Republican, said in a statement. “And the Cobb County District Attorney’s office has the resources, personnel and experience to lead this prosecution and ensure justice is done.”

Holmes served four years a magistrate judge in suburban Cobb County before Gov. Brian Kemp appointed her last July to succeed GBI Director Vic Reynolds as district attorney. According to the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys Council, Holmes is one of only seven black district attorneys in the state.

An attorney for Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, applauded the appointment of a new lead prosecutor.

“In order for justice to be carried out both effectively and appropriately in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, it is imperative that the special prosecutor has no affiliation with the Southeast Georgia legal or law enforcement communities,” attorney Benjamin Crump said in a statement. He asked that Holmes “be zealous in her search for justice.”

The McMichaels told police they chased Arbrey because they believed he matched the appearance of a burglary suspect caught on surveillance video. Arbery was hit by three shotgun blasts, according to an autopsy report released Monday by the GBI; one shot grazed his right wrist, and the other two struck him in the chest. Blood tests for various drugs and alcohol all came back negative.

Many have expressed frustration with the investigation, questioning whether the arrests took so long because the suspects are white and the victim black. The killing happened in a subdivision just outside Brunswick, a working-class port city of about 16,000 that also serves as a gateway to beach resorts on neighboring islands.

The McMichaels weren’t arrested until after the video became public and the GBI was asked to look into the killing. Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, have been jailed since Thursday. Neither man had lawyers at their first court appearances on Friday, done by video link from the Glynn County jail.

With courts largely closed because of the coronavirus, getting an indictment needed to try the men on murder charges will take a while longer still. The soonest a grand jury can convene to hear the case will be mid-June.

Gregory McMichael is a former Glynn County police officer who later worked 20 years as an investigator for the local district attorney’s office. He retired a year ago.

Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself from the case because the elder McMichael had worked under her. The first outside prosecutor appointed, District Attorney George Barnhill of the neighboring Waycross Judicial Circuit, stepped aside about a month later because his son works for Johnson as an assistant prosecutor. Durden got the case in mid-April, but the case didn’t appear to advance until the emergence of the video.

Attorneys for Arbery’s parents and others, including Carr and the Southern Poverty Law Center, have asked for a federal investigation to weigh whether hate crimes charges should be brought. Georgia has no hate crime law allowing state charges.

At the White House, President Donald Trump said Monday he’s following the case “very closely” and that Arbery “looks like a wonderful young guy.”

“Certainly the video, it was a terrible looking video to me,” Trump said. “But you have a lot of people looking at it and hopefully an answer’s going to be arrived at very quickly.”

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, has said she thinks her son, a former high school football player, was just jogging in the neighborhood before he was killed.

The leaked video shows a black man running at a jogging pace. A truck is stopped in the road ahead of him, with one white man standing in the pickup’s bed and another beside the open driver’s side door.

The running man attempts to pass the pickup on the passenger side, moving briefly outside the camera’s view. A gunshot sounds, and the video shows the running man grappling with a man over what appears to be a shotgun or rifle. A second shot can be heard, and the running man can be seen punching the other man. A third shot is fired at point-blank range. The running man staggers a few feet and falls face down.

A man who says he recorded the cellphone video of the shooting said he’s received death threats.

William R. Bryan is identified as a witness in the police report taken after Arbery’s shooting. He has not been charged.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Bryan told WJAX-TV in an interview that aired Monday. “I was told I was a witness and I’m not sure what I am, other than receiving a bunch of threats.”

Copyright 2020 Associated Press. All rights reserved.