The police report detailing Thursday’s arrest of three LSU football players has now been made public and it isn’t a pretty picture for the Bayou Bengals.
Quarterback Anthony Jennings, cornerback Dwayne Thomas and defensive lineman Maquedius Bain were all arrested Thursday night and booked on breaking and entering charges. Thomas was also charged with burglary. All three posted bail between $5,000 and $10,000, and walked out of the East Baton Rouge Parish prison sporting their LSU apparel. This came the same day that defensive lineman Trey Lealaimatafao was arrested and charged with battery and felony robbery. LSU cannot even hope that this was one bad nightmare of an incident. The arrests of Jennings, Thomas and Bain were completely unrelated to the allegations against Lealaimatafao, suggesting more of a crime spree atmosphere with the football program. Lealaimatafao was still in jail as of midday Friday with a bail of $15,000.
LSU head coach Les Miles has suspended all four players indefinitely pending a school investigation and the outcome of the legal process.
LSU Football Trio Arrested
The arrest of Jennings, Thomas and Bain is part of a complex web of claims and counterclaims as to who stole items from whom first. The three players allegedly broke into a campus apartment on Friday June 12th by busting the door frame and breaking the door locks. They reportedly took several pairs of shoes, a PlayStation 4 and a MacBook Air from the room of Nicholas Anderson. Anderson’s roommate called him during the alleged break-in and Anderson then called the police. Jennings claims they were simply retrieving items that had been stolen from him by someone else and then sold to Anderson. There is an existing police report dated June 10th, in which Jennings claimed items had been stolen from his campus housing. After several days of investigation into the June 12th break-in, an arrest warrant was issued for the three and they were booked Thursday night.
Thomas is carrying the extra burglary charge because he was identified as the individual actually carrying the items from the apartment.
Lealaimatafao’s arrest stems from a bar fight in the early morning hours of last Tuesday. He is not accused of taking part in the fight, but is charged with rifling through the pockets of a man who had been beaten unconscious. The man’s girlfriend intervened, and Lealaimatafao allegedly pushed her in the face with a closed fist and continued to go through the man’s pockets. According to the newly released arrest report, three eyewitnesses identified Lealaimatafao in a police lineup.
This is Lealaimatafao’s second arrest in the last year. He didn’t play at all in the Fall after being arrested prior to the start of the season for stealing a bike from the campus library, a charge that was eventually reduced to petty theft.
As for the other three, Jennings was the starting quarterback for most of last season and the junior was expected to compete for the starting job this Fall with sophomore Brandon Harris. Thomas was a starting cornerback in his junior year before suffering a season-ending knee injury in week six. Bain, a sophomore, was a reserve defensive tackle in 2014.
Attorneys for Jennings, Thomas and Bain say there are errors in the police account and that they are gathering the evidence to prove that. Miles said all of the players “will cooperate fully” with the police investigation.
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