It appears Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Letroy Guion’s legal problems — and perhaps personal problems — go a lot further than just the marijuana arrest earlier this year.
The Journal Sentinel dug into Guion’s past and came up with three other legal incidents over the past six years. None of them resulted in Guion serving any time and all happened while he was with the Minnesota Vikings, but they also appear somewhat more troubling than carrying around a giant bag of weed.
Two involved domestic violence and the third was for stalking. One of the domestic incidents allegedly involved Guion hitting his baby mama in the jaw.
Two of the charges were dropped and Guion paid restitution in the third to avoid prosecution, much as he did with the drug charge this year.
Clearly, he’s no stranger to the legal system.
There’s more, though.
A Starke, (Florida) police sergeant said in a deposition that informants told authorities Guion was involved in the drug trade and bankrolled dealers, some of whom were his relatives. The drugs sold included marijuana, cocaine and crack cocaine, according to Sgt. Jason Crosby’s deposition in a forfeiture case involving Guion’s truck and $190,000.
Now, we’re not going to automatically take something from an informant or police officer’s mouth as truth, since each has their own objective, but this doesn’t paint a very nice picture.
If it’s accurate, it makes some sense.
Guion was raised in poverty. His father has had a number of run-ins with the law, several of which were for selling drugs.
You’re not talking about a guy who had a great support system or role models.
Should he know better? Yeah, but people shouldn’t be quick to judge someone who came from a situation they can’t relate to or, likely, even understand.
On the flip side, this arguably makes the Packers look even worse than Guion. They talk about high-character guys from the top down and, if this picture is accurate, Guion clearly doesn’t fit that mold.
So someone didn’t do their homework and the Journal Sentinel just made those someones look awfully stupid.
We’d be willing to place a wager that this will play out in this exact manner.
Those in the Packers organization will ignore it and do their best to sweep it under the rug for the remainder of the season. When Guion becomes a free agent next spring, they’ll ignore him until he either signs elsewhere or the season begins and he doesn’t have a job.