Colts RB Delone Carter Once Punched A Man In The Face, Must Now Pay That Man $40K

Yeah, I'd say this news falls under the category of "bad timing," especially with the recent suspension of tight end Weslye Saunders.

The story involves Colts RB Delone Carter, and is via Sara Patterson of the Syracuse Post-Standard:

After a couple hours of deliberation, an Onondaga County Supreme Court jury decided today to award $40,000 to a Syracuse University alumnus who was punched in the face by football star Delone Carter in 2010.

Any out-of-pocket medical expenses will be tallied and awarded to William "Jay" Hotaling in addition to the $40,000 he received for the pain and suffering related to his injury.

The jury's compensatory amount was a couple hundred-thousand dollars less than what Hotaling's lawyer, Sidney Cominsky, told the six jurors during closing arguments he felt his client deserved.

And it was also $20,000 more than what Carter's lawyer, Lauren Miller, said her client felt was a "fair" amount.

Nod to PFT for pointing us to this story.

This isn't on the same level as Saunders getting busted for the second time for violating the NFL's performance enhancement abuse policy, but it certainly doesn't paint Carter in a positive light.

The story goes that, in February of 2010, Carter smashed his fist into William "Jay" Hotaling's face back when Carter was still playing for Syracuse. Carter thought Hotaling threw a snowball at Carter's car. Surveillance video showed that Hotaling didn’t throw a snowball at Carter, his car, or at anything. The punch resulted in multiple facial fractures for Hotaling, and Carter plead guilty to one count of harassment in 2010.

Carter was later drafted in the 4th round by the Colts in 2011.

So, yeah. That was a pretty dumb f*cking thing for Carter to do back in 2010. At least, on some level, the incident has been settled. However, the victim's lawyer, Sidney Cominsky, still plans to file an appeal now that the trial is over.

His main complaint regards Judge James Murphy's dismissal of Hotaling's claim for punitive damages against Carter, which are awarded as a deterrent or punishment to redress an egregious wrong perpetrated by a defendant. Murphy dismissed the claim on Monday, before jury selection.

For this story to come out now, after a one-month period that has highlighted stupid decision after stupid decision by players such as LaVon Brazill (suspended for substance abuse policy violation), Joe Lefeged (arrested in DC), and the before-mentioned Saunders... yeah, bad timing.

It has not been a good four weeks for the Colts, folks. Not good at all.