Four football players charged with possession

Hot off the presses from ABC TV here in Raleigh — Jake Vermiglio, J.R. Sweezy, Markus Kuhn and George Bryan have been charged with possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and maintaining a dwelling for the use of a controlled substance.

NC State football players face drug charges

A search warrant filed by Raleigh police shows marijuana and drug paraphernalia was found in an apartment while four North Carolina State football players were inside.

Senior Offensive Lineman Jake Vermiglio, Redshirt Junior Defensive Tackle J.R. Sweezy, Redshirt Junior Defensive Tackle Markus Kuhn, and Redshirt Junior Tight End George Bryan are all named in the document.

A couple of interesting notes. This is Sweezy’s second encounter with the law in less than two months. Also, the apartment where the drugs were found was College Inn, a complex owned by The Wolfpack Club and directly associated with NC State.

Check back for more on this later. O’Brien will likely put out some sort of statement later in the day and I would expect suspensions (perhaps a dismissal for Sweezy) soon after.

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96 Responses to Four football players charged with possession

  1. Daily Update 04/26/2010 at 12:42 PM #

    Solid effort.

    We already have a tough start to the season with UCF on the road followed by Cincy. We could be missing all 4 of these guys for both games. If we lost those 2, then the season is pretty much over as far as having a winning record.

  2. Khan 04/26/2010 at 12:44 PM #

    Well done, gentlemen.

  3. McPete 04/26/2010 at 12:44 PM #

    Champions in the classroom. Champions on the field. Champions in the community. That’s what he said when he arrived.

  4. choppack1 04/26/2010 at 12:48 PM #

    Yea – this is REALLY bad simply because all 4 of these guys are key cogs in the wheel.

    From what I’ve heard – the amount itself would not constitue drug dealing. So by itself, it wouldn’t have been a big deal – but Sweezey is probably gone now, Bryant, Kuhn and Vermiglio are all in trouble.

    Nice work guys – way to use your head. The charges seem A LOT excessive – but I wonder if there was a bit of “it ain’t mine” going on in the dorm, so they just..”Ok, to heck w/ it – your all going down.”

  5. phunisher 04/26/2010 at 12:50 PM #

    This is simply pathetic. What a disgrace to our university.

  6. ncsufan13 04/26/2010 at 12:54 PM #

    As if our football program needed any more bad press this off season. How many players have been suspended/dismissed now?

  7. Alpha Wolf 04/26/2010 at 12:55 PM #

    So four college room-mates were smoking some dope.

    Gee, like that never goes on anywhere.

    If it is a disgrace, then I’d say a fair number of college kids disgrace their schools at every college.

    Bet on this being major fodder for the yapping heads on local radio over the course of the week….you know, the same ones that ignored John Bunting’s players’ continual run-ins with the law over to our west.

    Maybe they can get the case transferred to Orange County, and Judge Carl Fox can have them write a book report.

    My worry is this: will it affect Kuhn’s immigration status? Even if he were to get probation from reduced charges, would the Feds move to deport him?

  8. McPete 04/26/2010 at 12:59 PM #

    Alpha,
    when three of your most important starters (all-acc TE, senior left tackle, most experienced DL) get into legal trouble and potentially get themselves suspended, it’s a big deal. Clearly the charges aren’t severe nor the offense that reprehensible, but it’s f$%king stupid of them. And Vermiglio and Bryan have real pro potential so this won’t go away for them either.

  9. Daily Update 04/26/2010 at 1:01 PM #

    Alpha wolf: I doubt it will be talked about much on the radio. People may talk about how it will hurt our season, but because the media respects TOB it won’t be used against the program like it would have if Amato was our coach.

  10. packbackr04 04/26/2010 at 1:01 PM #

    well its not like any of these guys are important pieces that are expected to contribute to the success of our football team this year

  11. Pack Leader 04/26/2010 at 1:04 PM #

    I am in NO WAY condoning drug use….. but…..

    “Officer R.E. Hoffman states in the warrant that April 24, he was working off-duty at the College Inn apartments at 2717 Western Boulevard. He states he detected a strong smell of marijuana coming from apartment 360 and obtained the search warrant to search the premises.”

    My biggest problem is what consitutes a smell??? Now this may be a whole different topic, but could a cop just get a warrent for any place he thinks he may smell something?? If you saw them smoking thats one thing, saw them buy it thats one thing, sold it to them undercover thats one thing…. but to just walk around a building and automaticly pinpoint the exact door seems peculiar.

