Ex-Lion arraigned on child-support charge

[Louis Cypher]

Cox Issues Charges Against Ex-Lion Bennie Blades


November 25, 2003

LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox today charged former Detroit Lion Horatio “Bennie” Blades with failure to support his child and desertion-abandonment, both of which are felonies and carry potential prison sentences.

Cox stated that in November 1999, Blades was ordered by a court to pay $860 per week for the support of his minor child, yet he failed to comply. As of November 13, 2003, Blades incurred an arrearage in the amount of $298,259.00.

“For six years, Bennie Blades failed to provide adequate support to his child, despite his ability to pay the support ordered by the court,” Cox said. “That is unacceptable, and my office has issued a warrant for Bennie Blades’ arrest.”

Cox said that his office initiated an investigation earlier this month into Blades’ non-support. Acknowledging Blades’ NFL career as a highly paid athlete, the investigation showed that, upon leaving the NFL, Blades became a registered agent for two Florida corporations and is currently employed by the Broward County School District in Florida.

Also, records of the Broward County Property Appraisers' Office show that Mr. Blades engaged in several real estate transactions between 1995 and 2001.

“Once again let me send this message: Deadbeats that shirk their parental responsibilities risk incarceration,” Cox said. “Whether that parent works in construction or played safety for the Detroit Lions, failure to pay child support will have consequences.”

-- 30 --


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For further information contact: Matt Davis
517-373-0481 (Office)
State of Michigan, Department of Attorney General

[Louis Cypher]

Ex-Lion arraigned on child-support charge

December 2, 2003

BY KATHLEEN GRAY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Former Detroit Lion Bennie Blades turned himself in to authorities Monday to face charges of being a deadbeat dad.

Blades, who played defensive back for nine seasons with the Lions, was charged with failing to pay nearly $300,000 in child support to the mother of a 12-year-old Southfield girl -- one of six children he fathered with six women. He also was charged with child abandonment.

Blades, 37, of Plantation, Fla., turned himself in to the Wayne County Sheriff's Department, said Matt Davis, a spokesman with the Attorney General's Office. He was arraigned in 36th District Court in Detroit.

The Attorney General's Office asked that Blades' bond be set at 10 percent of $2 million or $200,000 in cash, but it was set at $100,000 or 10 percent, meaning that Blades had to come up with $10,000 to be released from jail.

As of Monday evening, he had not posted bond.

In an interview with the Free Press last week, Blades said he wanted to work out a settlement with the girl's mother, but her lawyer refused to talk to him.

In 1999, a judge ordered Blades to pay $860 a week in child support for the girl, but Blades said he thought that order had been modified to reflect his current salary as a substitute teacher with the Broward County school district in Florida.

Blades retired from football in 1998 after suffering a herniated disc. He said he brings home about $180 every two weeks and that the rest of his salary goes to child support and taxes.

"Our bottom line is that we want to get compliance with the child-support order," Davis said. "The best situation is something that will be workable for all parties."

[Pancho Sanza]

6 kids with six women.

This shit never ceases to amaze me.

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

[Dell Dude]

Another ex-Lion bum. This is why they only won a single playoff game during the Wayne Fontestone era. Bunch of underachieving LOSERS. Speaking of which, I wonder what kind of trouble Brett Perriman is in. Maybe instead of bugging Mister Ford for a raise two times every week he is bugging his boss at McDonald's.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

[Louis Cypher]

Great family genes:

Remember when his older brother Brian was charged in the shooting death of their cousin...BEAUTIFUL!



Florida v. Blades (6/96)
Pro football player Brian Blades was charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of his cousin, Charles Blades Jr.

Prosecutors charged Blades, 30, was criminally negligent on July 5, 1995, when his gun fired during a scuffle with his cousin in Brian's home in Plantation, Florida, a bedroom community outside Ft. Lauderdale.

After the shooting, an anguished Brian Blades dialed 911 and repeatedly told the operator: ''I need you to come right now.'' When the police dispatcher asked him what happened, he said he had gone ''to stop my brother from fighting with a girl and the gun went off and shot my cousin.''

The prosecution contended Blades was guilty of a crime because he angrily went for his gun after a shoving match with his brother. Charles Blades, trying to play peacemaker, struggled for the gun and was shot dead.

Prosecutor Peter Magrino pointed out that for the weapon to fire, it had to be loaded, a round had to be placed in the chamber, the safety had to be off and the trigger had to be pulled.

Defense attorneys argued the shooting was an accident and that it was an intoxicated Charles Blades who caused it by grabbing his cousin's gun.

The defense hoped that its case was helped by a courtroom demonstration in which Magrino and a gun expert staged a struggle over the death weapon.

Blades' semiautomatic pistol -- not loaded with live ammunition -- accidentally fired, which seemed to support the defense contention that Charles Blades was shot by accident. But the prosecutor noted that it proved how easy it was for the gun to be negligently mishandled.

Brian Blades, who starred at the University of Miami and now plays for the Seattle Seahawks, pleaded no contest to the manslaughter charge on April 30, 1996 but changed his mind May 17 and entered a plea of not guilty.

