Former Breakers player Glen Rice Jr has been allowed to leave the country and return to the United States despite facing a serious violence charge.

The 29-year-old American was arrested last November and charged with assault with intent to injure after an incident at an Auckland bar.

Today, the nearly 2m-tall swingman was due to appear again in the Auckland District Court.

However, he was missing, with rumours circulating that Rice had left New Zealand some time ago.

Rice’s lawyer, Peter Tomlinson, confirmed the situation.

He asked Judge Emma Parsons to excuse his client’s attendance for today’s hearing.

So where was Rice? Texas, his lawyer said.

Tomlinson cited the global Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse for the basketballer’s absence and inability to return to New Zealand and face the charge.

The judge pardoned Rice’s absence from today’s hearing, but also noted the unusual situation of continuing his bail without forcing him to comply with its conditions.

Rice, who has played for the Washington Wizards and was a second-round pick in the 2013 NBA draft, had joined the Breakers just 10 days prior to the alleged assault as an injury replacement.

Just a couple of weeks after his arrest, however, Rice was in trouble again after allegedly breaching his bail conditions. It lead to the Breakers tearing up his contract.

During Rice’s first court appearance, Breakers owner Matt Walsh was sitting alongside him and told media afterwards that the club would let the matter “play out” through the justice system.

The case will be back in court again in August, when a date for a judge-alone trial is to be set. Judge Parsons has already excused Rice’s attendance for that hearing.

Rice, who is the son of former NBA star and champion Glen Rice, has earlier pleaded not guilty to the charge.

MALVERN — A funeral will be held in Texas next week for a Malvern football player who was killed there while visiting his family.

Landin Robinson, 16, and his 18-year-old cousin, Klayton Manning, were shot Tuesday evening on a country road, according to the Caldwell County Sheriff.

Authorities found Robinson and Manning, a volunteer firefighter, dead near a Polaris side-by-side utility vehicle.

Evidence from the scene indicated the teens were shot while on the fire department vehicle and while trying to flee, according to a court complaint filed by a detective.

On Thursday, investigators arrested Bryan Haynes, 34, of Austin, and charged him with capital murder.

The sheriff’s office said Haynes, the only suspect in the case, was being held in lieu of $500,000 bond.

According to the complaint, Haynes told his brothers Tuesday night that he had shot two “aliens” who were chasing him in an ATV with firefighter decals.

Haynes said he shot the “aliens” multiple times and his account was consistent with the victims’ wounds and evidence at the scene, according to the complaint.

According to a GoFundMe account set up to raise money to pay for expenses caused by Robinson’s death, Landin’s mother, Amber Hise was at home in Ohio when she learned her son had been killed.

“Landin was the sweetest young man, he would give you the shirt off of his back,” writes Tiffani Cowan Hendrix, who organized the fundraiser. “He loved his sisters, loved his friends, and loved sports. He was a great kid!

“He aspired to be a welder and had plans to go to welding school after graduating from high school.”

“Words sometimes can’t describe how everything happened and how everything unfolded,” Malvern football coach Matt Chiurco said. “It’s just an absolute disaster.”

Robinson joined the team last year as a sophomore when his family moved to the district, but an injury limited him to playing special teams and a little bit on the line, Chiurco said.

“This year we were counting on him to probably be one of our tackles,” the coach said.

Robinson was a quiet, humble and coachable kid who was a good student and wanted to become a welder, his coach said.

Chiurco said he, a guidance counselor and a pastor spoke to the football players this week about Robinson’s death.

Brown Local Schools Superintendent Mark Scott said in-person, video and telephone counseling would be available for students, staff and families.

“The Brown Local School District family is deeply saddened by the loss of Landin and he will be greatly missed,” Scott wrote on Facebook.

On Monday, Chiurco, High School Principal Tim Babiczuck and guidance counselor Jeremy Taylor, who also coaches, will make the 21-hour drive to Luling.

Beacon Journal staff contributed to this report.

Reach Shane at shane.hoover@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @shooverREP

Texas State is launching an investigation into men’s head basketball coach Danny Kaspar, who has been accused by two former players of repeatedly hurling racist remarks to the team.

According to former point guard Jaylen Shead, Kaspar said that his players would run faster if a “brown man with a [turban] and an AK-47” was there, that a European player needed to improve or he would be deported and that Shead once was “running like the cops are behind him.”

