Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS - More than $81,000 in cash belonging to Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones was seized by police, who say the money sparked a weekend melee and a triple shooting at a strip club.
Jones was showering more than 40 strippers onstage early Monday with cash "intended as a visual effect," a search warrant said. But a scuffle broke out when the Houston promoter who hired the strippers told them to pick up the money.
The promoter, identified as Chris Mitchell, owner of "Harlem Knights," and a male associate took a plastic trash bag containing Jones' money and walked out the front door, the warrant says. Police recovered the money and two watches inside a safe at Mitchell's hotel room Monday.
Jones' lawyer, Worrick Robinson, has said his client did not know anyone involved in the shooting and was interviewed by authorities as a witness, not as a suspect. Police have not said Jones is a person of interest in the case.
Robinson could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday.
The incident occurred just hours after the NBA All-Star game in Las Vegas, which attracted celebrities from music, sports and entertainment.
The affidavit says a DJ announced Jones' arrival at the club, and then told the crowd that rap star Nelly and producer/rapper Jermaine Dupri were also there. Nelly started throwing dollar bills at the dancers' feet, the affidavit states.
A phone call to Dupri's publicist was not immediately returned Thursday.
Jones has faced criminal charges three times - all involving nightclubs in Tennessee - since the Titans made the cornerback the sixth overall pick in the 2005 draft.
Mitchell "admits that he took the money in the bag belonging to Jones because he thought it was for the dancers," the warrant says. After Mitchell left Minxx Gentlemen's Club & Lounge, "a melee broke out," the warrant says.
Later, a woman identified as a member of Jones' group fought with one of the strippers and security tried to break up the fight, it says. Jones told the guards to back off and reached behind his back "as if he were retrieving a weapon there."
Jones' entourage was moved outside, but the woman continued to fight, according to the warrant filed Wednesday in Clark County District in Las Vegas.
The woman hit a guard in the head with a champagne bottle and "began biting and screaming" when other guards tried to restrain her, the warrant says. Minutes later, a valet told police he heard shots fired near the front entrance and saw a black man with corn rows in his hair pointing a black semi-automatic handgun, it says. The man then fled.
The shots hit a female customer and two guards, one in critical condition in a Las Vegas hospital. Aaron Cudworth, the guard hit with the champagne bottle, and the woman, were treated and released.
Police have described the suspected shooter as last seen wearing a black shirt and blue jeans. As of Thursday morning, police said he was still at large.
Manny Arora, an attorney from Garland, Samuel & Loeb of Atlanta, said he had been retained to advise Jones, who lives in Atlanta.
"We handle a lot of sports figures down here, whether civil or criminal. So he lives down here, and I think he just wanted to get some advice from us" Arora said.
He declined to comment on the case until he had a chance to review it, but he said he had contacted Las Vegas police to let them know they will fully cooperate with whatever they need.
"I've informed them if they need any information or to get in contact with anybody ... I'll be happy to track them down," Arora said.
Titans coach Jeff Fisher, who was at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, had no comment.
Jones promised he had seen the inside of a courtroom for the last time Feb. 1, when a judge dismissed an assault charge filed by a woman who claimed Jones spit on her in October at a nightclub. Charges in a confrontation with a club manager during a private party in July 2005 also have been dismissed.
Jones was ordered to stay out of trouble until July 5 if he wants his criminal record cleared of public intoxication and disorderly conduct charges for an August arrest in the Nashville suburb of Murfreesboro.
Robinson has said he didn't think the Las Vegas disturbance violated the judge's order.