February 26, 2009 1:31 PM

Jail Time Likely For Vick

(CBS/AP)  Less than a month after saying he looked forward to clearing his name, Michael Vick now acknowledges the heinous acts associated with his name are true.

The Atlanta Falcons quarterback said through a lawyer Monday that he will plead guilty to federal dogfighting conspiracy charges, an admission that likely will mean prison time.

Vick may never play anywhere in the NFL again, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann. If he put up most of the gambling money, as his co-defendants claim, the NFL could ban him for life.

But for now, any hopes of salvaging his NFL career are secondary to his impending confinement.

"His focus is on his family, his focus is on answering to this judge," Vick's lead defense attorney, Billy Martin, told The Associated Press after announcing the plea agreement Monday.

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson can sentence Vick to up to five years in prison and fine him $250,000, although federal sentencing guidelines will call for less. A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the terms are not final, told the AP that prosecutors will recommend a sentence of a year to 18 months.

The official said such a sentence would be more than what is usually recommended for first-time offenders, reflecting the government's attempt to show that animal abusers will receive more than a slap on the wrist.

Vick will return Monday to the same courthouse where he pleaded not guilty and resolved to prove his innocence just 25 days ago. This time he will plead guilty, and Hudson will schedule a date for sentencing.

Since that initial court appearance, all three of Vick's co-defendants have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in the government's case against him, including testifying against him if the case had gone to trial in November as scheduled.

The co-defendants said Vick bankrolled virtually the entire "Bad Newz Kennels" operation in rural southeastern Virginia, including providing gambling funds, an act that could trigger a lifetime ban from the NFL under the league's personal conduct policy.

Two of them also said Vick participated in the brutal executions of at least eight underperforming dogs.

Facing those allegations and the prospect of a superseding indictment from a new grand jury that began meeting Monday, Vick opted to change his plea.

"Mr. Vick has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made," Martin said in a statement. "Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter."

CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman said Vick had little choice but to accept the plea deal.

"This was a deal that he had to take at this point. It's one thing to have one person testifying against you. When you have three co-defendants, plus others testifying against you, even a great lawyer like Billy Martin knows his limits," Klieman said.

Even with his plea deal, Vick's legal troubles still aren't over, reports Strassman. That just takes care of business with the feds; state prosecutors in Virginia say they plan to bring their own charges against Vick for dogfighting sometime late next month.



© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
  • Scott Conroy

    Scott Conroy is a National Political Reporter for RealClearPolitics and a contributor for CBS News.

Add a Comment See all 95 Comments
by kailumego1 August 23, 2007 9:26 PM EDT
Nggr like I said you''ve got to be the "stupidest" person on the face of the earth, or DAM close to it...

Nowhere did you read I was absolving Vick of his actions, quite the opposite, I stated and please don''t misinterpret what''s being stated, TIRED OF SEEING BLACK MALES ASSIMILATETHE NEGATIVE IDIOCYNCRATIC BEHAVIOR OF THIS "SOCIETY", OF WHICH THEY HAVE ENOUGH PSYCHO-DRAMA FROM THEIR AFRICAN ROOTS TO CONTEND , WITHOUT ADDING TO THE MIX SOMEONE [ETHNICITY%u2019S] PSYCHO-DRAMA, AND PRODUCTIVE MINDED BLACK FOLKS SHOULD BE FED UP OF SEEING ONE BLACK MALE AFTER THE OTHER TAKING A TUMBLE TO THIS TYPE OF NONSENSE.

Stop confusing the issue, I wasn''t apologizing to you, only clarifying myself, because it''s obvious you have a "bad" habit of picking words, sentences, etc. out of context...

And just as blacks have influenced this society both negatively and positively the identical can be stated for whites.
Reply to this comment
by kailumego1 August 23, 2007 9:23 PM EDT

And as the idiot as you are, the %u201Cdog fighting%u201D phenomenon is an old %u201Cbloody%u201D business which roots are planted in Southern rural white%u2019s backyards, so I%u2019ll dismiss the lying %u201CBS%u201D you stated earlier on, that this behavior is typical of black neighborhoods.

You know absolutely nothing about the "social dynamics" of how individuals interact within a society, which in any given society individuals are influenced by their environment, and it doesn''t matter what ethnicity.

For example, Middle-Easterners or Arabs here in America have been dramatically influenced either positively or negatively, most have argued negativenly, by the cultural environment, i.e. food, dress, educational system particularly what''s taught, political system, constitutional values, social ills, behavioral mannerisms, the climate, work scheduling, etc., obviously you''re too narrow-minded to comprehend.

Similar to other ethnicities, including African Americans that doesn''t negate the fact they came to America with their own idiocycrasises, but from observation one can clearly see which behavior is learned or influenced by the environment, and which is indigenous.

During slavery Southern whites were greatly influenced by the behavior of African slaves and thereafter, you can visibly see the assimilation in past and present white artists and musicians, through the music style, vocalizations, dance, etc., as well there were negatve influences.
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by kailumego1 August 23, 2007 9:07 PM EDT

Secondly, yes white folks have negative idiosyncrasies, something a lot of white folks have conveniently forgotten.
Thirdly, white folks such as you have a tendency to overlook the white contribution to the decadence and degradation within this society, through falsely blaming others, i.e. liquor introduced to Native Americans, African Americans, etc. by whites, drugs introduced to Native Americans, African Americans, Chinese, etc. by whites, bastardization of African slaves, introduced by whites, embezzlement grand larceny alias stealing introduced to African slaves/African Americans by whites, drug dealing introduced to Native Americans, Blacks, Chinese, etc. by whites, %u201Cgangs, mobs, etc%u201D, introduced to African Americans, by whites, etc. etc. etc.
So, when are individuals such as you start taking responsibility for your actions and stop using others as %u201Cscapegoats%u201D, which you have been blatantly doing through your obnoxious post...

