It seemed that when this story came out, some were blowing it off as not that big a deal, but obviously the judge didn't agree. I definitely thought it was a big deal and I would advocate for some jail time, but three months plus a $1,000 fine seems harsh even to me for someone with no criminal record who already had the punishment of having to pay $34,330 in damages and has taken positive steps to make sure it didn't happen again. Safe to say he should learn his lesson.

"Keller’s public defender, Brandon Brinegar of Kearney, had asked for probation for his client because Keller has already completed counseling, taken steps to address his alcohol issue, was a low risk to re-offend, and paid his share, $34,330, of restitution to the court. But Wright denied Keller probation saying it would be a waste of money and time because Keller didn’t have any substance abuse or other issues that probation could address."

So the lesson here is don't take responsibility or address substance abuse issues until after sentencing, and maybe you'll get out of jail time. Wonderful precedent.

Agreed. This is a wise use of taxpayer dollars. And god knows we've got plenty of money to spend.

I agree that this is more than excessive. What do I think should have been done:
1. He did expensive damage to the field, he should pay for it. Check...
2. He has to face the alcohol problem, so he needs to face that, and get treatment. Check...
3. He harmed the community, so I think he owes the community a fairly substantial amount of unpaid, required community service. I would have no problem with requiring 500-1000 hours of community service time.

Instead of community service, he gets jail time, which makes no sense. Instead of allowing him to benefit the community, they add expense for incarceration onto the community. For some crimes jail time makes sense. This isn't one of them. Of course, I don't know the laws involved, and maybe sentencing him to community service isn't an option.

What do you propose?  Throw everyone who works at Halliburton in jail for 180 days?

The closest we got to a fair legal system was a few thousand years ago when Charlton Heston brought down the Decalogue from some imaginary guy sitting on a stool next to him.  Ever since then, lawyers have just been screwing it up.

And you wonder why I walk around this planet pissed off half the time.

I wonder what the comments on this thread would be if this had been a player from Miami who had an equally distinguished career while playing at his respective alma mater.

My opinion has nothing to do with whether he is/was a football player for Ohio, Miami, or anywhere else; I would say the same thing regardless of who he was. Incarceration is an added expense to the community. Community service is a benefit to the community.

Is he dangerous? Is there a benefit to keeping him out of society for a short time? Is there something useful he is likely to learn during incarceration? If not, then why burden the community with it? I figure 90 days=13 weeks=about 520 hours of community service at 40 hours a week. The average cost of incarceration varies between $18,000 and $50,000 a year. This is a rural area, so cost is probably at the lower end, so lets call it $24,000, or $6,000 for 90 days. If his time is worth $15 an hour, 520 hours is worth $7,800. Thus the community is $13,800 worst off from a cost perspective.

Did they gain something else of value by "teaching him a lesson"? Perhaps it is a disincentive for others to do this in the future. Would it also be a disincentive to have him spend the summer, say, being a groundskeeper on city parks? I think so.

In fairness, none of us was a witness to his demeanor in court.I can't picture him being anything but contrite under the circumstances, but perhaps not.

Alan is right to ask the question. By rule, people from Miami should just be in jail.

He'll do more time than Dante Stallworth who killed someone in a drunk driving accident..if I remember correctly he was only jailed for right around 30 days. Quite a flawed system we have.

Robert--just when I was starting to find that I agree with most of your posts! 

I thought the theater angle the PD brought up was a bit weak.  Needing a stand-in for five performances of "Grease" isn't much of a burden on society. 

I also have to wonder if the county attorney is up for re-election this year.  This case seems like something that could've been plea-bargained.