For those who don’t know, Iowa football player Derrell Johnson-Koulianos aka “DJK” was arrested recently on various drug charges. It is one of several recent pieces of bad news involving the Hawkeyes.
DJK was charged with six drug-related counts: 4 Possession of Controlled Substances charges, 1 Unlawful Possession of Prescription Drugs charge, and the previously-criticized “drug house” law.
So what will the outcome be in this case? Despite what certain message boards have been saying, the County Attorney’s Office is probably not going to make an example of DJK. Nor will they try to beat up Alfredo Parrish, DJK’s newly-hired big-name defense attorney.
They are probably just groaning and rolling their eyes.
The County Attorney’s Office is busy, and they have better things to do than treat this case any differently than any other case involving the same facts and same criminal history. I’m sure they would prefer that instead of DJK being caught in this situation, it was some no-name student athlete on the club rugby team.
But, the County Attorney’s Office has to play the cards they have been dealt, and balance the various interests that assault their office everyday.
Foremost, they deal with public opinion. Some members of the public will think that making an example out of DJK will help curb criminal behavior. Others want to see him exonerated today and back practicing with the team.
They must deal with pressure from the Iowa City Police Department, who usually feels that criminals are let off too easily.
The County Attorney must also deal with the pressure from the Defense, which could spend valuable resources by drawing the case out over years like Mr. Parrish has done with the awful Satterfield/Everson case.
Well, what should happen in a case like this? Exactly what would happen if instead of being DJK, it was the regular Joe next door.
Let’s look at the charges themselves:
Drug House, that means that you allow people to use or sell drugs in your apartment. DJK was not the player in that situation. DJK was a user, so this charge will be dismissed.
Possession of Controlled Substances – We’ve got 4 charges here. Marijuana, Cocaine, unusual prescription drug, and generic Valium. The prescriptions were drugs that DJK could likely have gotten after seeing a doctor. He just made the stupid mistake of taking them from his “friends.”
Nonetheless, this is the bulk of the case. DJK will have to plead to two of the counts, and the other two will be dismissed.
As far as the Unlawful Possession of Prescription Drug charge, it is hard to guess. Probably a plea will be required in order to see the Drug House charge go away.
That leaves my guess with a plea of guilty to 3 charges, all serious misdemeanors.
DJK does not have a criminal history. Therefore he deserves a chance to correct this mistake by following the rules of probation. So he will not receive a deferred judgment on each charge. Likely he will get one or two deferred, and the other suspended with something like 180 days over his head.
That means he will leave this with the chance to expunge the deferred charges, and the chance to avoid all future jail time with the suspended charge.
The real test will be if he can follow the rules of probation, which will include random drug testing and lack of further criminal involvement. And the real problem there, is DJK wants to graduate and leave to the NFL draft, something he cannot do while under supervised probation.
So let’s wait another month for the Trial Information to be filed, and see what happens.