NBA Rumors 2016: Ty Lawson Gets One-Year Probation for DUI
Former Denver Nuggets starting point guard Ty Lawson averted what may have been a career-ending disaster on Tuesday when a county court decided to give him one year of probation as the sentence to the drunken driving charge filed against him last year. It has to be good news for the veteran player considering that prosecutors pushed for him to be given jail time.
During the short hearing of the case, his attorneys claimed that the only reason why the government prosecutors wanted jail time for him is because he was not just anyone; his status as a professional basketball star and celebrity in Denver was to serve as a good example for the community to learn from.
They asserted that he should be receiving the traditional punishment for anyone who was caught driving under the influence for the very first time, which in this case is probation.
Luckily for Lawson, that's what he got.
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Judge Olympia Z. Fay, as quoted by the Denver Post, scolded Lawson during the sentencing. "You have a terrible history. You are going down a bad path," she said.
While the case is Lawson's first offense, it actually isn't the only time he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. This one involved an incident that happened in Jan.23 of last year, when he was arrested at 3400 block in Park Avenue West, at a time when he was still playing for the Nuggets. After just six months, he once again got caught on the same offense in the Los Angeles area.
And if those two aren't enough, Lawson actually pleaded guilty to drinking and driving as an underage in North Carolina during his college days in UNC. His attorneys also argued that the conviction shouldn't come with any weight or merit in the case because he was underage at that time.
As a professional basketball player in the NBA, Lawson started to feel the consequences of his off-court issues when the Nuggets decided to trade him to the Houston Rockets last offseason. But after playing a little over 50 games for Houston, he was waived. He recently signed with the Indiana Pacers as the playoffs draw near.
