Aldon Smith has ‘notified’ Seahawks of news he’s wanted in Louisiana for alleged battery
The Seahawks have an issue with Aldon Smith just days after signing him.
The team says the pass rusher the Seahawks added as a free agent on Thursday has “notified us” of the St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, district attorney having a warrant out for Smith’s arrest following an alleged battery at a coffee shop in Chalmette, Louisiana, Saturday.
“We are aware of the reports regarding Aldon Smith,” the Seahawks said in a statement they issued Monday afternoon. “Aldon notified us and we are gathering more information. We have no further comment at this time.”
St. Bernard Parish District Attorney Perry Nicosia announced Monday that Smith was wanted on a charge of second-degree battery.
The 31-year-old defensive endwas suspended and out of the NFL for the 2016 through ‘19 seasons.
“On the evening of April 17, 2021 at the French Press Coffee House in Chalmette, Louisiana, Mr. Smith caused severe injuries to a male victim causing injuries that warranted a state court Judge to sign an arrest warrant,” a St. Bernard Parish district attorney’s office news release stated Monday. “The warrant was signed on April 18, 2021.”
The news release states anyone convicted in the parish on a charge of second degree battery could be fined up to $2,000 “or imprisoned, with or without hard labor for not more than eight years, or both.”
“The investigation is on-going and no other information is being released at this time,” the district attorney’s statement said. “As of the date of this release (Monday), Mr. Smith is still at large.”
But, the Seahawks say, Smith has been in touch with them.
Earlier Monday Travers Mackel of WDSU television in New Orleans reported the sheriff and district attorney in St. Bernard Parish, about seven miles east of downtown New Orleans, wanted Smith “for a second degree battery that occurred on the evening of April 17, 2021, at the French Press Coffee House in front of Home Depot in Chalmette.”
“The subject does not have a local address but has relatives in the New Orleans area,” read a wanted bulletin with St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann’s name printed across the top of it. “Subject was last observed in a white in color Nissan sedan with an unknown license plate.
“Anyone coming into contact with the above subject or is possibly aware of his current location, please contact Lt. Garofalo at CIB (the criminal investigation bureau for St. Bernard Parish’s sheriff’s office).”
A spokesperson for the St. Bernard Parish sheriff’s office did not immediately return a message from The News Tribune Monday afternoon.
Seattle announced Thursday it had a signed contract for 2021 with Smith, the 2012 All Pro who had 19 1/2 sacks that season for San Francisco. Smith returned to the NFL last fall with the Dallas Cowboys after four years out of the league on suspensions.
The Seahawks had the 31-year-old Smith in for a free-agent visit Wednesday. That was after Dallas declined to re-sign him. Smith played in all 16 games for Dallas in 2020. He had five sacks, 14 hits on quarterbacks and 20 QB pressures, according to statistics from Pro Football Reference.
The Seahawks’ non-guaranteed deal with Smith is for the NFL veteran minimum base salary of $990,000 this year, and comes with nearly no risk to Seattle. If Smith falters on or off the field, his new team can release him at basically no cost to the Seahawks.
Signing Smith was a quintessential Pete Carroll/Seahawks move. The veteran coach believes he can by force of personality and team culture extract the unique skills of each player, sometimes despite a checkered past that caused other NFL teams to give up on a talented guy.
The NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell reinstated Smith before the 2020 season. Before that he hadn’t played for anyone since the Raiders in 2015.
In 2014, the league suspended Smith nine games for violating its policies for personal conduct and substance abuse. In August 2015, the 49ers released their seventh-overall pick in the 2011 draft following his arrest on charges of hit and run, driving under the influence and vandalism.
In 2018 Smith pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges in a deal with San Francisco prosecutors from a domestic violence case. Smith pleaded no contest to violating a court order and false imprisonment. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years of probation. Smith was allowed to serve the sentence at an inpatient alcohol and drug treatment center, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
He’s been fined more than $4.7 million over his career, per spotrac.
Smith had 33 1/2 sacks in his first two NFL seasons, with San Francisco. He’s had 19 sacks in 43 games since 2012, but has only played in four of the last eight years.
Early last season, the Seahawks saw up close how good a pass rusher Smith can still be. Last September, in the third game of his return after a four-year absence, Smith sacked Wilson three times in the Cowboys’ game at Seattle.
His comeback story seemed to be moving to Seattle.
Now it’s potentially at another crossroads in Louisiana, before even his first practice with the Seahawks.
This story was originally published April 19, 2021 at 3:07 PM.
