In February, former NFL player Reggie Rucker pleaded guilty in federal court to embezzling more than $100,000 from the Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance and other nonprofits that encouraged non-violent solutions to disputes between the city’s residents. As part of his plea agreement with prosecutors, he will get between 21 and 27 months in prison and has to repay the money he stole, which he used to pay personal expenses that included gambling debts.
But in a court filing submitted by his attorneys on Tuesday, Rucker admitted to having no significant assets except for one: The approximately $190,000 he expects to receive from the nearly $1 billion concussion settlement reached between the NFL and its former players. Rucker says he’ll use that money to repay the groups from which he stole, once he receives it. But no one is quite sure when that will be. A federal appeals court upheld the settlement in April, but former players who object to the deal can still take their case to the Supreme Court.
Rucker will be sentenced next week, and Cleveland.com reports that he will try to prove that the concussions he suffered during his NFL career in the 1970s and early ’80s caused him to steal the money, which the nonprofit groups needed to make payroll. Cleveland.com’s Eric Heisig explains:
“Michael Hennenberg, an attorney representing Rucker, said the former Browns player suffered seven or eight concussions that he knows of during his 13-year career. Three of those came as a result of blows that knocked him unconscious, the attorney said.
“Such injuries are known to cause impulsiveness and compulsiveness, both of which may play into Rucker’s crimes, Hennenberg said.
” ‘Reggie Rucker is the first person in the country to be examined to determine the full implications of his now-known significant brain injuries,’ Hennenberg said.”
Rucker, a Washington native, began his NFL career in 1970 as a wide receiver with the Dallas Cowboys and also played for the New York Giants, New England Patriots and Cleveland Browns.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Matt Bonesteel
