Washington Wizards reserve Javaris Crittenton could be summoned before a federal grand jury as early as this week to testify about a gun-flashing incident in the team’s locker, The Examiner has learned.
A handful of players and team coach Flip Saunders have already given their version of events to grand jurors. But Crittenton, the putative victim of a Dec. 21 stunt in which All-Star guard Gilbert Arenas displayed four handguns, has since been accused of responding to Arenas by bringing a weapon of his own and sliding a bullet into the chamber.
Police and prosecutors have been given conflicting accounts of Crittenton’s involvement and will interview him last, a law enforcement source told The Examiner. Authorities expect to interview the bulk of Wizards’ players through the week, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.
Arenas has admitted to “bad judgment” in bringing four guns into the team locker. He said that he brought the weapons to keep them away from his young kids in his Virginia home. The guns were put on a chair near Crittenton’s locker on Dec. 21 following a heated dispute over a card game on a team flight. Arenas described the incident as a prank that went bad.
Reports surfaced last week that Crittenton responded by chambering a bullet in a weapon of his own. If true, it ratchets up the criminal stakes because Arenas didn’t disclose that to police and prosecutors in his initial meeting last week, the source said. Crittenton emphatically denied the account.
Two different sports law experts told The Examiner that odds are Arenas will go to jail for the stunt.
“Prosecutors in general, federal or not — you get their attention when you hand them a no-brainer case,” said Eldon Ham, a law professor in Chicago who successfully represented Chicago Bears great Richard Dent when he was fighting a drug suspension. “They’re not sentimental.”
Notre Dame law professor Ed Edmonds agreed and said that Arenas’ 2004 California conviction for gun possession makes it easier for prosecutors to drop the hammer.
“The prosecutor may well feel that ‘I have an opportunity to send a strong message about possession of firearms,'” Edmonds said. “This is a real opportunity to set an example.”
The NBA has suspended Arenas indefinitely for his continued jokes about the incident. The league has seen a rash of violence around and from its players and is trying to stem further public relations problems.
Last week, the team fined four players for laughing when Arenas pretended to shoot them in a pre-game warm-up.
