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Warrick cleared to play FSU receiver pleads guilty, receives no jail time
Posted: Saturday October 23, 1999 06:33 PM
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Peter Warrick will rejoin Florida State for Saturday's game at Clemson after he agreed Friday to a deal that requires no jail time on his theft charge. The star receiver pleaded guilty instead to misdemeanor petty theft in a department store scam. "I appreciate the support shown me through this," Warrick said in a statement released by the school. "I am glad to get the chance to play again." Coach Bobby Bowden called Warrick's reinstatement "a miracle from above." The settlement met the university's standard for letting him play. The school had insisted that the Heisman Trophy contender would not play until he had served any jail time demanded by a resolution of his legal case. Warrick, who sat out Florida State's last two games, can now play as Bowden goes for his 300th career victory. "He has paid the consequences for his mistake and then some," athletic director Dave Hart Jr. said Friday. "It's time to move past it." Warrick, a teammate who was later tossed from the squad and a store clerk were charged with felony grand theft when the clerk let the two players buy more than $400 worth of designer clothes Sept. 29 at a Dillard's department store for $21.40. "I don't mean to diminish what he did, but folks, it was a discount," Warrick's lawyer, John Kenny, said. "I know the state attorney looked at it that they could find a way to make it a felony." Judge John Crusoe agreed to terms in which Warrick will serve one year probation, donate the clothes to the Children's Home Society, pay $579 restitution, $295 in court costs, have no contact with Dillard's and spend 30 days on a work program where he will probably clean trash from city streets. "He's not wearing stripes, he's not in jail, and that's a significant determining factor for the university," Kenny said. "It was a fair resolution for the state, a fair resolution for Peter Warrick, a fair resolution for the university," the lawyer added. "And we know it's a fair resolution for our fans." The 22-year-old receiver was in South Carolina with his teammates for the Clemson game when the deal was struck. Bowden goes for the milestone victory against son Tommy Bowden, the Clemson coach, in the first father-son matchup in Division I-A history. Kenny and Warrick met Thursday night with Florida State president Sandy D'Alemberte, who had a problem with a player competing if he faced jail. "I want the jail or prison time behind someone before they play," D'Alemberte said. Earlier this week, Kenny reached an agreement to reduce the charge to a misdemeanor with the state attorney, but that would have required the player to spend 30 days in jail at the end of the semester. The Dillard's clerk, Rachel Myrtil, pleaded no contest Thursday to grand theft and was sentenced to two years' probation, 10 days on a county work program, ordered to pay $308 in court costs and stay out of Dillard's department stores. Laveranues Coles, who paid for the clothes, was kicked off the Florida State team.
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