Friday, February 05, 1999
Ex-Princeton player to get out of prison early
BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — Former Princeton High School football captain Wayne A. Brandon Jarrett will be permitted to leave state prison early, but he will have to wait at least five more months for his freedom.
The 18-year-old Mr. Jarrett, who was sentenced in October to a year in prison on two felony drug charges, had hoped to be released immediately to a halfway house and to resume his education at Princeton.
But Judge Anthony Valen of Butler County Common Pleas Court told Mr. Jarrett on Thursday that he must enter the Community Correctional Center in Lebanon on March 12.
The center, operated by the Talbert House in Cincinnati, is a dormitory-style, lock-down facility with an extensive rehabilitation and education program.
“Because of what you did, you have to lay out a year,” the judge told Mr. Jarrett. “You will start school in the fall. But you have to get your head straight first.”
This case received national attention because Mr. Jarrett, who was a senior, was permitted to play football last fall at Princeton even though he had pleaded guilty to trafficking in cocaine and possession of cocaine. Princeton officials said state regulations prevented them from keeping Mr. Jarrett off the football team.
Mr. Jarrett, who was returned to the Ross Correctional Institution at Chillicothe on Thursday afternoon, showed little reaction to the judge's sentence and declined to comment.
His parents, Wayne Jarrett of West College Hill and Carmen Dillingham of Sharonville, said they had hoped he would be released to a halfway house, but think he will benefit from the Community Correctional Center's programs.
“Brandon will get in there and do what he is supposed to do,” Mrs. Dillingham said.
During the hearing, she tried to make amends with Judge Valen for comments she made about him after the Oct. 15 sentencing. She had ac cused the judge of being overly harsh on her son in order to win votes in his November run for a seat on the Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals in Middletown.
Judge Valen, who won the election, assured her that her comments would not affect his decision about Brandon Jarrett.
“I didn't get upset because you bad-mouthed me to the media,” he told her. “You're a mother. I understand that. At no time will it affect how I treat your son.”
Before Judge Valen made his decision about the early release, Brandon Jarrett told him that he had learned a lesson from his stint in state prison.
“I know I never want to go there again,” he said. “I know I made mistakes. I'm trying to be somebody. I want to go to college. If you give me another chance, I'll do right.”
Mr. Jarrett has a long juvenile record, including a juvenile misdemeanor conviction stemming from a March 15 incident when he allegedly threatened to kill police officers and charged at them.
He also tested positive for marijuana Sept. 3, the day before Princeton's first football game of the season, and before he was sentenced Oct. 15. Princeton officials said they had not been told of the positive drug tests.
Mr. Jarrett has two daughters, 4 years old and 8 months old, by his fiancee.
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