Robbins in more trouble

[Handicapper General]

Hopefully this hasn't been posted, didn't see it.

NFL | Robbins faces extradition after violating probation
Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:55:52 -0700

The Associated Press reports former NFL C Barrett Robbins is facing extradition to Florida after a warrant was issued for a probation violation. Robbins was placed on probation in 2005 and ordered to continue treatment for bipolar disorder under a plea agreement. Authorities in Florida learned Robbins stopped treatment after he returned to Texas.

It's sad to see how far he's fallen especially after all he did.

 

[hawaiianboy]

Probation?... Break into a club, beat down a bunch of cops, put one of the cops heads through the wall, get shot in the process and get probation...

Our justice system just rules all!



Too bad, he was one of my favorite Raiders ever... I sure wish he had been with us the past four years...


Ex-NFL player Robbins is wanted

BY DAVID OVALLE

Barret Robbins, the former NFL football player shot and wounded by a Miami Beach police officer after a brawl, is a fugitive.

Robbins violated his Florida probation by failing to take medication for a bipolar disorder while living in his native Texas, authorities say.

''We will extradite him back to Florida,'' Ed Griffith, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade state attorney's office, vowed Friday.

But police in Florida and Texas don't know where he is.

Supervising Robbins was complicated by bureaucratic delays, because Robbins left Florida without ever having an official state corrections photo taken of him. The result was he never had a probation officer in Texas.

The probation violation adds another chapter to Robbins' tortured public life.

In 2003, as an Oakland Raiders center, he was not allowed to play in the Super Bowl in San Diego after disappearing for several days and returning the night before the game acting incoherently.

In 2004, he was suspended from football for steroid use and arrested on charges he hit a security guard in San Francisco.

For the Miami Beach incident, the six-foot-three, 306-pound Robbins was sentenced to five years of probation on charges of battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence.

A former Pro Bowl center with Oakland, Robbins, 34, was shot multiple times on Jan. 15, 2005, by a Miami Beach officer. Three officers were responding to a burglary call at an office above a nightclub when they encountered the hulking football player. Three officers were injured -- one had his head rammed through the wall.

On Friday, fliers were circulated to Miami Beach police officers warning them to be on the lookout.

''Robbins was a professional football player and is very agile and violent,'' the flier reads.

But Robbins attorney, Edward O'Donnell, doubts his client has returned to Florida.

''The last place Barret is going to go is Miami Beach,'' O'Donnell stressed.

O'Donnell said he was unaware Robbins -- who lives in Houston -- had violated his probation.

''If I don't have any idea, he doesn't have any idea. I'm sure if he had an inkling he was in trouble, he'd have called me,'' O'Donnell said.

O'Donnell said he spoke with Robbins a couple of months ago and the former Texas Christian University lineman was doing fine.

Robbins' whereabouts have been unknown since the summer, according to a spokeswoman with the Florida Department of Corrections.

Soon after he was sentenced, unbeknown to Corrections, Robbins returned to Texas. O'Donnell later called the Florida Corrections Department to ask that supervision of Robbins' probation be transferred to his native state.

Nope, Texas said.

Because Florida had never taken a mug shot of Robbins -- a bureaucratic slip-up -- Texas was under no obligation to oversee his probation.

''He never had a probation officer in Texas for the Florida charge,'' explained Jo Ellyn Rackleff, a Corrections Department spokeswoman in Tallahassee.

As Florida worked to straighten out the paperwork, it learned Robbins had not been taking his medication -- a violation of his Florida probation.

But because the paperwork was not finished, Texas authorities had no authority to detain him for the Florida violation.

They haven't seen him since July.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/brea...ry/246556.html

 

[Crow]

Any chance we can re-sign him?

 

[GRIM]

We have had a proud legacy of great Centers throughout the years.
Grove is an oops.

 

[Crow]

Just goes to show that being the top rated guy at your position doesn't mean you're going to be any good. You'd think we would have learned that by now.

 

[R4Life]

Ex-NFL star to explain probation violation
Posted on Tue, Sep. 25, 2007

BY DAVID OVALLE
dovalle@MiamiHerald.com

Former NFL star Barret Robbins will return to Miami next month from Texas to explain to a judge why he was not at fault for an alleged probation violation, his attorney said Tuesday.

Robbins was serving five years probation for attacking Miami Beach cops in 2005. An officer shot and wounded him during the brawl.

The Florida Department of Corrections says it learned through authorities in Texas, where Robbins lives, that he had stopped taking his medication for bipolar disorder.

