GABBERT HAS REAL ISSUES, GUNDY WINS & THE CASE AGAINST SAM HURD
Watching the Thursday night game was painful, unless you're a Falcon supporter. Atlanta won the game 41-14 & it wasn't nearly that close. Until a last minute TD pass from Jags' QB Blaine Gabbert to WR Chastin West, Jacksonville's only score was on a blocked punt return by Zach Potter near the end of the third quarter. The Jags have so many needs on offense, only running back Maurice Jones-Drew is a solid starter, very solid. As I'm watching this game I realize I'm only familiar with WR Taylor Price(3 career receptions), Chastin West(8 career receptions) & TE Colin Cloherty(1 career reception) are new to me. Throw in Jarrett Dillard(27 career receptions) who dropped three passes tonight, Gabbert has very little to work with. Then there's his very leaky offensive line. Everytime I watch the Jags they surrender at least 4 sacks. Tonight it was 5 sacks & 6 other QB knockdowns. But my major criticism of Gabbert is his lack of pocket awareness. He displayed this weakness in several games at Mizzou. He doesn't have that internal clock that goes off telling him "get the ball out now!" Instead, he shuffles right or left, takes a hit & fumbles. He lost two more tonight, numbers that simply aren't acceptable. One was returned for a score, the other run back into the redzone. Jacksonville needs a high impact wide receiver, a true #1 guy, depth on their offensive line & depth at cornerback. Drafting as high as they will in April, Jacksonville should make Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon their highest priority.
The mystery surrounding Wade Phillips' surgery was answered by the team on Thursday, sorta. The procedure Phillips underwent was for some unnamed kidney & gallbladder ailment. Phillips, defensive coordinator of the Houston Texans, is expected to return to the team within two weeks.
Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy won the Eddie Robinson Trophy for college football's coach of the year. Now Les Miles won the other Coach of the year last week, so maybe we need a playoff to determine the ultimate COY for 2011. My personal favorite was fellow finalist Bill Snyder from Kansas State.
So Bears' wide receiver & special teams captain Sam Hurd is in a helluva lot of trouble. When the 26-year old failed to show up for pre-practice meetings this morning, the coaching staff started calling around in an effort to find him. The police told them he was in federal custody on drug charges. The former Ed Block Courage Award winner in 2010 was in jail. The husband & father of one was arrested Wednesdau night outside a Morton's Steakhouse(my personal fav) in Rosemont Illinois. He had just had a dinner meeting with an undercover narcotics agent & a confidential informant. At the end of the meeting, Hurd was offered a kilo of cocaine & given until he cashed his Bears' paycheck on Thursday to pay for it. He left with the coke, got in his car & was arrested.
During the dinner meeting he had boasted of moving 4 kilos a week & 250-pounds of pot per week. Hurd claimed his current supplier couldn't deliver the quantities he was wanting to buy, 5-10 kilos of cocaine & 1000-pounds of pot per week. Here's where I have a problem with the government's story as it has been reported. Nowhere in the report does it verify his claims of being a "major player" in Chicago drug distribution. Seems like the street gangs that control drug traffic in Chicago might have an issue with Hurd moving that kind of volume. There are no reports of any weapons found on Hurd, in his car or in his home. Very unlikely a drug dealer of this magnitude runs around without a handgun in reach or a couple of armed "associates" in tow. If he was intending to buy & distribute over $700,000 worth of narcotics some personal security seems reasonable doesn't it? Do I think Sam Hurd is innocent like his attorney claims? No, but by the same token, the government has to prove he's what he claims to be if they want to put him away for a zillion years.
A couple of other things that stood out to me, Hurd wanted the informant to get him some Mexican cell phones believing they couldn't be traced or tapped. Everyone knows that superior Mexican technology has so far baffled law enforcement worldwide. I doubt Hurd is a hardcore criminal. He could be a low level dealer that might supply the needs of fellow NFL players & other assorted hangers-on. But a top-3 Chicago drug dealer? Sounds like a stretch.
