I reported yesterday that some people close to the Pouncey case believed misdemeanor charges could be coming as soon as today against Maurkice Pouncey. According to Miami Herald reporter Adam Beasley, prosecutors will not be pressing charges today.

Beasley writes that police detectives have now met with Miami Dade prosecutors, and that they want to review all of the information before making a decision as to whether or not they’ll proceed with battery charges. According to Beasley, Miami police detectives feel that they have probable cause for a misdemeanor battery charge, but being that it isn’t a felony offense, the decision falls to the state’s attorney office.

Being that state prosecutors are the ultimate decision makers on the matter, and they’re just beginning to review the evidence and information in the case, I wouldn’t expect any charges to be brought forth against Maurkice Pouncey any time soon. Of course, they may in fact decide that there isn’t a case for battery at all. Time will tell.

The lawyer for the three people who filed a civil suit against Maurkice Pouncey a couple weeks ago says that police have indicated to him that charges will be pressed against Maurkice Pouncey.

Personal injury attorney Marwan Porter says that he was briefed by the Miami Police about their intentions. Their lawyer also says that Maurkice will be the only one charged, and that charges could come as soon as tomorrow. Pouncey’s attorney doesn’t believe that could happen.  Attorney Jeff Ostrow told the Miami Herald that as far as he knew, an assistant state attorney hadn’t been assigned to review the evidence yet.

“Until such time, no charges can be formally filed against either of my clients,” Ostrow added. “From what we’ve discovered, the evidence supporting the battery claims is flimsy, at best.”

According to Ostrow, the defense has “many witnesses who are prepared to testify under sworn oath that neither Maurkice nor Mike had anything to do with the incident. Consequently, after the state reviews all the evidence, I find it highly unlikely that formal charges will be filed against either of the Pouncey brothers.”

While the Miami Police department wouldn’t say if charges would indeed be filed, multiple people close to the situation believe charges will be pressed according to the Herald. If he is in fact charged with the misdemeanor, he would not have to rush down to Florida to stand for the charges, but it certainly would complicate the civil suit, regardless of the outcome of the criminal charges.

Defense attorneys often like to get their cases in the newspaper, so this might just be another grab for publicity. Time will tell if there’s any truth to this report.

The three people who announced that they were going to sue Mike and Maurkice Pouncey have formally done so Friday. Riquan James, Brantley Williams, and Niya Pickett filed their lawsuit Friday in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Miami-Dade County Florida.

The complaint alleges that the Pounceys and their security detail called James “derogatory and homophobic remarks and anti-gay slurs,” and that both Pounceys “began to push and shove” him. When James politely asked them to stop, Maurkice allegedly “struck James in the face several times” before the Pounceys and their security detail began “to punch, hit and kick James while he was laying in a fetal position.”

According to the allegations, Pickett tried to intervene, but Maurkice “punched her in the face and knocked her unconscious.” The suit claims that Williams was a random club goer, who suffered bruises and a large laceration that required stitches. She allegedly received the injuries when the two were thrown into her.

Here is the complete lawsuit filed yesterday via a Miami sports radio station.

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The alleged victims’ laywer, Marwan Porter, spoke with 93.7 The Fan yesterday. “The victims in this particular situation, the young lady Niya Pickett, Brinley Williams and the gay individual, Ricquan James, they’re traumatized by this,” Porter said. “You have two 6-foot-5, 300 pound giants who went around this club and knocked out a woman and a gay guy who are less than half their sizes, and they were very adamant that they want these people, the Pouncey brothers, held accountable, and they wanted this to move forward. They didn’t want this to be swept under the rug, and for these individuals to get away with this just because they’re rich and famous. You know, regular people need to have a voice as well and you can’t just go around punching peoples’ lights out.”

You can listen to the full audio from that interview below:

According to Pouncey’s lawyer, the Pounceys intend to countersue.

“The allegations in the complaint about my clients are completely false,” attorney Jeffrey M. Ostrow said in a statment. “As I previously stated, Mike and Maurkice Pouncey had absolutely no involvement whatsoever in the alleged incident that evening and did nothing wrong. This claim is a complete sham. The plaintiffs and their lawyer are perpetuating these lies in a bid for notoriety and financial gain. We intend to defend this case through trial if necessary and will be filing a counterclaim for malicious prosecution and defamation.”

Maurkice spoke publicly about the lawsuit for the first time today at training camp.

“I’m a man about everything,” Pouncey told the media today. “Y’all know that every time I ever made a mistake any time in my NFL career I admitted to it. For something like this to happen and have no total involvement in it is upsetting and hurtful to me. You know it’s on my mind like crazy. Hopefully, it blows over. Our lawyer put out a statement.” When asked if he was afraid of being disciplined, he said he had none. “No fear at all. The only thing that sucks about it is that I tried to keep a clean nose throughout the process this year. Having to deal with this, sucks, it truly does.

