Client Given Second Chance After Armed Robbery of Indians' CC Sabathia
The Plain Dealer
September 14, 2005
Judge gives CSU ex-star another chance
Jim Nichols
Plain Dealer Reporter
For the moment, Jamaal Harris still has the opportunity to square off against guards on a basketball court, instead of guards in a prison.
Harris, a former basketball star at Cleveland State University, won an early release last summer from a four-year prison term for the stickup of Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia. Harris and former teammate Damon Stringer pulled the armed robbery at the Marriott Downtown at Key Center in 2002. A judge released both of them last year.
But four failed drug tests since then - including one last month - proved Harris hasn't been able to stop smoking pot.
A probation violation landed him back in front of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Joseph D. Russo on Tuesday. Standing slump-shouldered and forlorn in a tan jail jumpsuit with his parents behind him, Harris faced the prospect of 2 ½ more years in the slammer.
"I just beg for your mercy and beg for a chance to get some help and contribute to society," said Harris, 26.
Russo gave him one more chance. The judge ordered Harris to remain in jail, where he has been since Sept. 1, until the former Cleveland Heights High star can get into a hospital-based drug-treatment program. A crowd jammed the courtroom to support Harris, and drug-addiction counselor Kim Kravitz said Harris needs help.
The judge ordered Harris to turn around and look at his family and friends, among them his former lawyer, Cleveland Municipal Judge Joan Synenberg, and Heights coach Jim Cappelletti.
"You're embarrassing me and you're embarrassing all these people behind you," Russo scolded. "If you're not humiliated by that, then nothing is going to reach you."
Then Russo announced the mercy Harris begged for.
"Hallelujah!" said Doris Harris, the defendant's mother. "Thank you, Jesus."
Now it will be up to Russo to decide if Harris can begin playing guard for the Cleveland Rockers, a new minor-league basketball team. Rockers President Pierre Hall said Harris stands to lose up to $3,500 for each month he misses, but "the door's still going to be open" to Harris joining former CSU teammates Stringer, Jonathan Burge and Jermaine Robinson on the squad.
So is a cell door, Russo warned: "Mr. Harris, if I see you back in this courtroom in that outfit again, you're going back to prison for 2 ½ years."
Evening & Weekend Appointments Available by Request.