The Austin American Statesman’s Suzanne Haliburton reports that Longhorns CB Tarrell Brown (above), safety Tyrell Gatewood and former Texas LB Aaron Harris were arrested on misdemeanor marijuana charges early Monday morning, and Brown was also charged with handgun possession.
Harris passed a field sobriety tests for alcohol, but admitted to Travis County sheriff’s deputies he had been smoking marijuana. Deputies found a small marijuana cigarette in his back pocket. They also found a “blunt” cigar under the driver’s seat. The affidavit said the “blunt” was believed to have contained marijuana.
Deputies saw the loaded gun in Brown’s lap while he was sleeping.
“All in all, it was a weird set of circumstances,” Austin lawyer Jamie Balagia, who is representing Gatewood and Brown, told the American-Statesman. “When the facts come out, this will be resolved pretty quickly.”
Balagia said that both Brown and Gatewood asked to be drug tested so that they could prove that they had not been smoking pot. Balagia said the gun belonged to Gatewood, who had purchased it “for recreational purposes,” that is, target practice. Balagia said that Gatewood had forgotten to take the gun into his home. Brown, who is Gatewood’s roommate, saw the gun on the floorboard and picked it up with intention of bringing it in, the lawyer said.
The arrests of the above trio come on the heels of tailback My Chemical Ramonce Taylor’s felony drug possession bust. A cynic and/or an Oklahoma fan might say that Mack Brown’s program has some kind of problem with weed and guns, but who amongst us hasn’t run afoul of killjoy cops, looking to kill our buzz and/or deny us the simple pleasures of keeping pistols in our trousers?