Ex-Raider Damon Arnette reaches plea deal in Park MGM confrontation
Former Raiders player Damon Arnette has reached a plea deal with prosecutors in connection with a confrontation last year with Park MGM valet employees.
“Damon is happy to put this matter behind him with a misdemeanor disposition and is ready to return to the NFL,” defense attorney Ross Goodman said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.
Arnette has agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of assault and drawing a deadly weapon, according to court documents filed Friday. He has also agreed to complete 50 hours of community service and pay a $2,000 fine, Goodman said.
A court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning for Arnette to enter the plea in front of a judge, court records show.
Prosecutors accused Arnette of racking a gun in the midst of a confrontation with Park MGM employees on Jan. 28, 2022. A casino valet testified to a grand jury that Arnette became angry with employees and pulled out a gun when they asked him for his identification because he didn’t have a valet ticket to receive his vehicle.
He was indicted by a grand jury in May on felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a concealed firearm, nearly a year after prosecutors initially dropped the charges against him.
Goodman has written in court documents that Arnette “did not make any threats” to the employees and that he had not “brandished or pointed a firearm at the valet attendant.” Instead, Arnette was putting the gun away into his car, “which took about 36 seconds,” Goodman said in an emailed statement sent Tuesday.
Arnette then spent about 20 minutes “interacting with everyone” and searching for the ticket, which he pulled out of a trash can before employees gave him the keys to his car, Goodman said.
The officer who authored Arnette’s arrest report wrote that police called to the casino were told that a man had “pointed a firearm at an employee” in the valet area.
“Contrary to earlier media reports, the evidence did not show Damon ‘pointed a gun at a valet attendant,’ ‘took his keys’ and ‘fled,’” Godoman said in the emailed statement.
An officer who watched surveillance footage of the confrontation testified that Arnette had taken the gun out of his waistband and put it in the car’s driver’s side door. While arguing with the valet, Arnette pulled the gun out of the car and made a motion with his arms, which the officer said was Arnette “racking a round,” according to transcripts.
Goodman has argued that the valet was walking away when Arnette was alleged to have racked the gun, and that the weapon was not concealed because it was visible in his waistband.
Police stopped Arnette at a nearby gas station off of Las Vegas Blvd. South after he drove away from the casino. According to his arrest report, a gun was found in the car’s driver’s side door, and Arnette’s co-defendant, Markell Surrell, was found with a gun during a pat-down.
The charges against Surrell were dropped last year, and he was not indicted with Arnette.
Arnette, a 2020 first-round draft pick of the Raiders, was released by the team in November 2021 after video emerged on social media of him threatening someone with a gun. He signed a reserve/futures contract with the AFC West rival Kansas City Chiefs, but the team released him following the confrontation at the Park MGM.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.