Virginia police have not ruled anyone in nor out as suspects, but the nightclub owner that hosted Michael Vick’s 30th birthday party, provided video footage to the Police and the Associated Press that seems to put Michael Vick driving in a car almost at the scene of the crime 4 minutes before the 911 call was made to police.

Allen Fabijan, spokesman for Guadalajara Mexican restaurant and nightclub, said Wednesday that Vick left the club just minutes before the shooting.

Fabijan said that that time-stamped footage from a surveillance camera outside the entrance of the club shows a car with Vick inside leaving at 2:07 a.m. — about 4 minutes before the shooting a block away. He said that Vick was traveling in the direction of where the shooting took place.

Police said their first 911 call reporting the shooting came in at 2:11.  AP

Philadelphia Daily News reporter Michael Hayes also reports that Michael Vick’s probation officer is investigating the situation with Michael Vick and Quanis Phillips as well.  A separate report seems to possibly clear Michael’s brother Marcus who was settling up and paying the bill when the shooting took place.  See the DailyPress for the most detailed account of the video logs.

Accidentally being present in the same nightclub or restaurant with fellow former felon Quanis Phillips might not violate Michael Vick’s parole, but drinking, talking, arguing, squabbling, fighting, or worse with Phillips could definitely be considered ‘associating’ and that might very well violate Vick’s parole.

All Vick’s supporters like to preach about how Michael Vick should be allowed to go forward in life and make a living, some even say that he should get a second chance and that second chances are some hitherto unknown, unwritten right that the founders of the United States accidentally left out of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

The reality of the situation is that Michael Vick is STILL paying his debt to society.  He is on parole.  Getting out of prison did not absolve his debt to society, it was just the first phase, a penalty phase, an assessment phase, a rehabilitation phase.  When he left prison he did not stop repaying his debt society, he just moved into a new phase, that of parolee.  A person that must still follow rules set out by the courts.

Michael Vick is responsible for following those rules, even if it means assessing the risk of possibly running into past friends and business partners that committed crimes with Vick’s money.  It means that maybe, heaven forbid, Michael Vick might have to do the unthinkable.  He might have to live a quiet life, stay in instead of throwing big parties in South Florida or Virginia Beach. 

As part of his parole he has to learn how to manage his life where he doesn’t put himself into a situation where these things will happen. 

Note I want to emphasize the fact that VICK NEEDS TO LEARN.  Mike Fiorino at ProFootballTalk.nbcsports.com tracked down an interesting connection or two that indicates Michael Vick might have relied to heavily on his BET producer Ahmadu Gabra to manage his entourage which on the night of his birthday may have grown to include Phillips even.

At item 10 in the list of conditions of the supervision, the order states that Vick "shall not associate with any persons engaged in criminal activity and shall not associate with any person convicted of a felony, unless granted permission by the probation officer to do so."
Thus, unless his probation officer gave Vick blanket permission to associate with his former partners in Bad Newz Kennels, all of whom are convicted felons, any such association violates the terms of his probation.
And since Gabra apparently has been serving as an informal fixer/consigliere for Vick’s entourage, Vick possibly relied at some point after the six-month anniversary of his release on Gabra’s apparently mistaken views regarding the terms of the probation. src

Michael Vick has long exhibited the inability to do the smart thing, the practical thing, the humble thing, the thing that would be good for himself, his family, his team, and the people he works for.  A year plus in prison might give him time to think about things, but it probably didn’t give him much time to practice being a better person.  He was simply locked up and his life was not in his own control.

Now it is partially through the parole system.  Unfortunately, he has shown any evidence that he gets it.  He’s basically trying to go right back where he came from before prison, and obviously that didn’t work too well last time around. 

The reality is Michael Vick is likely doomed to repeat his mistakes and probably escalate things.  He doesn’t seem to learn from his mistakes.  He never came clean when he pled guilty, never gave up names of accomplices or past events.  That means someone probably knows where the skeletons are buried still, and as Michael Vick goes into his second year contract with the Eagles scheduled to pay him $5.8 million it wouldn’t be surprising if those criminals that know about the skeletons showed up to shake him down for some (possibly more) hush money.