    “Seized in the search were: 3 sandwich bags of marijuana (aprox 6 grams total)”

    If these wernt ACC Athletes, this would have been a ticket/court date in which they could EASILY plead first offense and get it wiped off their record with 10-20 community service hours. Anything under 7 grams is not considered a higher offense, and since there are 4 men involved more than likley they will split up the amount per person (which would mean 1.3 grams per person- street value $5-10). Now the paraphernalia is different that will carry some weight (probably another 20 hrs community service) but even a public lawyer could get them off with no long term record. This will get much more publicity than it deserves, for obvious reasons, but unfortuantly its not uncommon to hear marijuana and athletes in the same sentence often.

    Side note to all players DONT KEEP ILLEGAL ITEMS IN YOUR UNIVERSITY OWNED APARTMENT.

  12. BassPacker 04/26/2010 at 1:14 PM #

    Well said Pack Leader……..totally agree.

  13. Prowling Woofie 04/26/2010 at 1:15 PM #

    Still a dumb-ass manuever from guys who should know better. Don’t care if it’s only one bud, they’re still idiots for exposing themselves and the university to this kind of press.

    Thanks for shooting down the season for a buzz, guys !

    And don’t give me this “college student’ crap – they’ve been given the gift of a free education; all they have to do is stay out of trouble…

  14. choppack1 04/26/2010 at 1:16 PM #

    McPete – it’s poor judgement yes.

    But come on – I’m 39 and my judgement some days still leaves a lot to be desired.

    For Sweezy, it’s a lot less excusable. He’s in trouble for something I do feel strongly about.

    I’m a little concerned w/ the culture since Bryan had the pics on his phone. That tends to make me think he’s a little too interested in it.

    It’s one of those times when I’m think you sit the guys down and look at their status in weight room, class room, performance in practice and on field.

    From this, you can say,
    1. “Well, this was an isolated incident and you used bad judgement…don’t use it again. You are better than this”
    2. “This explains some things. Get your crap together, you’re blowing it.”
    3. “I knew you were bad news the moment I laid eyes on you Bud Foxx.”

  15. packbackr04 04/26/2010 at 1:18 PM #

    so is Lee still wanting to take credit for the TOB hire? or will he now say TOB was not his choice?

  16. Pack Mentality 04/26/2010 at 1:20 PM #

    “Detected a strong smell of marijuana” means that “I suspect there is marijuana and am using this as a reason to search regardless of if I smell anything or not.”

  17. Statefan1998 04/26/2010 at 1:28 PM #

    I can hear TOB now after another 4-8 season, “we lost 3 or 4 starters before the season even started.” No excuses this year, win or resign?

  18. nav 04/26/2010 at 1:30 PM #

    You know the saying “If it wasn’t for bad luck…”

    That’s State athletics.

  19. Pack Leader 04/26/2010 at 1:31 PM #

    Any idea if this would consitute a suspension from game time?

    What has past similar situations got? Im just not sure of any State players caught with this recently (besides TA McLendon selling Pot at his former HS football game after leaving state). One would think TOB wouldnt take this lightly (even though its very possible in 5 years NC could leaglize it like Cali, Colorado ,Alabama, NH, Mass, Washington, Vermont…)

    I believe the NFL has a warning first positive drug test but I could be wrong about this one

    I know we have several Lawyers who post on this blog consistantly, Im very curious to what their thoughts on this particular situation. Unfortunatly, Architects dont really have much help in this area…

  20. Pack Mentality 04/26/2010 at 1:36 PM #

    “This is simply pathetic. What a disgrace to our university.”

    Agreed. I can’t believe that this is what the off duty police officer is spending his time on.

  21. PackMan97 04/26/2010 at 1:38 PM #

    Yet more young lives potentially ruined by this country’s senseless and counterproductive war on drugs.

    End prohibition, it didn’t work the first time and it’s not working now.

  22. nav 04/26/2010 at 1:39 PM #

    “I can’t believe that this is what the off duty police officer is spending his time on.”

    Agreed.

    Breaking news: Pot smell coming from a college dorm room.

    Let’s freaking find better use of our public tax money.

  23. Pack Mentality 04/26/2010 at 1:46 PM #

    NC State has more marijuana busts per capita than any other school in the state.

    Someone in authority has made the decision to aggressively search out these dangerous criminals in the student community more so than the other schools in the state.

  24. packof81 04/26/2010 at 1:47 PM #

    “I can’t believe that this is what the off duty police officer is spending his time on.”

    Funny how that works, ain’t it? Nowadays, all kinds of places hire off-duty cops as security guards so there won’t be any “trouble”. I’ve seen one in the IHOP on Hillsborough street. Kids can’t get by with squat these days.

  25. JEOH2 04/26/2010 at 1:51 PM #

    hmmm, I am curious what the office of student conduct will do about this?

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