Joe Deters Is Waiting On What??!!

Joe Deters is the Hamilton County Prosecutor and, by all accounts a very good one at that. He serves a county of 3.11 million residents, which includes the city of Cincinnati, by prosecuting felony offenses.

A big job, to be sure.

A case landed on his desk somewhere around January sixth of this year, in which a man was charged with harassment with a bodily substance, a fifth-degree felony offense, as well as several misdemeanor charges. The felony came about in the Hamilton County jail, where the man spit on a jail nurse who was trying to examine him during the book-in process.

Deters put the case on the back burner because...well, he wants to see what kind of discipline the National Football League might impose on the man.

The suspect charged with the crimes, you see, just happens to play professional football in Cincinnati. His name is Adam Jones, and this instance was not his first arrest by a long shot. Jones has a history of arrests dating back to his high school playing days, so its safe to assume he is a frequent flier with police. His bad behavior has continued on in the NFL; Jones was suspended for the entire 2007 season because of a build-up of legal problems and he also missed a handful of games the following year for violating the league's personal conduct policy.

So why is Prosecuting Attorney Deters shelving the case? Why is he waiting to see what the NFL does with Jones? I can't answer that. I can tell you, however, that if an employee of, say, Therm-O-Disc had been arrested on the same charges, Richland County Prosecutor Gary Bishop wouldn't hold off prosecuting the case in order to see what discipline the company imposed on their employee, especially if said employee had a lengthy criminal conduct history.

As for Adam Jones' conduct after being arrested in a Cincy hotel, you can witness his verbal assault on the arresting officer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMH_8fE1ADE . WARNING: graphic language.

 Jones' actions were shameful and he should not receive special consideration from the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office just because he is a professional athlete.

Oh, and the arresting officer? He is an African American, too, which makes Jones' verbiage all the worse. He called Sgt Jarrod Cotton a 'b---h' 21 times, told him to perform an oral sexual act on Jones eleven times and used the term 'niggah' too many times to count. He repeatedly kicked the police cruiser's door after being placed inside and, once at the jail, became so disorderly that Jones was placed in a restraint chair after attempting to head-butt a jail employee.

Mister Deters, this is the time to stand up for our men and women wearing a badge and enforcing our laws. Prosecute this career criminal now.