We twittered or twerped this last night, but now that we’ve actually read the story, it’s worth a full post.
Feagin’s downfall started with a cocaine deal, detailed in U-M Department of Public Safety police reports. The coke deal ended with a U-M dorm room on fire, a fellow student headed for jail and Feagin back home in Florida.
At first, we were going to try and be all magnanimous about this, and talk about how nobody should take joy in Michigan (sucks!)’s pain here, but then this bit came up…
Justin Feagin was no stranger to drugs, or to run-ins with the law.
“I have admitted to people I know that I used to sell drugs in Florida,†Feagin told investigators, according to police reports the Free Press obtained under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act.
Feagin told police that he also had been arrested for battery and trespass “on two different occasions†in Florida and that “nothing ever came of either situation,†according to U-M Department of Public Safety police records the Free Press obtained. He also told police that he “had a problem with some guys at Studio 4 (in Ann Arbor) over some girls. There was a fight and the police were called.â€
Feagin said he had not sold drugs in Michigan. But fellow student T.J. Burke, who had met Feagin through Michigan walk-on receiver Ricky Reyes, told police “it was common knowledge that Feagin sold marijuana†and that Feagin “hung out at our house lots of times smoking pot.â€
So now we find ourselves quite happy to make fun of their pain, because, having applied for a new apartment recently, we know it takes about 30 minutes to do a criminal history check. As a result, this excuse doesn’t fly.
But seriously: it’s bad. It’s also one guy that Michigan apparently didn’t run as thorough of a background check on—or possibly any background check on—as they scrambled to reconfigure Rodriguez’s first recruiting class. As long as the incident remains isolated, fine.
Pretty sure arrests for battery and trespass would have shown up on that $25 dollar, 30-minute criminal history check. And if that was run, and those dings on the report didn’t set off enough alarms for RichRod to think, “whoa! Let’s step carefully here,” well, I’m feeling pretty good about games against UM(s!) in the near future. Clearly RichRod under pressure is rather marshmallow-under-pressure-like.
Update: Crap. DTK, in the comments, reminded me that we live in a dumb society that wants to try and rehab felons rather than punish them so long as they did any horrible and/or stupid things before they turned 18 or whatever age is deemed appropriate in whatever state is concerned. This kid’s from FL, so he could probably marry a 14 year old, but if he stabbed an old lady to death with a cocaine-covered, uranium-cored spoon, no background checks would likely ever pick up on it. Crap.
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This at least partly explains DickRod’s attempts to recruit more walk-on players from the UM student body. You’d hate to lose a game by forfeit because you can’t field a full team.
domer,
And I’m pretty sure they would not show up if we was not charged or was a minor at the time. The dude had other D-1 offers, I don’t think this was well known. Does cause some concerns though, but definitely glad it was dealt with quickly.
That’s a good point, DTK. Stupid protection of minor laws. Crap.