''He's been taking his meds regularly. He's perfectly all right,'' said defense attorney Edward O'Donnell. ``I can prove he's been taking his medication.''

Robbins did not know he was wanted in Florida until The Miami Herald reported a warrant had been issued for his arrest, O'Donnell said.

Robbins, 34, will appear Oct. 10 in front of Circuit Judge Leon Firtel.

The former Pro Bowl lineman with the Oakland Raiders has endured a high-profile struggle with his disorder.

In 2003, he was not allowed to play in the Super Bowl in San Diego after disappearing for several days and returning the night before the game acting incoherently.

On Jan. 15, 2005, Miami Beach officers were responding to a burglary call at an office when they encountered the six-foot-three, 306-pound Robbins.

Three officers were injured and Robbins was shot several times.

He later received an adjudication withheld -- meaning a felony conviction does not show on his record -- in exchange for completing five years probation for battery on a law enforcement officer.

Robbins' probation has been complicated by paperwork bungling between corrections departments in Texas and Florida.

Florida officials concede that Robbins' custody was never transferred to Texas, meaning he had no probation officer supervising him there.

Florida DOC spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Rackleff said Robbins left for Texas after checking in with probation after sentencing -- unbeknownst to his probation officer -- but before taking an official corrections photo. Without that photo, Texas refused to take custody of him.

''That is an absolute lie,'' O'Donnell said of the DOC claim Robbins left Florida for Texas without telling anyone first.

The attorney said when Robbins reported to the Florida probation office after sentencing, DOC knew he was going to Texas that same day because the court had issued an order allowing him to go.

Robbins was fingerprinted and he provided his Texas driver's license for a photocopy -- but was not asked to take a photo, O'Donnell said.

''I remember it like it was yesterday,'' O'Donnell said.

According to an affidavit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, probation officer Jactara Wadley learned through Texas authorities that Robbins had stopped taking his medication after leaving a facility for mentally impaired offenders.

The former lineman was at the facility on a previous marijuana charge, lodged against him before he was sentenced to probation for the Miami Beach attack.

Robbins was ''unsuccessfully discharged'' from the Bexar County mental health jail facility, Wadley wrote in his affidavit.

O'Donnell maintains Robbins successfully completed his stay in the Bexar facility.

 

[Byron2112]

His treatments must really fuck with him... arn't all his crimes preceeded by going off his medications/treatments?

 

[R4Life]

Prosecutors Try To Get Former NFL Star Robbins On Probation Violation

MIAMI -- Prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to lock up former NFL star Barret Robbins on a probation violation on Tuesday, nearly three years after he was shot and arrested for fighting with police on South Beach.

Authorities called him a fugitive, but a judge found that Robbins, once accused of trying to kill Miami Beach police officers, was a victim of bureaucratic foul-ups and sent him home.

In 2005, Robbins was in a fight with police in a South Beach office building. He injured three of them before being shot twice.
Robbins, who is bipolar, claimed he was off his medication that night. Last year, judge Leon Firtel approved a plea deal requiring probation and treatment in Robbins' native Texas, rather than prison in Florida.

Robbins and his lawyer said they were happy to finally straighten out probation paperwork to keep him out of prison on Tuesday.

"I'm very happy with the process today," Robbins' lawyer said.

Prosecutors wanted the former Oakland Raiders all-pro jailed for probation violation. The prosecutors said that Texas Rangers were sent to all of Robbins' known addresses in San Antonio to find him.

While in court, video showed Robbins frequently appearing to bite his tongue.

"I've done everything I've been asked of," he said.

"You're on your medication?" the prosecutor asked.

"Absolutely, yes," Robbins said.

Robbins' lawyer brought his pills to court, though authorities said that for months there had been no way to tell if Robbins had taken them.

The judge responded.

"He didn't get into any trouble, did he?" the judge asked the prosecutor.

"Lucky," the prosecutor said.

"Oh, stop with the lucky," the judge replied.

A probation officer argued Robbins had left town before getting his photo taken -- one reason he was declared a fugitive. However, the judge said Robbins' return to Texas was no surprise.

"He was given permission by this court," the judge said.

The three officers who tried to subdue Robbins stood and watched as the judge told Robbins to redo probation paperwork and return to treatment in Texas.

The police officers' lawyer said they were somewhat disappointed that Robbins' original plea deal did not involve more jail time.

NBC6's Nick Bogert asked Robbins if he worried about falling off his medication again.

"I always do," Robbins said. "I preach to a lot of people and always tell them you need that medication. The more you stay on it, the better balanced you can be."

Robbins has notified Miami Beach that he plans to file a civil suit against the city and its officers.