Shead transferred to Washington State last season after two years at Texas State.

“For me, the experience was shocking,” Shead tweeted. “I could overlook the way coach Kaspar treated players in most regards. I could overlook the lies he fed us to get us there and keep us there. I could overlook the way he disregarded the rules and our health. But I could not turn away from the many racially insensitive things that were said to me and other teammates.

“These things happened so much on a daily bases [sic], we became numb as it was normal.”

Kaspar, 65, has been at Texas State since 2013, previously serving as head coach at Stephen F. Austin for 13 years.

“I personally find these allegations deeply troubling,” athletic director Larry Teis said in a statement. “I, and the entire Department of Athletics staff, take the concerns expressed by our former student-athletes very seriously. At my request, the university has launched a formal investigation through the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX. It is our top priority to fully cooperate with the investigation.”

Shead, inspired to speak out by the nationwide protests following George Floyd’s death, said Kaspar would tell black players to “chase that chicken” when the coach wanted them to run faster, and told those struggling academically that they would eventually work at Popeyes.

Former Texas state player Alex Peacock supported Shead’s allegations, saying players stayed silent because they feared the consequences to their basketball careers.

“There is no embellishment in what he said,” Peacock told ESPN. “The first time I heard him tell somebody to ‘chase that bucket of chicken,’ I’m like, ‘Hold on. Being a player, it’s hard to come out when you’re in it, when you’re playing, because you don’t know what the ramifications will be.”

According to Peacock, Kaspar also allegedly told players he could utter slang derived from the N-word, used by players.

“He told the black players that if you can use it, I can use it,” Peacock said. “That’s one of the ones where you’re like, ‘OK … no.’ Those are two different meanings than when we use it.”

The NCAA had a chance to do the right thing on Friday and, in a stunning turn of events, completely missed the mark.

Who saw that one coming?

The punishment that the Committee on Infractions handed down to Oklahoma State on Friday, a one-year postseason ban to go along with scholarship reductions and myriad recruiting sanctions, was wrong and should be utterly terrifying for the other programs that found themselves caught up in the FBI’s investigation into college basketball corruption.

Oklahoma State faced a single Level I violation. It was an unethical conduct charge levied at former assistant coach Lamont Evans, who accepted at least $18,150 in bribes from financial advisors in exchange for peddling influence over one player from Oklahoma State and one player from South Carolina, where Evans was coaching before accepting a job on Brad Underwood’s staff in the spring of 2016. Evans was also accused of giving Jeffery Carroll $300.

That’s it.

Evans provided no competitive advantage for Oklahoma State, unless you consider the $300 he paid to Carroll — who was already on the roster and suspended for three games as a result — a competitive advantage. Evans was lining his pockets. He was not doing this to benefit the basketball program. Technically speaking, the players Evans claimed to have the power of persuasion over were the victims of the crimes that got him sentenced to three months in prison on federal bribery charges. He steered them to financial advisors that were willing to shell out bribe money. He knew nothing about the people that he was telling these players to invest their money with. One of the men Evans accepted bribes from was Marty Blazer, who sparked this entire investigation to try and avoid prison when he was caught by the SEC embezzling millions of dollars from clients.

That’s where Evans was guiding players who trusted him.

The players were the victims.

Despite that, Oklahoma State was still hit with a one-year postseason ban. Evans has been gone for three years. Carroll has been gone for two. Neither the current head coach — Mike Boynton — or the head coach the violations were committed under — Brad Underwood — were mentioned in the Notice of Allegations.

“There were no recruiting or other major violations on the part of the institution,” Oklahoma State said in a statement in November. “There are no allegations involving current student-athletes or coaching staff.”

None of that mattered to the Committee on Infractions.

They dropped the hammer on Oklahoma State, effectively neutering what was the most anticipated OSU season since Marcus Smart returned for his sophomore year. So much for seeing Cade Cunningham play in the NCAA tournament. Hell, we may not see Cunningham play for Oklahoma State, period. He was offered the chance to join the G League prospect pathway program, reportedly for as much money as Jalen Green. If he’s not going to play meaningful games at Oklahoma State, maybe he reconsiders the offer.

“Whatever the best option is for him we’re going to support 100 percent without any reservations,” Boynton said.

