Former NFL star Jamal Lewis cleared in child abandonment case
Former National Football League star Jamal Lewis can finally be at ease because prosecutors in Georgia have decided to drop his child abandonment case.
Previous reports have stated that 33-year-old Jamal Lewis was arrested back in August due to child abandonment after the football star allegedly blew off his child support payments for a child he fathered in 2005.
At the time, Jamal Lewis said it was nothing but a huge misunderstanding and promised to “work toward an arrangement within the court system that will allow me to effectively co-parent my son.”
Now, it has been confirmed that the prosecutors have dropped the criminal charges against the former NFL star, saying that there isn’t enough evidence to get a conviction against Lewis.
The lawyer of Jamal Lewis said in a statement that the football star is “happy to move forward from all of this.”
This is not the first time Lewis had a run-in with the law. In February 2004, it emerged that he had been involved in talks about a drug deal. Lewis was then charged with conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute five kilograms of cocaine and using a cell phone in the commission of the first count. Lewis reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in October 2004 and ultimately, he was sentenced in January 2005 to four months in federal prison. He was released on August 2, 2005.
On October 31, 2011, Regions Bank filed a lawsuit against Jamal Lewis over an unpaid $660,000 loan.
Former NFL running back Lewis was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens fifth overall in the 2000 NFL Draft. He played college football at Tennessee, and after spending his first seven seasons with the Ravens, he signed as a free agent contract with the Cleveland Browns prior to the 2007 season and retired after the 2009 season.
Jamal Lewis is most famous for his career as a Raven, where he helped the team win Super Bowl XXXV as a rookie. He is also well-known for his outstanding 2003 season, where he rushed for 2,066 yards, which is second-most of all-time. That same year, Lewis also rushed for 295 yards in one game, which was a record at the time until Adrian Peterson rushed for 296 yards in 2007. He was inducted into the Ravens’ Ring of Honor on September 27, 2012.