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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 10:37 a.m., Friday, May 23, 2008

NFL: 'Pacman' Jones paying Las Vegas gambling debt, lawyer says

By KEN RITTER
Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS — Adam "Pacman" Jones intends to pay a $20,000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas casino to settle a criminal complaint alleging the suspended NFL player wrote three bad checks.

"We'll pay the bill today and there's not going to be a warrant," lawyer Manny Arora told The Associated Press by phone. "We're going to send a check today."

Court documents filed Friday in Las Vegas Justice Court show Clark County District Attorney David Roger is seeking a felony arrest warrant for the 24-year-old player unless he pays a bill totaling $24,675. The extra $4,675, which Arora says his client will pay, is for the district attorney's processing fees and penalties.

A clerk for Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joe M. Bonaventure said the warrant would be offered for the judge's signature Wednesday.

Arora acknowledged that Jones owes the money cited in a criminal complaint, but said he had been quietly trying to arrange payment.

"We were talking to the DA and trying to work out an arrangement," Arora said. "It's a debt that's out there. We're going to pay it."

The complaint alleges Jones wrote two bad checks for $5,000 and one for $10,000 last Sept. 3 at Caesars Palace. It was first reported by the Las Vegas Sun.

Gary Thompson, a spokesman for resort owner Harrah's Entertainment Inc. declined comment, citing "standard practice in legal matters."

The NFL has no policy against players gambling in casinos, as long as they do not wager on NFL games. However, the league is scrutinizing the actions of Jones, who was indefinitely suspended last season by commissioner Roger Goodell. Jones recently was traded from the Tennessee Titans to the Dallas Cowboys.

"We're aware of it and we are looking into it," league spokesman Greg Aiello said Friday.

Arora said Jones, a star cornerback who has been arrested six times since being selected sixth in the 2005 NFL draft, has not been paid since his suspension in March 2007 and has been "moving assets around" to pay bills.

Jones had been scheduled for a base salary of $1.74 million in 2008 and had been under contract through 2009 before his suspension.

The trip to Caesars came while Jones was shadowed by felony coercion charges for his role in a strip club triple shooting that left a man paralyzed in Las Vegas in February 2007.

Jones pleaded no contest Dec. 6 to conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct in a deal that reduced two felony charges of coercion stemming from the strip club shooting. The coercion charges each carried a possible sentence of one to six years in prison.

In return, Jones agreed to tell police what he knew about the gunman. Jones never acknowledged any role in the shooting.

The alleged gunman, Arvin Kenti Edwards, of Renton, Wash., was arrested in April after Jones picked him from a police lineup. Edwards is jailed in Washington pending extradition to Las Vegas.

AP Sports Writer Jaime Aron in Dallas contributed to this report.