This gets to the core of the problem when it comes to NCAA enforcement: They far too often punish players and coaches for violations that they took no part in. What did Cunningham, or anyone else on Oklahoma State’s roster, have to do with Lamont Evans accepting bribes from a white collar felon that had been flipped by the FBI? How was anyone associated with the Oklahoma State athletic department supposed to prevent one assistant coach from accepting those bribes?

“A postseason ban for a bunch of kids that were 15, 16 years old when a lot of this was going on? It’s completely, completely out of bounds,” Boynton said.

He’s not wrong.

A postseason ban is total overkill.

That is the most infuriating part is that the NCAA was actually able to punish the man responsible. That’s not usually the case. Evans received a 10-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA in addition to a three month jail sentence for pleading guilty. His coaching career is effectively over. He’ll never be a Division I head coach. He’ll never coach at a level where he is able to earn a couple hundred grand as an assistant. The person entirely at fault for this situation had his life blown up.

And Oklahoma State still got a postseason ban despite the fact that, as Larry Parkinson of the Committee on Infractions said, “the institution fully cooperated from the moment they learned about the circumstances.”

That should be a major red flag for everyone else caught up in this investigation.

USC, Arizona and Auburn all had an assistant coach plead guilty to similar charges as Evans. Louisville committed their violations while they were on probation from the last scandal the program was embroiled in. Oklahoma State faced one Level I violation. Kansas faces five, and they’ve made quite clear they aren’t going to be as cooperative.

If the Committee on Infractions has set the bar here, everyone else better be ready to catch the book that gets thrown at them.

The NCAA had a chance to do the right thing on Friday and, in a stunning turn of events, completely missed the mark.

Who saw that one coming?

The punishment that the Committee on Infractions handed down to Oklahoma State on Friday, a one-year postseason ban to go along with scholarship reductions and myriad recruiting sanctions, was wrong and should be utterly terrifying for the other programs that found themselves caught up in the FBI’s investigation into college basketball corruption.

Oklahoma State faced a single Level I violation. It was an unethical conduct charge levied at former assistant coach Lamont Evans, who accepted at least $18,150 in bribes from financial advisors in exchange for peddling influence over one player from Oklahoma State and one player from South Carolina, where Evans was coaching before accepting a job on Brad Underwood’s staff in the spring of 2016. Evans was also accused of giving Jeffery Carroll $300.

That’s it.

Evans provided no competitive advantage for Oklahoma State, unless you consider the $300 he paid to Carroll — who was already on the roster and suspended for three games as a result — a competitive advantage. Evans was lining his pockets. He was not doing this to benefit the basketball program. Technically speaking, the players Evans claimed to have the power of persuasion over were the victims of the crimes that got him sentenced to three months in prison on federal bribery charges. He steered them to financial advisors that were willing to shell out bribe money. He knew nothing about the people that he was telling these players to invest their money with. One of the men Evans accepted bribes from was Marty Blazer, who sparked this entire investigation to try and avoid prison when he was caught by the SEC embezzling millions of dollars from clients.

That’s where Evans was guiding players who trusted him.

The players were the victims.

Despite that, Oklahoma State was still hit with a one-year postseason ban. Evans has been gone for three years. Carroll has been gone for two. Neither the current head coach — Mike Boynton — or the head coach the violations were committed under — Brad Underwood — were mentioned in the Notice of Allegations.

“There were no recruiting or other major violations on the part of the institution,” Oklahoma State said in a statement in November. “There are no allegations involving current student-athletes or coaching staff.”

None of that mattered to the Committee on Infractions.

They dropped the hammer on Oklahoma State, effectively neutering what was the most anticipated OSU season since Marcus Smart returned for his sophomore year. So much for seeing Cade Cunningham play in the NCAA tournament. Hell, we may not see Cunningham play for Oklahoma State, period. He was offered the chance to join the G League prospect pathway program, reportedly for as much money as Jalen Green. If he’s not going to play meaningful games at Oklahoma State, maybe he reconsiders the offer.

“Whatever the best option is for him we’re going to support 100 percent without any reservations,” Boynton said.

This gets to the core of the problem when it comes to NCAA enforcement: They far too often punish players and coaches for violations that they took no part in. What did Cunningham, or anyone else on Oklahoma State’s roster, have to do with Lamont Evans accepting bribes from a white collar felon that had been flipped by the FBI? How was anyone associated with the Oklahoma State athletic department supposed to prevent one assistant coach from accepting those bribes?

