Chmura acquitted of all charges

[Marc]

From ESPN.com (http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/2001/0203/1060174.html):

Former Green Bay Packers tight end Mark Chmura was acquitted Saturday of sexually assaulting a former baby sitter at a drunken party.

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for 2 hours, 15 minutes before finding Chmura innocent on charges of third-degree sexual assault and child enticement. The charges carried a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison and $20,000 in fines.
Anyone have any thoughts? The two sides of the story are basically Chmura sexually-assaulted the girl OR the girl had always hated him and made this up.

[iFroggy]

Well, my opinion on all court related threads in regard to things like this are that I wasn't there so I can't say otherwise. So I don't really have any thoughts. Sorry. :)

(P.S. Marc - Did you see, I'm over 500 posts, too? :))

[Tom Baker]

Hard to know exactly what happened. Obviously the jury heard something that led them to acquittal. I haven't really paid close attention to this one, or the Rae Carruth business.

It is kind of a sad / funny commentary on our times when sites like ESPN.com are carrying up-to-the minute reports from courts--because so many athletes are on trial? Well, an athlete being on trial isn't sports to me. I think those sites should keep that stuff off and just report on the business that pertains to the games. The games are supposed to be an escape, not a reminder...that's just me, I guess a lot of people want the lurid details...

An interesting side note--Green Bay cut Chmura immediately after charges were filed. Now that he's innocent, what if anything will happen? A similar thing happened to the Falcons a few years back, they cut a receiver who was involved in some unsavory business (I forget the name / details), only have him acquitted and land with another team. But then again, organizations in the entertainment business can't afford the bad press.

[30X90]

I think Green Bay got "lucky" and were able to cut him.

Didn't he have a pretty bad neck injury anyway?

As far as the trial?...who knows...At the very LEAST he shouldn't have been in a situation with teenage girls and alcohol.

[Tom Baker]

Now that I think about it, I think Chmura had missed a lot of time before the incident with an injury of some type. I don't know if he was considering retirement, but he was a good player for them for several years.

And you're right, he should have known better than to be in that situation...but I think just about everyone has found themselves in a place they shouldn't be in their lives, or if you haven't yet, you probably will. Is exercising poor judgment necessarily a crime?

But the Packers really had no choice but to cut him immediately, IMHO. Any charge like that is so ugly that they would've faced enormous controversy by keeping him on the roster. Chmura put the Packers in the position of having to choose, and they chose to cut him. So be it. Then again, Ray Lewis was charged with MURDER...and he stayed on the team...

[H. Tiemann Jr.]

I'm sorry but I really haven't been following the Chumura case. I have been too busy.

I heard one thing though, that six teams have contacted Chumura to play football once again.

I thought his neck injury was too serious for him to come back.

Maybe I was wrong...


Howie

[SC-Jared]

1) He's innocent.

2) He'll play again- many teams are interested, including my hometown team, the Patriots. It's just a question of which team will get him...I've heard more than 10 teams are interested.