Former BU football player pleads guilty to misdemeanor assault

Former Baylor University offensive lineman Rami

Hammad pleaded guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor assault-family violence and was placed on deferred probation for two years and fined $200.

Hammad, who played in 13 games in 2015 at right guard and was a projected starter last year before his suspension, was charged with third-degree felony stalking and misdemeanor criminal trespass. However, prosecutors reduced the felony count to misdemeanor assault-family violence in a plea offer negotiated with Hammad’s attorney, Phil Martinez.

The criminal trespass charge was not pursued as part of the plea agreement.

“I think the district attorney’s office looked at all the offense reports that the police department generated and they knew that Mr. Hammad had not been in any trouble previously and this was the best resolution to the case,” Martinez said. “I am disappointed he had to plead to it, but it is a way to allow him to get back into another college as quickly as possible.

“Mr. Hammad did not want to go through the time it would take to get his case to a trial and he also didn’t want to face any type of felony charge, as well. So this negotiated plea offer was something that we both thought would resolve it and allow him to continue his education at another school.”

In deferred probation cases, there is no final judgment of guilt if the defendant successfully completes probation.

Martinez said Baylor administrators cleared Hammad, 22, of Irving, to return to Baylor but they would not allow him to continue playing football there.

Florida Atlantic University and the University of Texas at San Antonio have expressed interest in Hammad transferring to those schools, Martinez said. Kendal Briles, who left Baylor after his father, former head coach Art Briles, was fired in the wake of a Title IX sexual assault scandal, is now offensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic.

Hammad, who started his college career at the University of Texas in 2012, was arrested in October 2016 on two counts of criminal trespassing of a building. He was given a written criminal trespassing warning in August 2016, just two days after he was arrested on the felony stalking complaint.

He was not permitted on campus while the stalking charge was pending, university officials said.
Source http://www.wacotrib.com/news/courts_and_trials/former-bu-football-player-pleads-guilty-to-misdemeanor-assault/article_103952b9-d5bb-5f7a-a281-7fdbe596b568.html