It’s been a rough month or so for University of Kansas basketball star Josh Jackson. On February 3rd, he became a person of interest in a vandalism investigation. On February 24th, he was charged in that investigation.
On Friday, The Kansas City Star broke the story wide open and reported Jackson tried to make it all go away with money. One of Jackson’s lawyers offered restitution to the family of McKenzie Calvert, a woman’s basketball player at Kansas, if she agreed not to seek charges.
The source for this story seems pretty credible too: Calvert’s father. Tim Calvert told The Kansas City Star that Jackson’s team offered Calvert’s family money first back on February 4th, two months after the original incident happened and days after Jackson and other Jayhawks’ players were reported as people of interest.
“They wanted to pay to make it all go away,” Calvert said. “But it wouldn’t have gone away for my daughter. It would have been great for Josh, but not for McKenzie. … This was never about money for me, it was about how my daughter was treated.”
Here is what Calvert said Jackson’s attorneys were looking for specifically, along with the money:
“The family not pursue an investigation with the university; that they agree damages Jackson made to the car were of a misdemeanor amount; and, ultimately, that they agree they do not want the vandalism prosecuted.”
The incident at hand involved Calvert’s car being vandalized outside the Yacht Club bar and restaurant in Lawrence in the early morning hours of December 9th. In the bar, Calvert threw a drink at an ex-boyfriend and when Jackson saw this happen, he followed Calvert and began to kick her car. When restitution was offered, she said her car had already been fixed.
While Kansas prepares for the NCAA tournament, it may have to without the 20-year-old Jackson, who was charged back on February 24th for misdemeanor property damage and is currently scheduled to be arraigned on April 12th.
“Josh has already made a statement regarding this incident, which occurred almost three months ago in December,” Jackson’s attorney Scott Boatman said. “The incident actually started in the club and did not initially involve Josh at all. Josh attempted to intervene to help and protect a teammate and unfortunately the matter escalated. Josh has apologized for his actions and has also offered to pay for any damages that he directly caused. He looks forward to moving past this so that he is able to focus on school and basketball.”
While Jackson deals with the repercussions on and off the court from this incident, Calvert was also suspended by her head coach Brandon Schneider and was banned from Allen Fieldhouse. After her father complained that Jackson wouldn’t miss a game, Calvert’s suspension was taken away.
The Kansas City Star asked the University for a comment about the restitution offer by Jackson’s legal team, but didn’t comment. Jackson has played in every game for Kansas this year except for their most recent game, a loss to TCU in the Big 12 quarterfinals, thanks to a one-game suspension from Bill Self.
Why wasn’t Calvert charged with assault when she threw the drink at his friend. What’s wrong with him saying I’ll pay for the damages, don’t worry. I say BS to the whole story.