“Even for the birthday party, we hired our own retired police officer to go out with us. For something like to this to happen is truly unbelievable. I just want to take the time to apologize to the the fans who take this the wrong way. You guys all know me and know the person I am. For people to say bad things about me, that sucks. But sometimes you’ve got to deal with bad things in life and move on.”

The legal process will take some time of course, but the next step will be discovery, and the most important piece of discovery will be the video surveillance from the Cameo night club.

The man who accused Mike and Maurkice Pouncey of assaulting him in a Miami nightclub Friday night has announced that he intends to sue. Riquan James and two women hired an attorney, Marwan Porter Esq., who held a press conference earlier today to talk to the media about their plans to sue the Pouncey twins. “It will include claims for intentional infliction of emotional stress. This has been very traumatic for my clients and things of that nature,” said Porter in the press conference.

Oddly enough, the alleged victims haven’t been very talkative to the police according to the Miami Herald. Neither the accusers nor a witness have gone in to make a statement since night of incident.

“We need them to come forward and speak to investigators,” said Sgt. Bobby Hernandez, a Miami Beach police spokesman. “We’ve been anxiously awaiting that since they made the allegations on Saturday.”

Pouncey’s attorney Jeff Ostrow released a statement about the allegations tonight.

“Mike and Maurkice were not involved in any altercation with the accuser or anyone else that night and did nothing wrong,” Ostrow wrote. “It appears that the accuser is an opportunist seeking attention and possible financial gain. Any attempt by the accuser or anyone else to bring an action against them based upon these false allegations will be vigorously defended. If the accuser continues to perpetuate these lies, we will bring an action against him.”

The accuser has said he’s not after money or attention, but he’s not exactly making a good case for that. The press conference today was just an announcement, no actual suit has been filed yet. No criminal charges have been pressed, either.

A man and a woman accused Maurkice Pouncey and his brother Mike of assaulting them in a Miami nightclub over the weekend. As of this morning, Miami police are still trying to figure out exactly what happened at the Cameo Friday night. Police have released the incident report, and neither of the Pouncey twins are named in the report.

The report lists two victims- a 32-year-old female named Niya Pickett, and a 24-year-old male named James Ricquan. Connecting the dots here, but it’s safe to assume that James Ricquan is the real name of “Ricky Vasqeuz”, and Niya Pickett is the woman he referred to as “Honey”.

Here is the narrative provided in the incident report:

“V01 [Pickett] and V02 [Ricquan] advised me that while inside Cameo night club between the listed times, an unknown male was trying to leave the club when he pushed V01 and V02 out of the way. Victims state that S01 then proceeded to punch V01 and V02 in the head causing a large welt/bruising to both V01 and V02. S01 then left the area.”

You can view the incident report below. (H/T to The New Times).

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Maurkice Pouncey and his brother Mike were out on the town last night. The two were partying at the Cameo night club in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood, where the brothers were holding their annual birthday bash.

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The twins celebrate their July 24th birthday together early due to football obligations. Around this time last year, the Pouncey twins made headlines by being photographed wearing “Free Hernandez” hats at the same nightclub.

Last night’s alleged incident may potentially have greater consequences for the Steelers center though, if his accusers allegations prove true. According to the victim, who goes by the name Ricky Vasquez on his social media accounts, both Pouncey brothers physically assaulted him before 4 security guards came and threw him out. A female companion who was with the alleged victim corroborated his account, and claims that she was also assaulted by- specifically- Maurkice Pouncey. Vasquez describes himself on Twitter as “Event Host. Choreographer. Stylist. TeaOlogist. Free Spirit. Socialite.”

There is also another layer to this story, in that the alleged victim is said to be openly gay, and according to him, gay slurs were hurled while he was being assaulted. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence, but it’s worth mentioning that the name Ricky Vasquez is also the name of a character on the show My So Called Life. On the show, Vasquez battles with gender issues and is the subject of gay bullying. (H/T to my wife.)

The alleged incident occurred somewhere shortly after 4:00 AM Saturday morning. The man who claims he was assaulted took to his Twitter and Instagram accounts shortly after the incident to share his story. Here are some of those postings:

*Warning* The language in the posts and video clips below may be offensive to some readers. You’ve been warned.

https://twitter.com/iAmRickyVasquez/statuses/487882374517362688

https://twitter.com/iAmRickyVasquez/statuses/487882405861421056

https://twitter.com/iAmRickyVasquez/statuses/487884349166354432

https://twitter.com/iAmRickyVasquez/statuses/487886010467254272

https://twitter.com/iAmRickyVasquez/statuses/487888435806736384

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Here’s some transcription of what Vasquez was saying in his Instagram videos.