In the spring of 1996, Blades signed a 3-year contract with the Seahawks for a reported $4.5 million. The contract was contingent on Blades being available to play.

Verdict
A jury found Blades guilty of manslaughter on June 14, 1996. But 72 hours later, Circuit Judge Susan Lebow overturned the verdict and acquitted Blades.

The ruling meant Blades, who faced a minimum prison sentence of five years and nine months, could not be tried again on the same charge. In issuing the directed verdict, the judge accepted the defense's contention that the state presented no evidence that Blades acted recklessly or negligently in the shooting.

Another irresponsible brother trying to top Shawn Kemp's record for impregnating multiple women.
----------------------
What's the most confusing day of the year in Harlem? Fathers Day.

[Louis Cypher]

Doesn't Evander Holyfield have 12 children with 6 different women? or maybe it's 7 kids with 4 different women...while we're at it, doesn't Larry Bird have 4 kids with 3 different women or is it 2 with 3 or 4 with...oh the hell with it!!

LC

[Pancho Sanza]

Heard a good joke on the radio.

Guy said at least we know both brothers don't shoot blanks.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Pancho Sanza]

I think Holyfield has 9, not sure how many women were involved.

[Louis Cypher]

FROM THE ARCHIVES:

This Week's SI: An Inside Look

Posted: Wed April 29, 1998

Nearly one-third of all children in this country are born to unwed mothers. But this week, Sports Illustrated reports that among professional athletes out-of-wedlock births are epidemic. And of athletes in the major sports leagues, those in the NBA appear to have the greatest number of cases. According to SI, one of the NBA's top agents says he spends more time dealing with paternity claims than he does negotiating contracts. The agent tells the magazine that there might be more kids out of wedlock than there are players in the NBA. According to Sports Illustrated, Larry Johnson of the Knicks is supporting five children by four women, including two he has with his wife, and Shawn Kemp of the Cavaliers, who is not married, has fathered seven children. Other NBA players who have been the subject of paternity-related lawsuits include Patrick Ewing, Juwan Howard, Scottie Pippen, Jason Kidd, Stephon Marbury, Hakeem Olajuwon and Gary Payton, as well as Larry Bird, who is now the coach of the Pacers, and current NBC game analyst Isiah Thomas.

In other sports, baseball's Gary Sheffield and Juan Gonzalez, along with former greats Jim Palmer, Steve Garvey and Pete Rose, have been hit with paternity suits. The NFL names include Andre Rison and Alonzo Spellman; hockey, Mark Messier; boxing, Oscar de la Hoya; and tennis, Roscoe Tanner.

Sports Illustrated's Sandy Bailey joins us to discuss the story.

Paul Crane: Sandy, before we lay this at the doorstep of athletes only, how much does this problem mirror that of society as a whole?

Sandy Bailey: I think it is a problem in society. As you pointed out, 32 percent of children in this country are born out of wedlock and that's up tremendously--it was only 18 percent in 1980. So it is a problem in society but, by all the anecdotal evidence, it is an even greater problem in sports.

PC: And why is the incidence of this problem so much higher in the NBA than in other sports?

SB: That's very hard to say. We suggested a few possible reasons. If the athletes view that there are a lot of women out there sort of looking for them, it's certainly true that NBA athletes are much more identifiable than athletes in other sports. For one thing, they're taller--these guys are 7-feet tall in many cases. They're also athletes whose faces are very familiar to us; they don't wear hats like baseball players, they don't wear helmets like football players. They're very visible. They have a lot of free time on their hands with their roadtrips and also their salaries are the highest. As far as exactly why, it's very difficult to say.

PC: This should be such a private and personal issue--should we really care about the private lives of sports figures?

SB: Whether we should or shouldn't, I think we do, in this country in particular, care very, very much about celebrities in general. And I do think that in these particular cases you're talking about children--we're trying to look at the impact that this has on their lives, we're looking at the impact this has on the women involved and also the guys. In numerous cases we found, some of these activities reach a point where they impact the actual on-the-court, on-the-field performance. We talk about one NFL player, Dave Meggett--one of his paternity cases reached a point where the New England Patriots had to have one of their executives work with him and Meggett was served with papers before a game. You don't think that impacts the team?

[Pancho Sanza]

"PC: And why is the incidence of this problem so much higher in the NBA than in other sports?

SB: That's very hard to say. We suggested a few possible reasons. If the athletes view that there are a lot of women out there sort of looking for them, it's certainly true that NBA athletes are much more identifiable than athletes in other sports. For one thing, they're taller--these guys are 7-feet tall in many cases. They're also athletes whose faces are very familiar to us; they don't wear hats like baseball players, they don't wear helmets like football players. They're very visible. They have a lot of free time on their hands with their roadtrips and also their salaries are the highest. As far as exactly why, it's very difficult to say. "

I think we need RENO to sort through all this PC bullshit and give us the proper answer.

[South Beach]

Oscar De La Hoya has an obscene amount of rug rats by multiple women too.

[Pancho Sanza]

Oscar has 1 kid.