4 current and former football players charged

Dion Dawkins, Haason Reddick, Matt Brown and Bernard Pierce were arrested this week.

Dion Dawkins (left) and Haason Reddick. | COURTESY Philadelphia Police

Four former or current Temple football players found themselves behind bars in a four-day span last week.

Along with current members Dion Dawkins and Haason Reddick, who were arrested last Monday night on assault charges stemming from an off-campus incident in January, former running backs Bernard Pierce and Matt Brown were also arrested last Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, in unrelated incidents.

Pierce – Temple’s second-highest all-time leading rusher who spent the last three NFL seasons with the Baltimore Ravens – was released by the team last Wednesday after his arrest on DUI charges earlier that morning.

“Do you know what happened the last time a Ravens players got a DUI?” Pierce asked his arresting officer, according to The Baltimore Sun. “I’m getting cut tomorrow, not like you care.”

He was referring to the release of former Ravens cornerback Victor Hampton after a DUI charge on Feb. 28, correctly predicting his fate the outcome that would soon follow.

Pierce rushed for 532 yards and averaged 4.9 yards per carry en route to earning a Super Bowl ring with the Ravens in 2012, but his numbers gradually dipped through his next two seasons as Baltimore’s backup running back. After his release, he was picked up off waivers by the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday.

Brown was one of two men arrested on numerous human trafficking and prostitution charges last Thursday.

According to The Sun’s report, Brown and 30-year-old Anthony Leon Eley Jr. brought three girls – ages 14, 16 and 17 – to a Baltimore hotel room.

Vice detectives responded to an advertisement posted in the escorts section of Baltimore.backpage.com, the report said, and arranged a meeting at the hotel, leading to the arrests. According to the report, both men told police they knew the girls were underage and taking part in prostitution.

Brown, a 25-year-old Baltimore resident, was a special-teams standout for the football team from 2009-12, and is the school’s fourth-best all-time leading rusher. He signed for the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers in May 2013, but was released prior to the start of the season. He also had a brief stint with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League from 2013-14, but failed to appear in a game before his release in June 2014.

Brown was released on bail Thursday night and will await a May 19 trial in Baltimore. His father, Warren Brown, a Baltimore attorney, could not be reached for comment.

In terms of Dawkins and Reddick, Officer Leeloni Palmiero, a Philadelphia Police spokeswoman, told The Temple News last Tuesday that both student-athletes were ordered to turn themselves into the police department’s East Detectives division and were charged following a Jan. 18 altercation at an off-campus party at Club 1800 on North 5th Street in Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties neighborhood.

An email from Philadelphia Police said the victim, a 21-year-old Temple senior, visited the club and witnessed Reddick and Dawkins assaulting his friend, also a 21-year-old male. Per the email, the victim said he attempted to pull his friend away, but was kicked in the right eye and held back by people at the party, including Dawkins. The victim said he and Dawkins began to fight when several other people intervened and began hitting him.

Following the incident, the victim suffered a broken orbital bone and – according to the 6ABC report that first broke the arrests on March 16 – a concussion. He initially went to Wills Eye Hospital for treatment, and was later transferred to Jefferson Hospital for his injuries.

Palmiero said the victim first reported the incident to police on Jan. 19, and that a warrant seeking the arrest of both Dawkins and Reddick was issued March 10. She also said that the victim and the accused knew each other prior to the altercation.

Both 20-year-old student-athletes will await a preliminary hearing on March 31 and, according to court documents released last Tuesday morning, have been charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy and related charges. They were both released after posting bail set at $10,000 and were suspended from the team, per a Temple statement.

Dawkins and Reddick are no longer listed on the team’s roster.

Andrew Parent can be reached at andrew.parent@temple.edu or on Twitter @Andrew_Parent23.

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