“I didn’t know that stuff like this actually f**ing happens to people…All I can remember is standing in a crowded club and this big guy keeps hitting me in my back, I look at him and I’m like, OK, he’s obviously turned up. And he just keeps hitting me. I ignore it. I keep ignoring the guy — he’s calling me a faggot. I realize that there’s two of the guys. Now they’re both in my face. The next thing I know, Honey tries to break it up. One of them punches Honey in the face, the other one punches me or the same one, I don’t know. Security comes.”

Here is a collage the woman he refers to as Honey posted to her instagram account.

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The caption of one of Honey’s social media postings read, “Went inside @Cameomia 10 minutes just to be punched in my face by Marquise [sic] Pouncey for trying to stop him and his brother mike from beating the shit out of my friend @irickyvasquez. Filed a report even though the Police said nothing probably will be done about this situation. These athletes get on all these f**kin drugs and act an ass knowing they will be protected by these clubs because of how much money they spend in their clubs but I’m not gonna let this shit rest. I’m a female and I won’t Stand for no man putting their hands on me.”

According to Miami Beach Police spokespeople, they are indeed aware of the situation.”There was an incident that occurred at Cameo last night at 4:20 a.m., where an alleged assault took place,” Miami Beach Police Sgt. Bobby Hernandez told New Times.”We have not confirmed it’s the Pouncey brothers that are the subjects, but we are going to have detectives contacting the victims to investigate further.”

As with any story, one should definitely exercise caution before passing judgement. We’re only hearing one side of this story so far, but as the weekend progresses, I imagine more details will emerge.

As you know, the Steelers signed Maurkice Pouncey to a five year extension yesterday. Initial reports revealed that the 5 year deal included a total value of $44 Mil, with a $13 Mil guaranteed signing bonus. Thanks to additional numbers provided by Jason LaCanfora, Tom Pelissero, and Aaron Wilson, I can break down the contract for you. FYI, anyone who says they aren’t using numbers provided by the latter two to give a full breakdown, are straight up full of it.

Pouncey’s total deal is for 6 years, $48 Mil. The contract includes roster bonuses that are due the 5th day of 2015 and 2016 league years, which are for $3.75 Mil and $3.5 Mil respectively. Pouncey’s 2014 salary has been reduced to $1 Mil, and now has just over a $5 Mil cap number. His 2014 cap number has been lowered a couple hundred thousand.

[table]

Year, Base Salary, Prorated Bonus, Roster Bonus, Cap Hit, Dead Money

2014, “$1,000,000″,”$4,000,625″,”$0″,”$5,000,625”, “$14,400,625”

2015, “$1,750,000″,”$2,600,000″,”$3,750,000″,”$8,100,000”, “$10,400,000”

2016, “3,500,000”,”$2,600,000″,”$3,500,000″,”$9,600,000″, “$7,800,000”

2017, “$7,500,000″,”$2,600,000″,”$0″,”$10,100,000”, “$5,200,000”

2018, “7,000,000”,”$2,600,000″,”$0″,”$9,600,000″, “$2,600,000”

2019, “$7,000,000″,”$0″,”$0″,”$7,000,000”, “$0”

[/table]

As you can see, the deal is actually very team friendly, and is structured so that the team can get out easily in the last couple years. Don’t get too wrapped up in that ‘total value’ number. The only money that is truly guaranteed is the $13 Mil signing bonus. If he is on the roster in March of ’15, and ’16, he’ll receive those roster bonuses. Hopefully Steeler Nation is feeling a little better about this now.

*Edit. I’ve added a column for dead money by year should he be released.

Veteran Center Maurkice Pouncey told reporters that he had no restrictions during his first full practice back with the team since having surgery on his ACL and MCL last September. “I am out here, full go,” Pouncey said after practice concluded Tuesday. “It was pretty neat man, to go out there and drive block guys and finish on some plays. Man, it was pretty awesome. ”

While it wasn’t a full speed, full contact practice in pads, for Pouncey and his teammates, his return was meaningful. “It was a big step,” said Pouncey. “For the coaches to see it, for my teammates to see it, and for me myself to see it, it was pretty cool.”

“It’s comfortable. He’s a comfort blanket. He’s a leader of this team, a leader of the offensive line, and it’s just good to see him out there,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger told media after practice.

“I thought he could have played at the end of last year. That’s how hard he worked. I really believe he could have played last year, because that’s the type of competitor and athlete that he is.”

Ramon Foster echoed the sentiments. “It was good. I shook his hand like we were business partners today. It was good to have him out there, and he was ecstatic about it too. It was a good vibe for him and for us also.”

Foster also said he was surprised at how ahead of schedule Pouncey is. “I think he’s ahead of schedule…as far as his movement and what he was doing, I was shocked.”

When asked when he started feeling pretty good, Poucney said, “A month and a half, two months ago, I started feeling really great, especially in the weight room.”

https://twitter.com/BCTBradford/status/471326568888143873