6 Kentucky Football Players Suspended After Burglary Charges

Six University of Kentucky football players are suspended from the team after they were charged with burglary last week.

Reuben “R.J.” Adams, JuTahn McClain, Andru Phillips, Earnest Sanders, Vito Tisdale, and Joel Williams are accused of forcing their way into a fraternity party near the UK campus in March 7.

The players allegedly showed up to a party at the Alpha Sigma Phi house even though they were not invited. Anonymous students told WRDB that they barricaded the doors but the players forced their way in and "just came in and started throwing punches at guys, girls, it did not matter who."

Partygoers were hiding because the players were beating people up at random while others fled because they thought they saw someone with a gun.

The players were previously suspended for 11 weeks during a review by the UK’s Office of Student Conduct, but were allowed to rejoin the team in June. Alpha Sigma Phi was giving one year of probation for "various violations" from the March party as part of the review, the Lexington Herald Leader reported.

The six players were all arraigned on Friday, August 20, and entered not guilty pleas for the burglary charges. Tisdale was also charged with wanton endangerment for allegedly pointing a gun at a partygoer, which he pleaded not guilty to.

It's unknown how long the players will be suspended this time. In a statement to the Herald Leader, head coach Mark Stoops said:

“This (suspension) is different. I’m not sure when they’ll be back. There’s a process. The legal process needs to play out. We need to see in this discovery if there’s something that we didn’t know about. We don’t have all that information and their attorneys don’t have all that information yet. When they receive that info and we get the discovery, we’ll make decisions from there. … But they deserve an opportunity to defend themselves, and we’ll let that process play out.”