Place-kicker Cody Journell guilty of misdemeanor trespassing; status with team unresolved
CHRISTIANSBURG — Suspended Virginia Tech place-kicker Cody Journell was found guilty of a lesser charge of misdemeanor trespassing in relation to an incident from December, potentially paving the way for his to return to the football team.
Journell, who was originally charged Dec. 22 with a felony of breaking and entering, pleaded not guilty in Montgomery County District Court on Monday but stipulated that the facts were considerable enough to result in a conviction to an amended misdemeanor charge.
He’ll do 100 hours of community service and received 12-months probation. He was credited with 10 days of served jail time, with the remainder of the year’s sentence suspended, provided he adheres to the terms of the deal.
“Cody was at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people,” Journell’s lawyer Jimmy Turk said. “He’s happy to have it behind him.”
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Journell’s status with the football team remains unresolved. He declined comment after the hearing but said that he will likely meet with athletic department officials in the next week. He was allowed to remain in school since the incident but was suspended from the team indefinitely, per university policy, until the felony charge was somehow resolved.
Turk, who has represented many Virginia Tech athletes in the past, was optimistic Journell would be reinstated to the team.
“I absolutely hope so and I would think that would be the call,” he said.
Journell,20, and two others, Matthew Dunton, 23, and Matthew Brady, 21, were charged with breaking and entering on Dec. 22 after the commonwealth’s attorney said they entered the home of then-Virginia Tech basketball player Dorenzo Hudson and Hudson’s roommate, Sean Allen, looking to retrieve marijuana they say was stolen. Hudson was there; Allen was not.
Previous court testimony established that Dunton removed an air gun from a pizza box during the incident, which lasted about five to seven minutes.
Dunton also agreed to a plea deal Monday and was found guilty of brandishing an object similar in appearance to a firearm. Like Journell, he received a year’s suspended sentence, 100 hours of community service and 12 months of probation.
Neither Journell nor Dunton are to have any contact with Hudson.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Patrick Jensen said the reduced deal was offered because the gun was determined not to be real and therefore was not a deadly weapon, and because Hudson wished to put the incident behind him as he pursued a professional basketball career, possibly overseas.
“A real gun versus a little toy is a huge consideration,” Turk said.
Brady was offered a similar deal as Journell and Dunton but did not accept it, leading to an occasionally contentious preliminary hearing Monday afternoon that resulted in Judge Gino Williams deciding there is probable cause for a grand jury to consider Brady’s case.
He remains charged with breaking and entering with intent to commit assault, something Jensen said should go to the July term of the grand jury.
Jensen and Brady’s defense attorney, Thomas K. Plofchan Jr. of Loudoun County, offered different versions of what happened that night.
Hudson testified that he was awoken by Dunton knocking on his door while Journell and Brady stood off to the side. After Hudson answered the door, Dunton removed the air gun from a pizza box and began waving it around as the three entered the house.
Hudson said Journell raced upstairs looking for someone as Brady, who did most of the talking, kept saying, “Where is he? Where is he?” Hudson, who said he was nervous because a gun was in his face, responded that he didn’t know who they were talking about.
Plofchan argued that Brady never entered the house and didn’t have knowledge that Dunton had a gun, calling into question Hudson’s recollection of the evening’s events and his identification of the suspects.
Brady, who took the stand, said he and Journell went with Dunton as support for what he said was going to be a “discussion.” He said he had no knowledge Dunton had a gun and that it was Dunton who entered the house while he and Journell waited outside.
Brady testified that Hudson said, “I know where you live and we can settle this.” Dunton, Journell and Brady then left Hudson’s apartment in a car driven by their friend, John Deacon, who was not charged with a crime.
Testimony from December revealed that Hudson and Allen went searching for Brady and Dunton once the trio left, resulting in a physical altercation in front of Brady and Dunton’s apartment before police arrived. Hudson and Allen were also never charged with a crime.
Pfolchan asked Hudson Monday how he knew where Brady and Dunton lived. Hudson said their Lee Street address was on the pizza box Dunton used to conceal the gun.
Pfolchan then told Hudson, “You are not telling the truth are you?
“I am telling the truth,” Hudson replied.
In testimony Monday, it was revealed that Brady is suing Hudson for $125,000 in civil court for assault.
