Thursday nights reports started to hit the Internet that Charlotte Hornet swingman Jeff Taylor was arrested for a second time in 24 hours, but an attempt to confirm the details of this second arrest leave a lot of room for doubt.
Here is what we know for sure: Taylor was arrested early Thursday morning in East Lansing, Michigan, on a domestic assault charge at a local hotel. This was the first (or maybe only) arrest. Part of that was a second charge of malicious destruction of property.
The Ingham County jail confirmed to ProBasketballTalk what NBC affiliate WILX had previously reported — that Taylor was arrested and brought to them for the second time in one day, that he arrived in their facility at 7:30 p.m. and was released on bond just before 9 p.m. They say he was arrested on a malicious destruction of a building charge, although WILX says it was for less than $200 in damage. The address for this arrest given by WILX is about a mile from the hotel where the first arrest took place.
However, the East Lansing Police Department says there was no second arrest. They confirmed to PBT there was no second contact with Taylor after the first arrest early Thursday morning. The Lansing Police Department said the same thing to other news outlets, that they had no arrest record.
With the second charge of the original arrest (malicious destruction of property) being so close to what the second arrest allegedly was for (malicious destruction of a building) it seems as if it is possible this is a mix up at the jail.
It’s just not clear, but police departments tend to know who they arrest.
Meanwhile, both the Hornets and NBA league office are investigating the situation of the first arrest on domestic assault charges.
The Hornets released this statement on Taylor’s first arrest:
“The organization is in the process of gathering more information and doing our due diligence. This is a matter that we take very seriously.”
Taylor missed most of last season after a ruptured Achilles tendon, but he was expected to be back and ready to go when training camp opened next week. He was going to be fighting for minutes on the wing, but he’s got much bigger issues in front of him now.