Lawyer: Hokies kicker Cody Journell will plead to misdemeanor trespassing charge
Virginia Tech kicker Cody Journell will plead to a misdemeanor trespassing charge in relation to an incident from December, his lawyer Jimmy Turk said Friday night, potentially opening up the possibility for him to return to the Hokies.
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Journell, 20, has been suspended indefinitely from the football team since being charged with breaking and entering, a Class 2 felony, in late December. He spent nearly a week in jail before being released on a $100,000 secured bond.
Turk said he had come to an agreement with the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Journell to plead to a trespassing charge, a Class 1 misdemeanor. Journell won’t do jail time or pay a fine but will be required to do 100 hours of community service, Turk said.
The deal will be finalized in Montgomery County District Court on Monday, when Journell is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing.
“I think it’s a very fair disposition for Cody,” Turk said. “And he just simply needs to get this behind him and get back to what he was doing, which will certainly be playing football and going to Virginia Tech as a student.
“He’ll be a much better person and a much better student-athlete. And I think this should serve to be a very fair learning experience for a lot of student-athletes at Virginia Tech.”
Journell and two others, Matthew Dunton and Matthew Brady, were charged with breaking and entering on Dec. 22 after the Commonwealth’s Attorney said they entered the home of Virginia Tech basketball player Dorenzo Hudson and his roommate Sean Allen, looking to retrieve stolen marijuana.
Prosecutors said Dunton knocked on the door of the residence and Journell and Brady rushed in after Hudson answered. Dunton removed an air gun from a pizza box, which led to a felony charge for use of a deadly weapon.
Turk only represented Journell in the case. It’s unclear if the other defendants have worked out similar pleas or not.
Journell foreshadowed the news with this tweet Friday night: “First good news I’ve heard in 6 months…I’m so determined to make a mike vick comeback, man I love #VT.”
Journell’s status with the team hasn’t been resolved, as far as Turk knew. University policy requires student-athletes charged with a felony to be suspended until it is dropped, dismissed or resolved.
With the charges now resolved, athletic director Jim Weaver will be able to review the case.
Attempts to reach Virginia Tech for a comment Friday night were unsuccessful.
Journell, who remained a student while suspended, was an honorable mention All-ACC selection last year as a sophomore for the Hokies, making 14 of 17 field goals.
May 18, 2012 - 9:30 PM
good fast reporting AB! hope he is reinstated soon. the Turk connection at the athletic dept. will help. i have to say this- a young kid who has followed a 6pm curfew to be home with mom and pop since christmas- isnt that punishment enough? i mean- remember when we were young. ha. dont forget- he’s made ten field goals in a row. good luck cody. you have a good set of parents. make them and giles co. proud. on a sad note- last week mike burnops wife passed away after a long illness. you have to love him on the air. im sure he is going through some rough times. makes us realize life is soooooo much more important than first downs and ball scores.
Great News! Now get out there and Kick!
So the moral of the story is – commit all the crimes you want, just make sure you get Beamer’s lawyer to plea bargain them down so you can stay on the team. Go Hokies!
The hypocrisy is laughable.
Yea way to go Virginia Tech. Reduce the charges so he can play again. Why dont you just throw the charges completely out. What a joke.
Only in Blacksburg
Everyone deserves a second chance, but chances should have their limits. Journell needs to prove himself as a student & responsible citizen first. If VT football was so important to him, he should have used better judgement. Breaking & entering, displaying a weapon, drugs…
that is not the kind of character that should define a VT athelete.
Crooked road – Nothing has changed – you are still pathetic!
If expecting accountability from someone gifted with a college scholarship and held as a role model, if favoring the moral instruction of young athletes to learn that life is about more than sports, if realizing that to those whom much is given much is expected, if those are ‘pathetic’ in the mind of some severely misguided individuals, you can name call all day long. At the end of the day, those cheering because it helps the football team are those deserving pity.
I am sure there are some exhale of relief in Blacksburg, but I am sure there are some eyes-rolling (as some posters have already done) as if to say, “What else is new?”
The thing that bothers me is the way Tuck worded his statement, “And he just simply needs to get this behind him and get back to what he was doing, which will certainly be playing football and going to Virginia Tech as a student.”
First, as some have already stated, he need to be a student first, and an athlete second. I have the feeling that Weaver and Beamer are going to iron out some kind of stipulations for readmission of Journell to the team, the same way they handled Marcus Vick, and if Journell prove he can be trusted again, then who knows?
I also wonder how this is going to affect the kicker competition come summer. I get the feeling there may be some grumbling, but we won’t hear it, of course, because of how “rosy” the team like to portray their locker room.
Trevor makes a cogent point. The thing that troubles me, and deeply so, is that there seems to be the ‘usual’ castaway references to being a student, while heavy deference to being a football player, and all the supposed glories that result.
I’ve been around long enough, and have taken the time to peek behind the curtains often enough, to see the less than pleasant and less than ‘LET’S GO…HOKIES!…’ side of college football.
It would be nice to think that Cody Journell came to the realization that he needs to be responsible for his actions, and that he, while gifted with ‘football ability’, has proven irresponsible in more instances than one, and seems to only care about gridiron fame.
It all just reeks so much of low rent Marcus Vick-ism.
I agree with those that have some reservation about readmitting Journell to the team. This is not meant as an excuse, but if anyone thinks that such treatment is unique to VT or Beamer, then they are wearing blinders. Such treatment is common amongst football programs, even the smaller ones and even that one in C’ville.
Oh, this type of ‘forget crimes, just play football’ mentality is certainly not unique to VT. It is prevalent at many schools across the nation. That doesn’t make it right, though. That doesn’t excuse Beamer from criticism.
George is right, if we can not forgive a mistake in judgement by a teenager, then they have no hope for themselves as adults. Let those that are pure throw the first stone.
It’s not about ‘forgiving a mistake in judgement by a teenager’ for the apologists. It’s about allowing a teenager who plays football at a high level to do anything he desires as long as he is still allowed to perform on Saturdays for the lemmings who think anything goes if you play football.
Any of you lemmings ever hear of personal accountability? Responsibility? As it relates to star athletes? No, I didn’t think you’d admit to such.
What am I missing here? I don’t see how Journell was that strong of a kicker in the first place. His kicking motion looks like a bad stop-motion video and he didn’t seem to have the power or distance of the last 4 or 5 place kickers that have started at VT.
If he is reinstated, and manages to win the starting kicking job, then I really have to wonder just how bad are the rest of the VT kickers?