Arrest
Kennedy was arrested in Cincinnati, Ohio on December 18, 2008, after allegedly punching cab driver Mohammed Jiddou according to the police report. Kennedy's attorney entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf at a court hearing later that day. Kennedy subsequently filed a lawsuit against Jiddou and for defamation of character; Kennedy claims, as well as four other people that were with him, that no assault occurred and that Jiddou was the one who used racial slurs in insulting Ole Miss assistant coach Torrey Ward, who is black and was with Kennedy at the time of the arrest.
On December 22, 2008, Kennedy filed suit against the cab driver. On January 16, 2009, the cab driver and the witness filed civil countersuits claiming distress from the frivolous lawsuits filed by Kennedy. The cab driver has also filed a separate civil lawsuit against Andy Kennedy for assault and ethnic intimidation.
On Monday, April 21, 2009, in the criminal trial, Kennedy plead guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to 40 hours of community service and a $100 fine. Kennedy still vehemently denies that he punched Jiddou or uttered ethnic slurs at him. He only admitted to a verbal altercation which escalated into an incident that did not involve slurs or violence. After Kennedy's plea, Ole Miss announced the coach would keep his job. Athletic director Pete Boone said because of the incident, Kennedy's contract would not be extended at this time but left open the possibility of extending it in the future.
In August, 2010, all civil lawsuits were dropped as Jiddou apologized to Kennedy in open court. "I would like to apologize to Mr. Kennedy and the court for any role I may have played in this unfortunate incident," driver Mohamed Jiddou said in court. "I am now ready to move forward with my life, and I hope that my apology will let Mr. Kennedy move forward with his."
Kennedy and his attorney, William Posey, said that Kennedy had come to civil seeking an apology.
"He came for his apology, and he got his apology," Posey said.
Read more about this topic: Andy Kennedy (basketball Coach), Coaching Career, Ole Miss
Famous quotes containing the word arrest:
“One does not arrest Voltaire.”
—Charles De Gaulle (1890–1970)
“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave something behind him that is immortal since it will always move. This is the artist’s way of scribbling “Kilroy was here” on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must someday pass.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“Let me arrest thy thoughts; wonder with me,
Why plowing, building, ruling and the rest,
Or most of those arts, whence our lives are blest,
By cursed Cain’s race invented be,
And blest Seth vexed us with Astronomie.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)