Green Bay Packers defensive end Johnny Jolly has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to a drug possession charge.
Packers defensive end pleads guilty to drug possession charge
Green Bay Packers defensive end Johnny Jolly has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to a charge of drug possession.
Jolly, who was arrested outside a Houston club three years ago, could have faced up to 20 years in prison if he had been convicted of possessing at least 200 grams of the controlled substance codeine.
But an agreement with prosecutors saw him plead guilty to the 2008 charge while a drug charge from March, in which he was also accused of codeine possession, was dropped.
The 28-year-old was suspended for the whole of the Packers' 2010 Super Bowl-winning season, a ban that stemmed from his arrest in 2008.
He had started all 16 games for Green Bay in both of the previous two campaigns and it was reported in February that he had started the application process for reinstatement.
Jolly was given five years of deferred adjudication by Judge Denise Bradley, a sentence which allows the conviction to be wiped from his record if he stays out of trouble.
The judge warned Jolly that she would send him to prison if he violated the terms of his probation, which includes entry into a drug rehabilitation program.
"I did not agree to give him probation. The judge used her experience and her best judgment in deciding what to do," prosecutor Todd Keagle said.
