Ben Wallace escapes jail time; sentenced one year probation for multiple crime charges – NBA News
Detroit Pistons player Ben Wallace, who has been in the headlines for three months now for all the wrong reasons, has survived jail time. He has however been placed on one year probation by the Oakland Circuit Country Court.
He has also been fined and sentenced 30 hours of community service by Court’s judge Shelina Kumar with a warning which reads like this;
"You have all the resources in the world. This should not happen again, you are allowed to travel out of state and out of the country for work-related reasons while on probation”
While Wallace avoided commenting on the sentence, his defence attorney Steve Fishman thanked and praised the jury and the judge for dealing the case in a professional way.
"I compliment both the prosecutor's office and Judge Kumar for treating Ben Wallace exactly the same way they would have treated him had he not been a basketball player”
Wallace was arrested on Saturday, 24 September, 2011, while driving a SUV erratically at around 3 am. His blood alcohol level, when examined was 0.14 - 0.016 more than the limit set by the Michigan law. Upon search, the police
also lay hands on a 28 bore semi-automatic pistol in his stuff.
The punishment for driving drunk is a mild one, but for carrying an armed weapon, which is considered as a grave crime it can be as severe as five years in prison.
Unfortunately for Wallace, his case was listed with 48th district Court Judge Kim Small, a judge known to deal harshly with drunk driving cases. Even the first time offenders don’t get away with her wrath in this matter.
This fact was concreted 5 months ago when she sentenced former NBA star Jalen Rose, a first time DUI offender, to almost twenty days jail time.
Wallace’s defence attorney Robyn Frankel played the cards smartly though and urged Wallace to plead guilty over the weapon possession case, which resulted in his case to be shifted in a higher court - Oakland Circuit Country Court.
The case was given to Kumar, who has a reputation of a being liberal with the decisions.
Now that the distractions are gone, Ben will be focusing on what would probably be his last year in NBA. Over the last few years, his performance has deteriorated, but with a new setup in place at the Pistons, he just might be
able to find his niche again.
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