Reply to this comment
by kailumego1 August 23, 2007 9:07 PM EDT

Secondly, yes white folks have negative idiosyncrasies, something a lot of white folks have conveniently forgotten.
Thirdly, white folks such as you have a tendency to overlook the white contribution to the decadence and degradation within this society, through falsely blaming others, i.e. liquor introduced to Native Americans, African Americans, etc. by whites, drugs introduced to Native Americans, African Americans, Chinese, etc. by whites, bastardization of African slaves, introduced by whites, embezzlement grand larceny alias stealing introduced to African slaves/African Americans by whites, drug dealing introduced to Native Americans, Blacks, Chinese, etc. by whites, %u201Cgangs, mobs, etc%u201D, introduced to African Americans, by whites, etc. etc. etc.
So, when are individuals such as you start taking responsibility for your actions and stop using others as %u201Cscapegoats%u201D, which you have been blatantly doing through your obnoxious post...

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by nggr August 23, 2007 7:58 PM EDT
look, i just dont believe in racial in-equality like you do. i think blacks have the capacity to not "assimilate" any kind of behavior they should know is wrong. and if they do, i certainly don''t blame white men, thats just a cop-out.
to me, if someone "assimilates" a behavior such as this then they are a criminal by their own right.
I never suggested you condone his actions, mabey you should work on your reading comprehension skills too.
my point was that you are making an argument that attempts to partly absolve this a$$hole of his responsibility, by blaming white men.
and that attitude is what hinders true equality in this country.
Reply to this comment
by nggr August 23, 2007 7:48 PM EDT
"I was criticizing his and others like him behavior for consistently assimilating the negative elements or cultural idiocycracies of some "white" folks behavior while disregarding positive ones."

you think you are correct, don''t you.
amazing.
so his crime was doing what the bad things white folks do?
you aren''t around many black folk, are you.
Reply to this comment
by nggr August 23, 2007 7:44 PM EDT
"But white folks need to find another scapegoat to circumvent their deviant idiosyncrasies."
Posted by kailumego1 at 09:48 PM : Aug 22, 2007

wow, by saying that the responsibility rests partly on white men for vicks actions, aren''t you scapegaoting white people for vicks "deviant idiosyncrasies."
of course i''m dumb as hell, so tell me i''m wrong.
Reply to this comment
by nggr August 23, 2007 7:39 PM EDT
i thought you were an apologist, trying to elevate the argument in such a way to say that vick wasn''t fully responsible for his actions, by scapegaoting the white man as the genesis of our societal ills.
and then asserting that a black man/woman white woman/ other ethnicity assimilate these behaviors,
ipso facto, never being 100 percent responsible because, apparently, the white men did it all first.
i was under the impression that for generations blacks have been free, and have every right that anyone else has. and that this might propogate an equality among all citizens.
i was wrong though. the white man is still master and everyone else is a slave. not in the literal sense, but as you say, in such a way that they assimilate negative aspects emmbeded into our society by white males.
look at me, i feel foolish! i didn''t know that pitting two animals in a cage to the death origionated in colonial america by white males! i had no idea that pedophelia was a white male creation. i had no idea that alchoholism was the white males gift to the world.
and since i''m black, now that you have enlightened me, i know the origions of bad behavior rest soley on the white mans door step.
its always nice to know who to blame.
now i can not condone vicks actions and at the same time blame it on people who had nothing to do with it as well.

Reply to this comment
by kailumego1 August 23, 2007 12:48 AM EDT
PartII

And yes blacks were denied equal opportunities, as you should very well know this from U.S. history classes.
I merely stated a fact, which individuals such as you like to "make a mountain out of a mole-hill" when it comes to deviant black behavior.
And yes black males have been and still are disempowered in this society, as any other non-Anglo that has been "negatively targeted".
Now does that mean blacks can''t rise above trepidation? Yes they can.
But white folks need to find another scapegoat to circumvent their deviant idiosyncrasies.
And black males/females need to stop assimilating negative aspects of this society.
Reply to this comment
by kailumego1 August 23, 2007 12:35 AM EDT
nggr, You know it takes someone like you to take what is written totally out of context, no where in my post did you read that I was condoning Vick''s, behavior, quite the opposite. You obviously need to go back to secondary school and re-learn reading and comprehension.

You got to be either the "stupidest" person in the world, or DAM close to it, which makes your level of intellectual thought no better than Vick.

Stop taking sentences out of context, I was criticizing his and others like him behavior for consistently assimilating the negative elements or cultural idiocycracies of some "white" folks behavior while disregarding positive ones.

And yes a majority has negative idiocyncratic behavior, because as individuals such as you have failed to collect all the "facts" in this matter, the "dog fighting" industry is an old maligancy exclusive to Southern/rural white populations, which some blacks have assimilated it into their cultural schema.

I presume you are a mature adult, so go back and re-read the entire post and tell me where is it stated that I support brutality against animals, as this would make me an oxymoron, because I also have two sons[dogs], which I consider family.
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