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Leaving jail, Bengals’ Jones says he didn’t deserve arrest

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Bengals cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones is arraigned Tuesday Jan. 3, 2017 in Hamilton County Municipal Court, in Cincinatti, after be charged with a felony charge of harassment with a bodily substance. He is also charged with assault, disorderly conduct and obstructing police. An attorney representing Jones has told a Hamilton County judge that he "vehemently denies" the charges that led to his arrest. The judge set bonds totaling 7,500. /The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP)

Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones said Wednesday that he regretted a hotel scuffle that landed him in jail but insisted that he didn’t deserve to be arrested in his latest legal issue during an often-tumultuous pro football career.

“I’m sorry that this happened,” Jones told reporters as he left the Hamilton County Jail, more than 32 hours after he was booked on four charges. He said that it’d be different if had beaten people up, but that all he did was touch someone.

“Obviously if you read into it, none of this makes sense,” Jones said. “We’re going to see how it goes and I’m more than eager that this will be dismissed pretty soon.”

Jones, whose NFL career was nearly ended by suspensions and arrests before the Bengals signed him in 2010, said he planned to discuss the situation with Bengals coach Marvin Lewis. A Bengals spokesman said Tuesday the team was aware of the incident, but wouldn’t comment until the legal case was resolved.

Authorities said Jones tangled with hotel security investigating after he was pounding on hotel room doors Monday night. Cincinnati police said he pushed a security employee and poked him in the eye, then struggled, kicking and head-butting, as officers tried to put him into a police vehicle on the initial charge of assault.

He was charged with two more misdemeanours, of disorderly conduct and obstructing official business, and a felony charge of harassment with a bodily substance was added after the sheriff’s office said he spit on a nurse’s hand at the jail.

A judge Tuesday set bond at $37,500 and ordered Jones to provide a blood sample and be tested for communicable diseases. The sheriff’s office said it had to wait until medical staff was available Wednesday morning, so Jones remained in jail overnight.

Public defender Lauren Staley said in court Tuesday that Jones “vehemently denies” that he assaulted anyone and will hire an attorney to contest the charges.

Jones will be subject to potential NFL discipline after the case is resolved.

Jones pleaded an equivalent of no contest to a misdemeanour charge of conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct in a 2007 Las Vegas strip club melee. Jones was blamed for instigating violence that led to the shooting by someone else of two club employees, one left paralyzed from the waist down. He was ordered to pay more than $12.4 million in damages.

He was suspended as a Tennessee Titan by the NFL throughout the 2007 season, then was suspended again during the 2008 season as a member of the Dallas Cowboys.

The Titans made the Atlanta native the sixth overall pick out of West Virginia University in the 2005 draft, and he started 28 games in his first two seasons. His NFL career was in doubt before he became a regular Bengals starting defensive back and punt returner.

In Cincinnati, he was acquitted in 2013 on an assault charge in Hamilton County after a woman accused him of punching her in a nightclub. Earlier that year, he paid a fine for disorderly conduct after police accused him of making offensive comments during a traffic stop. He also pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in January 2012 after an arrest at a Cincinnati bar.

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Follow Dan Sewell at http://www.twitter.com/dansewell

For some of his other recent stories: http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-sewell

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