The Miami Heat forward is under a ton of scrutiny for getting arrested.  But some are saying he didn’t do anything… at all

SCOTT JACOBS

We received an email tip from iSixty tonight about Udonis Haslem, who was arrested this weekend.  Haslem you may remember, turned down a lot of money to remain with the new look Miami Heat, a team he has spent his entire career with.  I had the chance to meet the young man 4 years ago, and he was surprisingly low key and soft spoken.  I guess that happens when you’re an undrafted player who makes it in the NBA as a garbage man, hustle-machine, as Haslem is.

Anyways, this tip we received included 4 pages of police reports, but since we don’t know the validity of the pdfs sent, we will not display them on JSB. We will however post the excerpt that we received.  From there we’ll open opinion up to the public.  Is Haslem a victim of something regrettable or was he targeted unfairly?

The excerpt:

“Udonis Haslem, has no criminal record [and] no priors, helps underprivileged kids and has done nothing but great things for South Florida and the Miami Heat, has been charged with 5 (yes 5) counts by the Florida Highway Patrol after being pulled over because his windows were too dark!! [Inside sources who are familiar with the events have confirmed that his long time friend did have some marijuana on him]. After two police searches, two K-9 searches and keeping him at the scene for over an hour and then nearly 3 hours at FHP headquarters, they are pinning the possession charges on Udonis. The FHP trooper himself sent an “anonymous” tip to a local sports station before they had even charged him.”

Photo: AP

Update, by Mitchell Blatt:
According to NBC News, he was charged with marijuana possession (which this source did say was his friends’–one friend was also arrested), and he was also charged with illegal window tint. (However, the police report that was attached only listed 5 drug charges and no other charges: 1 for “cannabis over 20g” and 4 for “drug paraphernalia.”)

MIAMI – Heat forward Udonis Haslem was arrested Sunday for possession of marijuana following a traffic stop in Miami-Dade County. … The trooper smelled “an odor of marijuana from within the vehicle,” Wysocky wrote in a press release, leading to the arrest of both Haslem and passenger Antwain Fleming, 33.
…
Besides the speeding citation, Haslem was also charged with illegal window tint, Wysocky said.

- NBC Sports

The police report, which has already been posted at multiple sites, including The 305 (the same one that was sent to us) says:

There was paper documents in the same bag as the marijuana with the passengers name. Driver + passenger were arrested + advised their rights. The driver did not want to answer any questions. The passenger stated the bag was his … [text is a little bit hard to read for 5 words] … Later the passenger stated that the drugs in the car belonged to him.

The report also states that Haslem was originally pulled over for going 78 MPH in a 60 zone.

That is just submitted for the purposes of complete information, not for commentary purposes.

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