In not so shocking news, things continue to get worse for Johnny Manziel as his lawyer errantly shared an update on his legal affairs and lack of sobriety.
An errant text sent from Johnny Manziel’s legal team to the Associated Press has opened up new insight into the day-to-day life of the former NFL quarterback, and the findings are bleak. According to the AP, the text reveals Manziel’s lawyer Bob Hinton does not believe Manziel is clean and sober, “Heaven help us if one of the conditions is to pee in a bottle,” Hinton wrote.
Manziel recently made headlines for reporting a hit-and-run crash that left his car in disrepair. The text message from Hinton also revealed Manziel may have spent more than $1,000 at a drug paraphernalia store roughly 15 hours after this wreck. There is apparently a receipt documenting this purchase, although Manziel’s publicist denied this. The store’s manager declined to comment when questioned about this purchase. Hinton said he is also unsure of the receipt’s legitimacy, but was tipped off to its existence by an attorney involved in a unrelated synthetic marijuana case.
“I don’t know if the receipt is legitimate or not,” Hinton responded when asked about it by the AP. “I just know that it doesn’t say Johnny’s name on it anywhere that I can see. It’s just that somebody in that store, I guess, circulated that to the other store managers and employees saying, ‘Guess who was here today and spent this amount of money.’ That’s all I know.”
The text also revealed Manziel’s legal team is seeking a plea bargain in his domestic violence case. Manziel is accused of hitting and threatening to kill Colleen Crowley, his former girlfriend, following an incident on Jan. 3o earlier this year. If convicted, he could be sentenced up to a year in jail and pay a $4,000 fine.
The circumstances behind the AP receiving this text are not entirely clear. Hinton said he meant to send the message to another attorney on the case, but instead sent it as a response to the AP’s inquiry into Manziel’s earlier hit-and-run accident. As one would imagine, Hinton was not thrilled upon discovering his error.
When asked about the text, Hinton said he had meant to send it to another attorney on the case and was unaware the AP had received it instead. He insisted the contents were protected by attorney-client privilege and threatened to sue if certain details were published.
It is unclear how a positive drug test may impact a potential plea deal. These kinds of requirements are usually only mandated when the defendant has exhibited a behavior pattern involving repeated substance abuse, and Manziel likely falls into that categorization.
[AP]
