What Happened to Henry Ruggs?
What Happened to Henry Ruggs?
By Fan Arch July 29, 2024 07:35
Former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III was involved in a fatal car wreck on November 2, 2021, alongside Tina Tintor and her dog Max. At the time of the crash, Ruggs, then 22, was alleged to have been driving his Chevrolet Corvette at about 156 mph when he struck Tintor's Toyota RAV4 in Spring Valley just outside Las Vegas.
The impact caused Tintor's car to catch fire with her and the dog still inside. Tintor and Max were killed in the violent collision sheer impact killing them. Ruggs and his girlfriend, Kiara Kilgo-Washington, were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada.
The Legal Proceedings
Ruggs was arrested and charged with driving under the influence (DUI), resulting in death, along with reckless driving following the incident. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center after his hospital release.
The next day, Superior Court Judge Joe M. Bonaventure ordered Ruggs to be held on $150,000 bail. According to police reports, Ruggs refused a field sobriety test, and his blood alcohol concentration was 0.161%, more than twice Nevada's legal limit at the time of an hour after the crash.
Ruggs' defense attorney, David Chesnoff, argued that the blood test should be inadmissible as evidence because police obtained it without probable cause. But Justice of the Peace, Ann Zimmerman, rejected Chesnoff's arguments and ruled that the blood test was admissible.
The Plea Deal and Sentencing
Ruggs passed out and needed to be pulled from his Corvette, authorities said following the crash but before he was formally charged days later with driving under the influence resulting in death and reckless driving. Four rounds were fully loaded when two officers found them in a bag in Rugg's backseat. After almost two years of courtroom acrimony, he reached a plea agreement with prosecutors on May 10. He took a plea deal in the case and pleaded guilty to one felony count of DUI resulting in death, with an admission as to a special allegation for fleeing from the scene of a crime that causes great bodily injury or death within 30 days.
Prosecutors admitted that there are questions about the blood evidence, such as it may not be admissible, and because of that, they could have possibly dropped the felony DUI charge. Others saw the risk in such a plea, particularly since Ruggs might have received probation on reckless driving charges alone.
Ruggs was sentenced to 3-10 years in state prison on August 9, 2023, by Judge Jennifer Schwartz. In her comments, Schwartz said the case was "one of the most heartbreaking" she had encountered. His lawyers said Ruggs accepted the resolution and could resume his life of change in the community after being released from prison.
The Effects On Ruggs' Career And The NFL
The episode had instant ramifications on Ruggs' NFL future. Hours after the crash, his brief tenure with the Las Vegas Raiders organization ended when he was released.
Ruggs' arrest marked another in a long line of criminal issues among NFL players, an ongoing problem the league has tried to curb in recent years. So, there has been much debate since the case on just what professional athletes owe society and whether more should be done to raise awareness about evils like drunk driving.
The situation with Henry Ruggs III is a grim reminder of what can happen when someone decides to get behind the wheel recklessly under limited and impaired capacity. The community is shocked over the tragic robbery of not only Tina Tintor but her dog Max as well, an event that has thrust necessary banter in liability and player conduct.
While Ruggs is serving his time, the ripple effect of this incident will last and serve as a reminder that everybody must be responsible for themselves. However, something more has to do with other preventive measures that should now ultimately protect our world from such preventable deaths. The case of Henry Ruggs teaches a valuable life lesson: we should understand the extent to which drunk driving is taken seriously by law enforcement agencies and society as a whole.
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