Regardless of his stature in the criminal world, he's in a lot of trouble for two reasons. He took a kilo of coke, promised to pay for it the next day, but the worst part for Hurd is, he's going to be tried in Texas. Federal judge Young Kim ruled on Thirsday Hurd would have to be tried in Texas, where all this began last summer. The Lone Star State can put Hurd away for 40-years if he's convicted on distribution of 500 grams or more of cocaine. A kilo is 35 ounces & there's 28-grams per ounce, you do the math. The fact he didn't pay for it means little in the eyes of the law. Another problem Hurd has that won't go away is the day before he signed his free agent contract with Chicago, he was being interviewed in Dallas by agents of the Department of Homeland Security. His car was stopped by police in North Texas. He wasn't in the car, his "auto detailer" was, along with $88,000 cash in a bag & a small amount of marijuana. The detailer was arrested, the car was impounded as was the $88K. Hurd called the cops asking his money be returned. They wanted to know why he had that large amount of money in his car after leaving it with the detailer. Hurd claimed he could show a bank statement that showed the withdrawal was made legally. The DHS agents didn't see it that way & that's how Hurd put himself on the governments' radar screen. Later 4 people from California were connected to Hurd because of text message records. They stand accused of drug dealing & money laundering. The detailer became a go-between for the confidential informant posing as a drug wholesaler & Hurd. If the detailer was in fact the go-between for a major drug dealer, he certainly wasn't the sharpest. According to the report, he never questioned anyone connected to this deal & he didn't walk around packed either.
Honestly, I think the feds might have saved Hurd & his auto detailer from being murdered by a Chicago gang for impersonating drug dealers. We'll see what unfolds as the case goes forward, but I have doubts about some of the claims being made in the media after reading everything I did. Without question, Hurd's NFL playing days are over. Just walking out of Morton's with a kilo of blow will get him banned for life. The big news from this case will come when the list of NFL players Hurd allegedly had in his possession is made public. If he was a supplier of pro football players, there's a bunch of guys sweating their jobs tonight.
Hurd married his college sweetheart & has a young daughter. He also founded a charity, "Running with the Hurd" which mentored at risk youth. Before the season began Hurd told a Chicago reporter about his foundation.
"I try to be a great leader, always, because my father, God, put me in charge of my life, to be a leader in this world."
With his signing bonus, he made exactly $2 million this season. That wasn't enough, he had that drive to excel in private business. But it wasn't private enough & his decisions will cost his family dearly, what a waste.
The mystery surrounding Wade Phillips' surgery was answered by the team on Thursday, sorta. The procedure Phillips underwent was for some unnamed kidney & gallbladder ailment. Phillips, defensive coordinator of the Houston Texans, is expected to return to the team within two weeks.
Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy won the Eddie Robinson Trophy for college football's coach of the year. Now Les Miles won the other Coach of the year last week, so maybe we need a playoff to determine the ultimate COY for 2011. My personal favorite was fellow finalist Bill Snyder from Kansas State.
So Bears' wide receiver & special teams captain Sam Hurd is in a helluva lot of trouble. When the 26-year old failed to show up for pre-practice meetings this morning, the coaching staff started calling around in an effort to find him. The police told them he was in federal custody on drug charges. The former Ed Block Courage Award winner in 2010 was in jail. The husband & father of one was arrested Wednesdau night outside a Morton's Steakhouse(my personal fav) in Rosemont Illinois. He had just had a dinner meeting with an undercover narcotics agent & a confidential informant. At the end of the meeting, Hurd was offered a kilo of cocaine & given until he cashed his Bears' paycheck on Thursday to pay for it. He left with the coke, got in his car & was arrested.
During the dinner meeting he had boasted of moving 4 kilos a week & 250-pounds of pot per week. Hurd claimed his current supplier couldn't deliver the quantities he was wanting to buy, 5-10 kilos of cocaine & 1000-pounds of pot per week. Here's where I have a problem with the government's story as it has been reported. Nowhere in the report does it verify his claims of being a "major player" in Chicago drug distribution. Seems like the street gangs that control drug traffic in Chicago might have an issue with Hurd moving that kind of volume. There are no reports of any weapons found on Hurd, in his car or in his home. Very unlikely a drug dealer of this magnitude runs around without a handgun in reach or a couple of armed "associates" in tow. If he was intending to buy & distribute over $700,000 worth of narcotics some personal security seems reasonable doesn't it? Do I think Sam Hurd is innocent like his attorney claims? No, but by the same token, the government has to prove he's what he claims to be if they want to put him away for a zillion years.
A couple of other things that stood out to me, Hurd wanted the informant to get him some Mexican cell phones believing they couldn't be traced or tapped. Everyone knows that superior Mexican technology has so far baffled law enforcement worldwide. I doubt Hurd is a hardcore criminal. He could be a low level dealer that might supply the needs of fellow NFL players & other assorted hangers-on. But a top-3 Chicago drug dealer? Sounds like a stretch.
