Cowboys player's attorney: $500K bond excessive
Josh Brent of the Dallas Cowboys is seen in this 2012 file photo. Brent is facing an intoxication manslaughter charge after a one-vehicle accident that killed teammate Jerry Brown, a member of the Cowboys' practice squad. / AP Photo/File
Updated 1:15 a.m. EST Dec. 10
IRVING, Texas Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Josh Brent remained in custody Sunday on $500,000 bond, one day after being charged with intoxication manslaughter after what police said was a drunken-driving accident that killed close friend and teammate Jerry Brown.
Brent's attorney called the bond amount excessive and beyond what the team had authorized him to post.
George Milner said he was working to reduce the bond, but was doubtful his client would be released from the Irving jail until Monday. Milner also said he was trying to get the Cowboys to authorize payment of a higher bond amount.
"I'd say the bond is 16 times higher than it would have been for anybody that doesn't play for the Dallas Cowboys," Milner said.
Irving police said Brent was speeding in the Dallas suburb when the vehicle he was driving his a curb and flipped about 2:20 a.m. Saturday. The 25-year-old Brown was found unresponsive at the scene and was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Tire skid marks are seen leaving the road as news cameraman film the area where a single-vehicle accident involving Dallas Cowboys player Josh Brent occurred Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, in Irving, Texas. Brent is facing an intoxication manslaughter charge after teammate Jerry Brown was killed in the crash.
/ AP Photo/Tony GutierrezBrent was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, and the charge was upgraded after Brown died. The manslaughter charge is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison.
The grieving Cowboys managed to rally for a significant win Sunday.
Dan Bailey's 40-yard field goal as time ran out sent Dallas to a 20-19 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, ending a tough afternoon with playoff chances enhanced and more emotional days ahead.
Dallas overcame a nine-point deficit in the closing minutes behind Tony Romo, who held his hand over his heart during a moment of silence to honor Brown before the kickoff.
The Cowboys (7-6) learned about Brown's death on their flight to Cincinnati on Saturday. Coach Jason Garrett told his team that the best way to honor him was to play well in a game with playoff implications for both teams.
On Fox's NFL Sunday show, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said the team had focused on Brown's death in the "last few hours." He didn't mention Brent.
"First of all we all know, but we remind ourselves that there is something more important than football, and this is life, and certainly the lost life of Jerry," Jones said. "On the other hand, they know the best way they can honor Jerry, because he was such a hard worker, so conscientious and enthusiastic about his career."
Brown's grandmother, Theresa Clark of St. Louis, told The Associated Press on Sunday that Brown and Brent grew close while they were teammates at the University of Illinois from 2007 to 2009.
"I'm quite sure that Jerry thought the world of him and respected that young man," Clark said.
She remembered her eldest grandchild — one of 20 — as a man who would stop at nothing to realize his dream of becoming a professional football player.
"He lived for football. He loved it with all of his heart," she said, noting that Brown built a foundation of faith, hard work and discipline for his younger cousins to follow.
"They praised him," she said. "They were all really upset and crying" when they found out about his death.
Brown's mother, Stacey Jackson of Champaign, Ill., told the AP that Brown was an expectant father.
"I'm very excited an anxious to meet my granddaughter," she said. "She will be here in 2 more months. She is going to be well loved.
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On the bail, Dam, I would have left him in there. No bail. He didn't even have to do a weekend. Should be in there thinking about it. Would have been part of justice to let the suffering begin.I'd personaly attack anyone who was part of the death of my son. He'd be safer in jail.
Prayer's to all. In the light of it all, let's have a safe Holiday people.Learn from others mistake's. They payed for it.It could happen to someone you do care about.
To minimize the act of driving a vehicle under the influence and correlate this topic with being hit by lightning--- It is clear that you have not yet experienced the pain of dealing with the aftermath and suffering that individuals, families, and their friends experience when someone CHOOSES to drink and drive. Driving drunk is not legal and it is a CHOICE someone makes----this is a preventable problem----lightning is not!!
Just because not ALL drunk drivers kill someone you can not compare this problem with being hit by lightning. The financial, emotional, and physical injuries caused by someone who drinks, drives and permanently brain damages someone, takes a limb off someone, and/or leaves someone paralyzed is enormous...these people are the silent victims....1 in 3 of us find ourselves involved with knowing and loving someone effected by a drunk driver. Three years ago a female drunk driver took our 18 year old son's brain away. This woman did not KILL our son, however, instead she left him for dead on the side of the road and drove off. Come walk in our shoes, ....a limb was taken off our family tree!!! This could as easily happen to you and /or your loved ones....and trust my heart on this one ... You would look at this situation differently if you lived our son's new life....The female drunk driver got 4 months in jail--- our son got a life sentence, life locked in a two minute memory time capsule.. Requiring 24 hour care. Watch the movie momento or 50 first dates -- that's now our real life.
Precisely the point. This is a man who can afford such a high bond. In addition, this isn't his first brush with the law. Repeat offenses should have the consequence of harsher punishments and more restrictive conditions imposed during AND after the offender has "paid his debt" to society. Finally, as a professional athlete who is part of the face of a large metropolitan area, Josh functions as an ambassador of sorts to his team and his community. As such he is required to hold himself and his peers to at least as high a standard of conduct as the rest of the community, if not one higher still.
At some point, Mr. Brent will have to understand that there are certain situations where you don't get behind the wheel; driving impaired due to recreational drug use is one of them.