By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

From the beginning, University of Cincinnati basketball player Armein Kirkland maintained his innocence.

"Any mention of plea bargaining, he staunchly refused," said Mary Jill Donovan, Kirkland's attorney. "He said, 'I want to go to trial. I didn't do anything, and I'm not going to plead to anything I didn't do.' "

Even on the day he was scheduled to go to trial on misdemeanor charges of domestic violence and assault - charges that could have gotten him up to six months in jail - Kirkland refused to agree to anger management counseling in exchange for dismissal of the charges.

Early Tuesday afternoon, less than an hour before Kirkland was to stand trial in front of a jury, prosecuting attorney Melanie Reising requested that Hamilton County Municipal Judge Robert Winkler dismiss the charges, which Winkler did. Winkler also said he probably would expunge the arrest from Kirkland's record in 90 days.

Ambrea Lacy, 18, who claimed Kirkland, 19, grabbed her by the throat and slapped her during an argument in the Price Hill apartment they shared told prosecutors earlier Tuesday that the story she told police Aug. 2, the day of the incident, was not true. Lacy was 17 at the time of the incident.

Efforts to reach her Tuesday were unsuccessful.

"Asking her point-blank," Reising said during the court proceedings, " 'Did Mr. Kirkland hurt you,' (Lacy) said, 'No.' When I asked (her) if she thought Mr. Kirkland was trying to hurt her, she said, 'No.' "

For Kirkland, it was a welcome end to the ordeal.

"I'm happy that everything turned out the way I figured it would," Kirkland said. "I was upset in the beginning because everybody was thinking I was a bad person, that I really did something wrong, but I was innocent the whole time.

"The public sense of me changed. Hopefully the same people who put out what happened will put out that I was acquitted of everything and that she lied basically. I just hope the public realizes that you can't believe everything you hear, that you're innocent until proven guilty. You've got to give every person a fair chance."

Said UC coach Bob Huggins: "I'm happy that we didn't rush to unjust decisions. Armein told us what happened. We believed him. We told him to go get it cleared up, which he has. I'm happy that the judicial process took its course, but I'm very saddened that an innocent young man, for a good portion of time, has a damaged reputation over something he didn't do."

According to the court transcript, Lacy, who was charged identically to Kirkland in the incident, will be required to undergo counseling.

Kirkland said he and Lacy were arguing on the day of the incident when "she took it too far. She snapped and started getting physical."

"I'm the one who called the police twice," Kirkland said. "I'm the one who had the marks on me, because I was bleeding. She didn't have a single mark."

Asked if he laid his hands on her, Kirkland said: "I might have grabbed her hands. It was all in restraining her."

Kirkland said Lacy was not his girlfriend, that she had been staying with him for about three weeks and that they weren't living together.

Kirkland spent one night in jail before he was released on bond.

"I slept most of the time," he said. "But after everything that happened, I was just mad because I was in trouble. It wasn't really just being (in jail). People that I talked to were telling me that it was all over the news. They said I hit a girl and I got arrested. It made me look like a bad person. That's not who I am."

Kirkland said UC athletic director Bob Goin and Huggins remained supportive throughout the ordeal.

"They were both upset about everything that was going on as far as making it look like the program is filled with bad people," Kirkland said. "They know the truth. They know who I am."

Goin, who did not suspend Kirkland from the basketball program at the time, said he believed Kirkland's story after he met with him alone in his office. The restrictions he placed on Kirkland have been lifted.

Goin said he was more concerned about Kirkland than how this incident affected the image of the UC basketball program.

"I'm not a judge," Goin said. "I've said that a thousand times. And I'm not a jury. Accusations are not always what they appear to be. If you start worrying about the image and not worrying about doing what's right . . . I don't like bad publicity, but there was a bigger issue, a human being at stake there."

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com