Judge orders Ruggs back to court after missed alcohol test
LAS VEGAS » A Las Vegas judge ordered former Raiders receiver Henry Ruggs III to appear before her on Monday after learning he missed a required alcohol test while on house arrest following a fatal crash he’s accused of causing by driving drunk at speeds up to 156 mph.
Ruggs’ lawyers told Justice of the Peace Suzan Baucum that Ruggs “self-tested” negative shortly after missing one of his calls for a breath test last weekend.
Ruggs’ attorney, David Chesnoff, blamed the delay on trouble with testing equipment.
A note posted later in the court record shows Ruggs missed a test at 4:41 p.m. Saturday and that he completed “a client initiated remote breath test” at 6:28 p.m.
The alcohol monitoring agency noted that it “cannot confirm Mr. Rugg’s sobriety during this pointin-time,” and said Ruggs’ attorney provided an updated phone number for text notifications for Ruggs’ remote breath test.
Ruggs, 22, was not in court Wednesday for the brief hearing during which Baucum also told his lawyers she won’t issue a subpoena for fire department records about the fatal Nov. 2 crash and fire. The judge said the attorneys can get those records on their own.
Ruggs could face a return to jail. A judge who set his bail at $150,000 warned Ruggs directly that if he didn’t comply with release restrictions he faced rearrest.
Ruggs is under home confinement with electronic monitoring and four-times-a-day alcohol checks. He is required to respond to a telephone or text signal by blowing into a device that checks his blood-alcohol level. Records show he owns a $1.1 million home not far from where the crash occurred.
NHL RED SOX OWNERS IN TALKS
TO BUY PENGUINS » The owners of the Boston Red Sox are in talks to buy the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins.
Red Sox President Sam Kennedy confirmed that Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Major League Baseball team as well as Liverpool FC of the Premier League and is partners in the RFK Racing
NASCAR team, has been working on a deal for the professional hockey club. The talks were first reported by Sportico.
MLB INDIANS OFFICIALLY CHANGING NAME TO GUARDIANS
THIS WEEK » The Cleveland Indians will officially transition to Guardians on Friday, completing a name change that has been happening in stages over the past few months.
The team sent out a release on Wednesday saying its team shop at Progressive Field will begin selling Guardians merchandise and souvenirs later this week. The store at the team’s downtown ballpark will exclusively sell Guardians gear before it becomes available at retail outlets in northeast Ohio on Nov. 23.
Tennis DJOKOVIC BEATS RUBLEV
TO REACH ATP SEMIS » Novak Djokovic advanced to the semifinals of the ATP Finals by beating Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-2.
The top-ranked Djokovic is attempting to match Roger Federer’s record of six titles at the season-ending event for the top eight players in the world.