The defense argued bias against Hudson’s testimony about Brady because of this fact, while the commonwealth’s attorney countered that the lawsuit was filed after Brady was arrested and therefore Hudson could have shown no bias in identifying him as one of the suspects.
May 21, 2012 - 5:29 PM
Going on past decisions, Beamer will probably allow him to rejoin the team to compete for his old position. There will be a lot of stipulations both public and private he will have to meet. He also will have to endure derogatory hackling at every away venue they play. He may just decide to change locations to mitigate some of the publicity. We’ll see. I’d let him back on the team with conditions. Judge and prosecutors saw what everybody else saw, just some stupid young men doing a stupid thing.
Who really cares ???
Too bad, so sad, hope Beamer turns his back on this bozo. This started out as a bigger case and it is only because of money and a good lawyer that this kid was able to turn his bad decision about drugs from a possible felony conviction with jail time into a misdemeanor with a slap on the wrist. How many others “in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people” get the opportunity to have things fixed for them? Perhaps this is the case that is used to show that athletes aren’t given special treatment, aren’t pampered, but suffer the consequences of their mistakes like any other student.
We all know the answer. We all know Beamer will take Journell back with no consequence, because he ‘helps the team’, which is all that matters to Beamer. For the usual lemmings chomping at the bit to defend the shield, Marcus, anyone? Empty trophy case?
To respond to the blogger who called the football player a “bozo’, let me say this- “normal” students at tech or uva come from the most part money. you think daddy lets them take the heat when they go on a drinking binge-no. they hire a top dollar lawyer and get it reduced. happens every week. you just dont hear about it cause it isnt news worthy. let me add that most athletes dont come from money and they struggle to live on mac and cheese while the athletic dept. counts the dollars. if you survey 100 hundred people about letting him get a second chance, i think the majority would say this is america give him a chance. what does the blogger want- never to kick a ball again and sent to the slammer for life? show some compassion.people like that trip me out with their views. he didnt commit murder. so who is the real bozo here?
Pat, I won’t argue that Journell should get another chance, nor can I say that athletes dont get special treatment. However, the fact that a not real gun was used is why this is not a felony. Regular folks get plea deals all the time, especially first offenses.
How many incidents will it take to demonstrate that Beamer and his staff are willing to allow onto their teams young men who have a propensity to violence and/or illegality if the coaches have any hint that those players might be able to contribute to a win?
Ethically, if this young man comes back onto the team, it is no different than allowing a pro coach who paid for illegal hits on opponents’ teammates to put those punk players on the field again. This is a program that all morally centered alumni should demand must change.
Almost equally appalling, ask the home-team fans at any venue in which the Hokies play whose fans they find the most abhorrent, obnoxious and aberrant. VT is the easy winner. It is a blot on the Commonwealth. That might be easy to write off as sour grapes, except that it is ubiquitous. Those of us whose taxes help support VT deserve better.
His family cares.
How far can you carry this stupid young men doing stupid things bit. So is it ok for all stupid young men to do this and get away with it? A weapon was used. Give me a break.
For the people calling for Journell’s head: Heaven forbid your child ever does “something stupid”. I would imagine you’d be begging the judge for a second chance. But then again, maybe sending your child to jail would teach him a lesson and we’d all be better off. No sense in coddling these law breakers.
giles, your comment about – ‘… “normal” students at tech or uva come from the most part money…’ shows either an ignorance of VT’s demographic or just an insistence on defending a young man from your home town, which you’ve done all through this mess. If Cody Journell were from anywhere else, would you be so determined to pretend his innocence?
Don’t worry yourself, Beamer will put him back on the team, because Beamer’s ethics evaporate in the face of a need for his team. Journell will be playing this fall. Beamer will just reinstate him in a slow news cycle. And Journell will learn the lesson that he’ll be enabled as long as he contributes to the team, rules be darned.
I’m not a Virginia Tech fan, but I am a football fan and a believer in second chances. Journell has learned a valuable lesson in life, one I’m sure that he will carry with him on the field and in school everyday. I do hope Beamer (I’m not a Beamer fan either) will give him a second chance.
It must take a lot of mac and cheese for a lineman to weigh over 300lbs. Poor starving athletes that can’t get a proper meal. What planet are you living on? When did they close the athletic dinig hall?
