It was much better when there was no real news to report. This is not.
Pitt sophomore wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin was charged with a misdemeanor indecent assault as well as summary harassment and a summary disorderly conduct after an alleged incident on a campus shuttle bus involving a female student on April 19th.
Baldwin, who is an Aliquippa graduate, will have a preliminary hearing on May 27th.
This took a while before any charges were made. So naturally, the reaction from Pitt is just as predictably measured.
Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt was not available for comment on the matter, and Pitt associate athletic director for media relations E.J. Borghetti released the following statement: “The matter is currently under investigation and until that investigation reaches a conclusion we will decline comment.”
Not exactly an unexpected response. The charges may be misdemeanor, but the words “indecent assault” and “female” are involved. So, I’m not sure how open my mind is at the moment.
It would be much better if the extent of the Pitt offseason updates were boy scout events and recruiting.
From the docket link you included, it seems the action was filed on 4-19-09, but no information is listed as to the offense date.
Baldwin appears to have been charged by summons, which was accepted (probably signed for via certified mail, or maybe when he turned himself in) on 4-28-09.
By including the two summaries (Harrassment, Disorderly Conduct), it looks as though the police are anticipating the Indecent Assault count being dismissed at the Preliminary Hearing, perhaps in exchange for a plea to the summary offenses. That’s just my interpretation…
“A person is guilty of indecent assault if the person has indecent contact with the complainant, causes the complainant to have indecent contact with the person or intentionally causes the complainant to come into contact with seminal fluid, urine or feces for the purpose of arousing sexual desire in the person or the complainant…”
Sounds pretty classy
As a football fan at all levels you can never be confident that a player on your team won’t show up in a rap sheet.
It happens far too often these days, it’s gotten way worse in football than in the NBA, which usually is the league that gets the bad rap.
Honestly, I think it comes from football players being able to get away with murder from a young age.
Let me tell you my experiences growing up (and before anybody says it, I played some ball and always had buddies on the team, so I’m not grinding an old axe here):
Regular kid gets into a fight at school: Suspended.
Football player shoves some poor dorky kid’s head into a locker for no reason: Teacher laughs it off as boys being boys and tells him to get his knucklehead back to class.
Regular kid ditches class: Suspension
Football player ditches class: Whoever catches him laughs it off and tells him to get his knucklehead back to class.
Sense a pattern??
Now I’m not saying that all football players misbehaved in school and that none of them were ever punished when they did something wrong, but all through life these guys play by a different set of rules from the minute someone discovers they can play football. And it makes it worse when you get a few douchebags on the team that take advantage of these “rules” to make life miserable for others.
And when you’ve been getting away with shit that anyone else would get nailed through the balls for your whole life, why not go out and do something stupid. You’re a ball player, and society has taught you that the rules for you are different and that you can get away with whatever you want.
Like I said, I’m not coming down on student athletes. Most of them are good guys just like the rest of us.
Seriously, good luck on your first double-digit win season since the early 80’s. Oh, and good luck attempting to get one of PSU’s plan-A recruits. Lastly, if you make it to a bowl game……try scoring this time!!
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pitt wide receiver is charged with indecent assault for allegedly slapping then groping the behind of a female student, but campus officials aren’t commenting on the charges.
A criminal complaint obtained by The Associated Press shows 19-year-old Jonathan Baldwin is charged with indecent assault, harassment and disorderly conduct. Campus police say the woman complained of the alleged assault April 18 and charges were filed the next day. Baldwin faces a preliminary hearing May 27.
You can search for all PA docket sheets at this website:
link to ujsportal.pacourts.us
The one for Baldwin is here:
link to ujsportal.pacourts.us