Well, this doesn’t look good.
Levance Fields was charged with one count each of aggravated assault, disarming a police officer, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.
The incident took place at 1:50 a.m. at Pure nightclub. According to a police affidavit, an officer working an off-duty detail at Pure spotted Mr. Fields yelling at another police officer. The officer approached Mr. Fields and asked him to stop yelling and using offensive language.
Mr. Fields then went into the street and began arguing with an unknown black man. The officer approached Mr. Fields again and repeated his request that he stop yelling and using offensive language, at which time Mr. Fields cursed at the officer and struck him in the chest, police reported.
Mr. Fields then grabbed at the officer’s duty belt and reached for the officer’s weapon, according to the affidavit. The officer pushed him away, and a security officer shot Mr. Fields in the chest with a Taser.
Fields has a court date on the 24th. Like Coach Dixon, I’m fine with a bit of wait-and-see on what happens, especially considering the preliminary hearing is next Monday.
“Earlier today I was informed of an incident at an off-campus location involving Levance Fields. At this juncture, we will let the judicial process run its course before determining what disciplinary action is necessary. We have built a successful program at Pitt, on and off the court, by prioritizing personal accountability and responsibility. We will not compromise when it comes to those values.”
There is no immediate need to suspend Fields since they aren’t even at formal practices right now. I do expect some sort of suspension for Fields regardless of how the charges are eventually resolved/pled down. Fields clearly messed up, badly.
Seeing the Yuri Demetris comparisons are way off to me. Demetris was stalking, purposefully breaking into an ex-girlfriend’s place. It also took place in the season, necessitating an immediate suspension then being kicked off of the team. The Demetris comparisons are just not apt in my mind.
I’m not trying to diminish the seriousness of what Fields may be facing in charges. Especially with the accusation that he reached for a police officer’s weapon. That’s the part that takes it beyond drunken stupidity.
I guess, Fields was sick of seeing Duquesne get all the fun headlines the last few weeks.
It says a “security officer” tasered him – that could be a security guard/bouncer or a uniformed cop on a private detail. Too vague.
This is the part I don’t understand. He is yelling at Police Officer A. Police Officer B comes over and tells him to shut up, so he leaves them both alone. Why the hell didn’t A tell him to shut up, and why the hell did B get involved in the first place? Then, after Fields went and was arguing with someone else altogether, why was B following him around and telling him to shut up some more?
BTW the owner of Pure is also the owner of Club Erotica. And they didn’t take all the liquor out of the building, they just put it in the back room. I wouldn’t even guarantee it wasn’t available to some. The last time I was at Pure, I knew the general manager, and he is a complete dick. When he was managing another place, he literally challenged me to a fight in the back alley (while he was working) because I was arguing with him over a tab they screwed up. Thats right, a manager of a bar, challenging a customer to a fight in an alley. Now, I can’t say he either works there still or was involved at all, but I read that Fields had trouble inside the place too. And knowing they hire pricks…
I can’t excuse his behavior, but I’m not rushing to a guilty on anything yet, knowing how some of the actors in this case behave themselves. I don’t believe much I can’t see on video or audio anymore… I’ve seen these uniformed detailed cops push people into traffic, scream at people needlessly, etc. And these were at bars I was working at! It was funny to us then, being on the other side of it. Not so funny being on the receiving end…
I’ve worked at bars that hired them, and have hired them myself. These are the uniformed cops standing in front of bars/restaurants you see all the time. The officer is being paid by the establishment, but they wear their work clothes to make it seem like they are on-duty, because bouncers aren’t as scary.
Going for an officers weapon is not a joke, he’s lucky he wasn’t beaten or killed(I don’t know enough details as to what weapon he allegedly went for). He’s from New York, where I grew up at….and the last thing you want to do is screw with a trigger happy disgruntled blue boy(even a security guard with a taser). Plain and simple, Levance you fucked up and should have known better.
The best I can hope for is that the process goes fast and doesn’t distract the other players. I would not be surprised if Fields gets suspended for the year. I would really like to know more about the situation, like Fields side of the story. If at any point he mentions touching the officer anywhere around his duty belt, then suspend him. I hope that this story has been blown out of proportion by the media and by other “drunk” eyewitnesses, I really do.
Half of the places in the strip are under 21 clubs now.
The story will play out and I wouldn’t be surprised if it got dropped to a disturbing the peace.