Allow the instilled system ,that VT already has in place, for such occurrences and apply it equally to each and everyone. If they vary at all, then you can say “favortism”. The courts decide who is and isn’t guilty regardless of the atty’s. Stay with the VT guidlines- no one can argue that point.
I love how the apologists try to justify the crimes committed by athletes with the typical ‘we were all young and foolish once…’ as though the athletes are left to the same representation as the rest of us, and as though we all received the gifts they received.
Yeah, the players you defend because they wear orange and maroon are the same ones you’d criticize if they wore the colors of another school. Hypocrisy knows no bounds when it comes to excusing criminal behavior by those we cheer on autumn Saturdays.
@VT should be better – Did you actually believe the stuff you typed after you typed it?
You really think that the possibility of Journell being brought back on the team is “no different” than allowing players who were paid to play dirty and cause injury on the field to play again? Seriously?
And your comments about who opposing fans find the “most abhorrent, obnoxious and aberrant” is nonsense. You’re right, it is easy to write those comments off as sour grapes, because that’s all it is.
I wouldn’t bring Journell back. If it were my decision, his days playing at VT would be over, but I would hope that he transfers and gets a second chance playing for a different team.
Oh whaa, whaa, whaa, the poor kid. OK, he got his second chance by having his charges reduced. But there should still be consequences for his stupid actions, just as there were consequences for my kid for his stupid actions. Getting back on the team is a reward for scraping by, for managing to get the right lawyer who greased the skids and said the right things, who played the “wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people” card. How many VT students are now jammed up as they apply for jobs because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time when they unzipped to take a whiz while intoxicated and just happened to get caught — and now must answer the question on the job app that says “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” Journell getting back on the team will get a pass on that because that will give him a better shot at a pro career that other students don’t get — once again athletes get pampered while Joe Student pays.
We all need to remember that this is a young man we are talking about. Not a VT uniform. I find it ironic that some of you would call others biased when you are obviously anti- VT. I don’t know why you continue to post on this blog. By the way, most of these athletes aren’t wealthy and last time I looked VT’s trophy case is not empty.
I don’t think that if Journell gets reinstated, that it’s a reflection on Beamer’s ethics or an example of Beamer ignoring any team or athletic department rules.
Ethically, second chances are ok. Even though I wouldn’t personally choose to reinstate Journell to the team, I don’t think it shows any sort of lack of ethics to give someone a second chance, especially a kicker who is not a superstar and has struggled just to be a starter. I don’t think that reinstating Journell would be any great help or savior to the VT kicking game.
As far as the rules applying to his status on the team, at least as far as I understand it, as long as Journell isn’t convicted of a felony, then it doesn’t break any rules to put him back on the team. So to say that VT is ignoring the rules for Journell doesn’t apply.
Lesson learned: Cody is a victim of a university life awash in alcohol and drugs which turn young people into lunatics. They are surrounded by a culture that is ideologically rooted in atheistic materialism and climbing the social ladder. Sports are the means for letting off steam. Is this the best society has to offer? Evidently so. And the tenured intellectuals who run institutions like Virginia Tech are deeply complicit. It’s for this that tuition climbs steadily each year?
‘This place is reserved for the national championship trophy’ Empty and dusty. Always has been, always will be.
Journell’s criminal convictions? Add them to the list of talented players whose every off field transgression was excused because of their talent on the field. All traded for the pursuit of the empty trophy case. Which remains empty. And always will.
“All traded for the pursuit of the empty trophy case…”
VT is pursing an empty trophy case? We already have an empty trophy case.
Are you one of those VT fans that thinks that the more negative that you are towards ‘your’ team, the smarter of a fan that you must be? Does every school have as many of these cookie cutter types of “fans” as VT does? Or since you’re focused on an empty trophy case, do you have a problem against people who have goals that they work for?
If VT’s trophy case stays empty, it won’t be because of a lack of ethics. It will be because VT doesn’t pay the big time football players enough to sway them from going to better paychecks at SEC schools.
I’d say that 10 days in jail, 100 hours of community service, one year of probation, Sugar Bowl suspension, public humiliation and a 10k attorney bill is PLENTY of punishment for what Cody did, probably a lot more than a non-football player would receive. Look at the facts of the case, he has paid his debt, leave him alone, and let him pursue a career he has been working exceptionally hard at for the last 8-10 years!
What would you be saying if it were your kid?