“A postseason ban for a bunch of kids that were 15, 16 years old when a lot of this was going on? It’s completely, completely out of bounds,” Boynton said.

He’s not wrong.

A postseason ban is total overkill.

That is the most infuriating part is that the NCAA was actually able to punish the man responsible. That’s not usually the case. Evans received a 10-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA in addition to a three month jail sentence for pleading guilty. His coaching career is effectively over. He’ll never be a Division I head coach. He’ll never coach at a level where he is able to earn a couple hundred grand as an assistant. The person entirely at fault for this situation had his life blown up.

And Oklahoma State still got a postseason ban despite the fact that, as Larry Parkinson of the Committee on Infractions said, “the institution fully cooperated from the moment they learned about the circumstances.”

That should be a major red flag for everyone else caught up in this investigation.

USC, Arizona and Auburn all had an assistant coach plead guilty to similar charges as Evans. Louisville committed their violations while they were on probation from the last scandal the program was embroiled in. Oklahoma State faced one Level I violation. Kansas faces five, and they’ve made quite clear they aren’t going to be as cooperative.

If the Committee on Infractions has set the bar here, everyone else better be ready to catch the book that gets thrown at them.

SAN MARCOS — Texas State will conduct an investigation into charges made by a former men’s basketball player that Bobcats head coach Danny Kaspar has made a series of racially insensitive comments to his team over the years, Bobcats athletic director Larry Teis said Friday.

“I personally find these allegations deeply troubling,” Teis said in a statement. “I, and the entire Department of Athletics staff, take the concerns expressed by our former student-athletes very seriously.”

Former player Jaylen Shead made the allegations against Kaspar on social media Thursday night. Among them, Shead tweeted that if Kaspar had heard a player use the N-word he’d say, “if y’all say the n word that means I can say it.” Shead also tweeted that Kaspar would routinely make jokes to players about race. One time when the players weren’t moving fast during a drill, Shead alleges Kaspar said, “if a Brown man with a turbin and AK-47 walked in, I bet y’all would run as fast as you could.”

In another instance according to Shead, Kaspar once told former player Nedeljko Prijovic, who was from Serbia, “a lot of boosters/alumni here at Txst are Trump supporters. You keep messing up (and) I’ll have you deported.”

“I spent two years at Texas State,” Shead said in the post. “For me the experience was shocking. I could overlook the lies he fed us to get us there and keep us there. I could overlook the way he disregarded the rules and our health. But I could not turn away from the many racially insensitive things that were said to me and other teammates … These things happened so much on a daily basis, we became numb as it was normal.”

Shead transferred to Texas State from Cal Poly and redshirted the 2017-18 season. He was the Bobcats’ starting point guard for 2018-19 but then transferred to Washington State in the summer of 2019 to play out his final year.

“I chose to leave because I knew I’d eventually say something and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to play anywhere or get a coaching job as I want to one day,” Shead tweeted. “But I am doing a disservice to those that come after.”

A handful of former players came out in support of Shead on Friday, including former teammate Alex Peacock, who was a two-year starting forward from 2017-19.

“Those things that (Shead) said are things that I heard directly,” Peacock told the American-Statesman.

Both Shead and Peacock said they don’t believe that Kaspar is racist, but that his remarks were insensitive. Peacock said he doesn’t think Kaspar should lose his job if he can learn from his mistakes.

“I don’t think there was really any malice behind it; they are just really insensitive comments that I don’t think he knows are really insensitive,” Peacock said. “I don’t think he should be fired if he can change his ways.”

Kaspar did not return a call seeking comment on Friday.

This isn’t the first time Kaspar has been accused of making racially-charged remarks while coaching at Texas State. A 2013 lawsuit filed by former player Basil Brown accused Kaspar, among other things, of making insensitive comments, including once scolding Brown for “taking advantage of a slow white boy” in practice. It also alleged Kaspar gave Brown’s scholarship to a white player because that player “is a slow white boy and I’m not going to fault him for that.”

