The Detroit Lions announced the release of cornerback Terrion Arnold on Monday, June 29.
Arnold was granted a $1 million bond by a Florida judge earlier in the day in relation to his arrest on Wednesday, June 24. Arnold was charged with four counts of kidnapping and four counts of assault related to a February incident in Hillsborough County, one that came after an alleged robbery of Arnold’s Airbnb in Largo, Florida.
Chief Judge Christopher C. Sabella on Monday denied the state’s request to keep Arnold under detention until his trial, saying “the burden is higher than the probable cause” on the case. The conditions of his bond state that Arnold must stay at his residence except for work and appearances related to his case, which would theoretically allow Arnold to continue his NFL career.
It likely won’t be with the Lions, however, as the team decided to release the third-year cornerback shortly after his pre-trial hearing.
The Lions originally stood behind Arnold while the case hovered over his head this spring, with coach Dan Campbell saying in March, “it seems like he wasn’t involved with this.”
“Until something happens, I feel like we’re going to be good here,” Campbell said March 30. “I’m going to trust what the kid said and we’re all right.”
But that stance obviously changed as more details have come out.
Arnold surrendered to a warrant at the Orient Road jail in Tampa on Wednesday, June 24, facing charges carrying a sentence of up to life in prison. The Florida state attorney’s office accused Arnold of “coordinating and directing” the robbery and beating of Arnold’s personal driver and two of the driver’s associates by several of Arnold’s codefendants after Arnold accused the driver of arranging the theft of more than $250,000 in cash and goods from an Airbnb he was renting in February.
The driver denied involvement in the theft, and the Largo Police, who investigated the theft, consider the case inactive.
According to records obtained from Largo Police, Arnold discovered watches, jewelry, designer bags and shoes, a cell phone and an estimated $100,000 in cash were stolen when he went to leave his rental unit the morning of Feb. 1.
He reported the theft two days later, on the night of Feb. 3, and Del Valle and Randazzo allegedly lured the driver and his friends to an apartment shortly after midnight Feb. 4, where the men were pistol-whipped, held at gunpoint and interrogated about their role in Arnold’s missing property by others in the group.
In a follow-up interview with Largo police in the days after the beatings, Arnold referenced he heard of “something that had ended up happening with [the driver and his friends] and some girls or something like that.”
Lions reporter Dave Birkett contributed to this report.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
Need to catch up on the news during your lunch break? Sign up for our Sports Briefing newsletter to get daily summaries of Detroit sports!
You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Terrion Arnold cut by Detroit Lions after kidnapping, assault charges
Reporting by Christian Romo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Christian Romo, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
