Legal News

Arenas Charged With Felony Gun Possession

By Nathan Koppel

Count us surprised. We figured the Gilbert Arenas gun imbroglio would lead to little more than a few stern lectures and mea culpas.

But then Arenas was suspended by NBA commish David Stern, after Arenas appeared to make light of the gun incident.

And now, far more serious, the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, D.C. today charged Arenas with felony gun possession. Here's a report from the Washington Post.

Arenas and his Wizards teammate Javaris Crittenton got into an argument last month over a card game, prompting Crittendon to allegedly joke that he would shoot Arenas in his surgically-repaired knee. Later, the story goes, Arenas brought some guns into the team's locker room and told Crittendon to pick one.

A prelude to a duel, Old West style, or merely an elaborately staged joke?

Either way, Arenas, it seems, was just too high profile to escape without a serious legal slap to his surgically-repaired knee.

Arenas's lawyer, O'Melveny partner Kenneth Wainstein, declined to comment.

Wainstein and prosecutors, according to the Post, have been negotiating a plea deal during the day and it is not clear whether the filing of charges was a part of the deal. Court officials said they had been told to prepare to have Arenas in Superior Court on Friday.

Police also searched Crittenton’s home today looking for the gun he reportedly used in the locker room confrontation with Arenas.

Peter White, Crittenton's counsel, told the Post: “I can confirm that a search warrant was executed on Mr. Crittenton’s apartment today, that Mr. Crittenton cooperated with the officers conducting the search, and that no evidence was found or seized by police.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 14, 2010 (boomark / email).