The lawsuit was eventually dismissed because it was “too speculative,” according to NBC Sports.

kAm%96 56AFE:6D 7@F?5 2? @A6? 366C 2?5 2 A:DE@= ~=:G6CVD ECF4<[ 244@C5:?8 E@ D96C:77VD @77:4:2=D]k^Am

kAm’:56@ AF3=:D965 3J E96 k2 E2C86ElQU>52D9j3=2?<Q 9C67lQ9EEAi^^>@?E8@>6CJ4@F?EJA@=:46C6A@CE6C]4@>^3F772=@3:==D5676?D:G6E24=63FDE657@C5H:3J>@?E8@>6CJ4@F?EJ^Qm|@?E8@>6CJ r@F?EJ !@=:46 #6A@CE6Ck^2m 2AA62CD E@ D9@H @77:46CD 6I2>:?:?8 ~=:G6CVD 6J6D 2?5 92G:?8 9:> H2=< 2 =:?6 @? E96 C@25D:56 367@C6 AFEE:?8 9:> 92?54F77D]k^Am

kAm~=:G6C 7C@> w@FDE@?[ H96C6 96 2=D@ A=2J65 9:D 4@==686 42C66C] w6 H2D D6=64E65 3J E96 qF772=@ q:==D E96 7:CDE C@F?5 @7 E96 a_`h 5C27E] |@?E8@>6CJ r@F?EJ C64@C5D 5:5 ?@E =:DE ~=:G6C 2D 36:?8 E96 ;2:= $F?52J >@C?:?8]k^Am

kAm%96 E62> D2:5 2 DE2E6>6?E E92E “H6 2C6 2H2C6 @7 E96 D:EF2E:@? 2?5 H6 2C6 82E96C:?8 >@C6 :?7@C>2E:@?]”k^Am

kAm~=:G6C’D 286?E 5:5 ?@E :>>65:2E6=J C6DA@?5 E@ 2 C6BF6DE 7@C 4@>>6?E]k^Am

For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, KPRC-TV.

FORT WORTH, Texas (Fox 4 Dallas) A former Midway athlete now living in Fort Worth is facing capital murder charges in connection with the death of his daughter.

Fox 4 in Dallas reports a fugitive task force arrested Rakeem Dory, 25, in Waco after getting a tip about his whereabouts.

He was booked into the Tarrant County jail Wednesday afternoon.

His bond is set at $500,000, according to online records.

Records show Dory played football and other sports while attending Midway High School during the 2011-2012 school year.

Dory’s daughter, 4-year-old Zianne Essix, died in February, but a medical examiner just ruled her death a homicide last week.

According to police documents, Dory called 911 on Feb. 17 because Zianne wasn’t breathing and her lips were blue.

In a police report, Dory claimed the child had fallen off a plastic slide in her playroom the previous day.

He said she appeared fine, but he put an ice pack on her head throughout the day.

Dory did admit giving Zianne “six licks” as punishment for not helping to clean up later that day.

He also said he got angry because she soiled herself several times while standing in the playroom for punishment.

Doctors at Cook Children’s Medical Center found brain swelling and significant bruising all over the little girl’s body that they said was not consistent with Dory’s story of a fall.

Investigators also found evidence of blood in the family’s playroom and they recovered recorded phone conversations between Dory and his step-parents that are now considered evidence in the capital murder case, police documents say.

Police said Zianne was living with Dory because her biological mother was already in prison for child neglect.

Dory’s wife was not at home at the time of the alleged abuse.

Another 2-year-old child in the home was not hurt.

HOUSTON (AP) — Buffalo Bills defensive lineman Ed Oliver was arrested during a traffic stop in the Houston area and charged with drunken driving and illegally carrying a handgun, authorities said.

Montgomery County sheriff’s deputies pulled Oliver over Saturday after receiving reports around 9 p.m. of someone driving recklessly in a construction area north of the city while towing an ATV on a trailer, Lt. Jim Slack of the Montgomery County constables office said in a statement.

Oliver failed a sobriety test and the deputies found a small caliber pistol in his truck, Slack said. Texas law prohibits having a handgun while committing a crime, and Slack said Oliver faces a misdemeanor charge for having the weapon.

Video published by the Montgomery County Police Reporter appears to show officers examining Oliver’s eyes and having him walk in a line on the roadside before putting him in handcuffs.

Oliver is from Houston, where he also played his college career. He was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the first round of the 2019 draft. Montgomery County records did not list Oliver as being in the jail Sunday morning; the Houston Chronicle reported that he was released after posting bond.

The team said in a statement that “we are aware of the situation and we are gathering more information.”

Oliver’s agent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.