Regardless of his stature in the criminal world, he's in a lot of trouble for two reasons. He took a kilo of coke, promised to pay for it the next day, but the worst part for Hurd is, he's going to be tried in Texas. Federal judge Young Kim ruled on Thirsday Hurd would have to be tried in Texas, where all this began last summer. The Lone Star State can put Hurd away for 40-years if he's convicted on distribution of 500 grams or more of cocaine. A kilo is 35 ounces & there's 28-grams per ounce, you do the math. The fact he didn't pay for it means little in the eyes of the law. Another problem Hurd has that won't go away is the day before he signed his free agent contract with Chicago, he was being interviewed in Dallas by agents of the Department of Homeland Security. His car was stopped by police in North Texas. He wasn't in the car, his "auto detailer" was, along with $88,000 cash in a bag & a small amount of marijuana. The detailer was arrested, the car was impounded as was the $88K. Hurd called the cops asking his money be returned. They wanted to know why he had that large amount of money in his car after leaving it with the detailer. Hurd claimed he could show a bank statement that showed the withdrawal was made legally. The DHS agents didn't see it that way & that's how Hurd put himself on the governments' radar screen. Later 4 people from California were connected to Hurd because of text message records. They stand accused of drug dealing & money laundering. The detailer became a go-between for the confidential informant posing as a drug wholesaler & Hurd. If the detailer was in fact the go-between for a major drug dealer, he certainly wasn't the sharpest. According to the report, he never questioned anyone connected to this deal & he didn't walk around packed either.
Honestly, I think the feds might have saved Hurd & his auto detailer from being murdered by a Chicago gang for impersonating drug dealers. We'll see what unfolds as the case goes forward, but I have doubts about some of the claims being made in the media after reading everything I did. Without question, Hurd's NFL playing days are over. Just walking out of Morton's with a kilo of blow will get him banned for life. The big news from this case will come when the list of NFL players Hurd allegedly had in his possession is made public. If he was a supplier of pro football players, there's a bunch of guys sweating their jobs tonight.
Hurd married his college sweetheart & has a young daughter. He also founded a charity, "Running with the Hurd" which mentored at risk youth. Before the season began Hurd told a Chicago reporter about his foundation.
"I try to be a great leader, always, because my father, God, put me in charge of my life, to be a leader in this world."
With his signing bonus, he made exactly $2 million this season. That wasn't enough, he had that drive to excel in private business. But it wasn't private enough & his decisions will cost his family dearly, what a waste.
Texas law does not matter. He is charged in federal court so he faces federal penalties. 500g of cocaine is a minimum 5 year sentence. 5kg of cocaine is minimum of 10. Plus, if he's indicted on a conspiracy charge, he is liable for all of the drugs from the conspiracy. So even if he personally only handled or sold 3 kilos, but other people in the conspiracy handled 50 kilos, he faces sentencing on the 50 kilos. Further, money is 'converted' into drugs for sentencing purposes. That is, the government will determine how much cocaine $88K will buy in Dallas and add that to his sentence. In federal court, there is no parole.
In this case, because it is federal, it could be tried in any federal district with ties to the case, which would be districts in Texas, California or Illinois based on information so far. The same law and procedures will apply, although there may be some slight variations between case law from the Fifth Circuit (Texas) compared to case law from the Seventh Circuit (Illinois) or Ninth Circuit (California).
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Finally, a legal explanation I can understand. I didn't get the Texas connection, now I understand it as the venue most connected to the alleged crime? This is why the Illinois judge is sending Hurd back to be tried in Texas, am I correct?
I still question whether Hurd is the drug kingpin he portrayed himself as, but we'll find know soon enough.
Thank you for setting us straight on some of this, obviously, legal issues are hardly in my wheelhouse.
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Texas may not be the venue most tied to the crime. It could be where the US Attorney's office is that started investigating the case. Federal law allows venue in a district where the crime was committed. So if Hurd has drugs and money in Dallas, people in California call him as part of the conspiracy, and based on that call Hurd takes money and drugs to Illinois, any of those places could try the case.
Federal trial courts are called 'district' courts. Districts vary in size, depending upon the state and population. Washington, for example, has two districts, Eastern and Western. California has four: southern, central, northern and eastern. Some smaller states, such as Alaska, have only one.
As far as sending Hurd back to Texas, this appears to vary from the usual course of events. Usually, a federal grand jury will issue an indictment, or a formal accusation. Because it is federal, if someone is arrested on that warrant anywhere in the country, they are transported to the district issuing the indictment. So, if you are indicted in NY and cops find you in LA, they will transport you to NY to face the charges.
here, though, it sounds like the investigation started in TX with the discovery of the $88K. With the investigation started in TX, I would guess the agents arrested him anticipating it going back to TX.
I don't know whether he is a kingpin. 1 kilo is not a huge amount, but the sums of money are decent enough. It's good that he did not have a gun. The first gun adds 5 years, mandatory, to any federal prison sentence. Any gun after that adds 20 years. So, 3 guns would add 45 years to any sentence for the drugs. Even if he is not a kingpin, if he directed or ordered other people in the conspiracy, he could get an enhanced sentence.
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