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NBA's Terrence Jones has criminal charge in Portland dropped; civil compromise reached
2014-04-25
Jones must pay $10,000 to a charitable organization that benefits the homeless, as designated by the alleged victim's lawyer, according to the compromise obtained by The Oregonian Tuesday.
"I'm pleased to say that we were able to resolve the underlying dispute to everyone's satisfaction,'' said attorney James E. McCandlish, who represented the victim in the case.
The harassment case was formally classified as closed in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Monday, days before Jones and his team are due in Portland Friday to play the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 3 of the teams' NBA playoff matchup.
Multnomah County deputy district attorney Charles Sparks said the state opposed the compromise, but he declined to say why. Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill said the office routinely takes a standard position against civil compromises.
Jones, a 22-year-old Portland native, had pleaded not guilty to the allegation he subjected a homeless man to "offensive physical contact'' after his July 31 arrest in Portland.
Portland police had accused Jones of trying to wake two sleeping homeless men who were in the doorway of 114 N.W. Third Avenue, and then stomping on one man's legs.
Portland Sgt. Anthony Passadore was patrolling the Old Town area as bars were closing and witnessed the incident, according to police reports.
At the time of Jones' arrest, his then-lawyer Kevin O'Connell told reporters that Jones may have tripped over the sleeping homeless man, yelled at him to "Wake up!'' and nudged him, but did not stomp on him.
According to O'Connell, the homeless man was sleeping in a doorway next to the bureau's Old Town precinct and his body "partly extended onto the sidewalk.''
Portland police said the homeless man, 46-year-old Daniel John Kellerher, suffered a minor injury and did not require immediate medical attention.
"While acknowledging that Terrence may not have been looking where he was walking, with a crowd that had spilled out into the street and were being herded by the police back onto the sidewalk, Terrence tripped over Mr. Kellerher,'' O'Connell said in a release shortly after Jones' arrest last year.
Jones later obtained high-profile Portland criminal defense attorney Janet Hoffman to represent him. Hoffman has not returned calls for comment.
After Jones' arrest, the court granted him the right to travel internationally with his team without restrictions, court records show.
The compromise bars further prosecution in the case.
Jones, the 18th pick in the 2012 draft, graduated from Portland's Jefferson High School before attending the University of Kentucky.
--Maxine Bernstein
The Toronto Raptors find themselves in a difficult spot with just four games remaining in the NBA’s regular season. While tied with the Bulls for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference as of this morning, Toronto needs a win in a city it has struggled, Atlanta, all the while hoping to avoid looking ahead to Sunday’s showdown with Chicago. Making matters worse, Raptors star Chris Bosh could be sidelined for the rest of the season. Sportsbook.com has installed the host Hawks as 9-point favorites for Friday’s contest.
Three weeks ago, Bosh helped the Toronto Raptors take advantage of the absence of Atlanta Hawks leading scorer Joe Johnson. While Johnson might be out again Friday night in Atlanta, the Raptors won’t be able to rely on Bosh this time. Attempting to close in on the Eastern Conference’s final playoff berth, Toronto will try to overcome the loss of its leading scorer and rebounder and win in Atlanta for the first time in nearly 2 1/2 years.
Bosh made a 16-foot jumper with 2.1 seconds left in a 106-105 home victory over the Hawks on March 17, while Johnson sat with a strained Achilles’. That shot is one of the reasons Toronto (38-40, 35-41-2 ATS) is still battling Chicago for the eighth playoff spot in the East.
The Raptors will have to beat out the Bulls without Bosh, who’s expected to be sidelined for “weeks” while recovering from surgery to repair a facial fracture. The All-Star forward, whose averaging career bests of 24.0 points and 10.8 rebounds, suffered the injury when he took an inadvertent elbow from Cleveland forward Antawn Jamison in a 113-101 loss Tuesday.
The next night, Hedo Turkoglu bumped heads with Boston’s Tony Allen as Toronto dropped its third straight, 115-104. Turkoglu remains day-to-day after a CT scan showed no major injuries.
“When it rains it pours, I guess,” swingman Antoine Wright said. “We’re dropping like flies right now.” The spread losses are piling up as well with 4-14 ATS record after allowing 100 or more points.
Those injuries could hurt the Raptors, who are 6-13 ATS off SU loss, during a pivotal two-game stretch against the Hawks (49-29, 44-33-1 ATS) and Bulls, who visit Toronto on Sunday.
Heading to Atlanta doesn’t seem like a good way to begin as they’re winless in four trips (1-3 ATS) since a 100-88 victory Dec. 11, 2007. The Raptors, though, could have an opportunity to snap that skid if Johnson misses his fourth straight game with a sprained right thumb.
Before the loss in March, the Hawks had won four straight over Toronto with their leading scorer (21.2 ppg) in the lineup, including the first two meetings this season. In the previous matchup in Atlanta, they broke a Philips Arena scoring record with a 146-115 victory Dec. 2. Al Horford scored 24 points to lead nine Hawks players in double figures.
Atlanta, though, has scored 94.3 points per game - 7.3 below its season average - over its last nine contests, topping 100 just once. Despite those scoring struggles, the Hawks have won 10 straight at home (6-4 ATS), their longest streak since taking 20 straight from Nov. 12, 1996-Feb. 12, 1997.
Adding to that run would give Atlanta its first 50-win season since 1997-98 and also help in the race for the East’s No. 3 seed. The Hawks enter Friday tied with Boston with four games remaining for both clubs and they are 6-2 ATS if their opponent cracked the century mark in points in previous outing.
They’ll face a Raptors team that’s allowed at least 113 points in four straight games and an average of 108.7 during a 7-16 stretch. That could help the Hawks deliver a better performance than in Wednesday’s 90-88 loss at Detroit. Against a team that was missing five players, Atlanta blew a nine-point lead, getting outscored 25-16 in the fourth quarter.
Sportsbook.com released the Hawks as nine-point favorites with total of 202.5 in this battle of Eastern Conference clubs fighting for positioning in the playoffs. Atlanta is 14-4 ATS vs. Atlantic Division teams and 9-3 OVER off a spread loss.
Toronto is 4-1-1 ATS in last six road encounters, but 9-23 ATS if last outing was double digit loss. The Raptors are 7-3 OVER after a spread defeat.
This matchup begins at 7:30 Eastern in local TV markets with the favorite 10-3 ATS.
The StatFox Power Line shows Atlanta by 9, almost as if oddsmakers simply looked at that number before releasing it.