The NFL also is investigating the incident, and Commissioner Roger Goodell could suspend Vick if he determines Vick violated his probation or the league’s personal conduct policy.  src

If Michael Vick had made a clean break and shared all the information he had on his criminal partners things might be different.  Those criminals might not have anything on him now that could be used to blackmail him or at least embarrass him.  Instead he kept quiet.  We often speculated here that some of those criminals may have threatened Vick or his partners.  We are talking about gangsters, drug dealers and worse that Vick used to hang with, threats of physical violence from criminals wouldn’t be too crazy a speculation.

Maybe Vick should have sought witness protection for himself and his family instead of hoping to keep things under control and regain the spot light all over again.  But as mentioned above, Vick rarely did anything that was good for others. 

If you think we are tough on Vick, just take a quick glance at what the Philly Press have to say.

Press and police are rapidly learning more details about a shooting at Michael Vick’s ‘All White’ themed birthday party in Virginia Beach.  The celebrity affair was intended to lavishly celebrate Michael Vick’s 30th birthday, but trouble is no stranger to Michael Vick.

What Happened at Michael Vick’s 30th Birthday Party?

Update

Sporting News is now reporting that Darnell Phillips either threatened or succeeded in throwing birthday cake in Michael Vick’s face.

Around 2:10 am a fight that began inside the restaurant moved outside and ended when one of the fighters shot the other in the leg.  The shooter disappeared and the victim attempted to elude police and head for the hospital.  It was only later learned that the man that was shot may have been none other than Michael Vick’s dog fighting codefendant Quanis Phillips.

Police have not identified the shooting victim, but a spokesman for Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital confirmed that Quanis Phillips – one of the co-defendants in Vick’s 2007 federal dogfighting trial – was admitted early this morning and was listed in good condition. The spokesman would not discuss the nature of Phillips’ injuries, and he said Phillips has declined to speak with media. source . . . .

Phillips, who was a high school football teammate of Vick’s, was also sentenced to 21 months after pleading guilty.

Tip to Michael Vick’s PR agent! Next time you attempt to throw a bash for Michael Vick and his felon friends, make sure there are metal detectors and security present to shake everyone down.  Don’t you think there is enough blood on Michael Vick’s reputation already?  (sarcastically disgusted)

Breaking Parole – Vick Not Supposed to Associate with former Dog Fighting Partners

According to Daily Press reporter David Squires, Phillips showed up to the party even though Vick is not supposed to be associating with any of his dogfighting co-defendants.
Squires writes that there was a confrontation between Phillips and Vick inside the party, that the confrontation then moved outside, and that’s when Phillips was shot.
Vick’s lawyer, Larry Woodward, says Vick was not involved and was not present when the shooting occurred. source . . .

History of Crime between Vick and Phillips

In 2004, Vick was present when Phillips allegedly stole a Rolex watch from an airport X-ray belt. source .. .

Most Disliked Man in Sports (Not the Most Hated)

Separately, Michael Vick also achieved the dubious honor of being the most disliked or disapproved man in sports.  Forbes incorrectly used the headline of ‘most hated’ but that was likely just a ploy to sensationalize a headline as the survey in question did not ask respondents if they hated Michael Vick or any of the other professional sports players or coaches.  This is the second year in a row that Vick has won this dubious distinction, guess that BET thing really paid off for him.

Earlier today we published an article titled Tony Dungy is Michael Vick’s Dupe of the Season, we basically started out the article saying that ‘it didn’t matter if Michael Vick didn’t follow Tony Dungy’s advice’ about not drinking. 

Apparently we were half right and half wrong.  As one of our astute readers was able to point out to us in an email today.

Its true that it doesn’t really matter if Michael Vick ignores half of what Tony Dungy says, but (and this is a big one) Michael Vick IS REQUIRED TO FOLLOW THE CONDITIONS OF HIS PAROLE & (another big one) Michael Vick IS REQUIRED TO FOLLOW THE CONDITIONS OF HIS CONDITIONAL NFL REINSTATEMENT.

By going to a bar and drinking Vodka with friends after his First day back on the job in the NFL, Michael Vick likely violated both his parole and his NFL reinstatement.

But don’t take our word for it, check out the terms of Michael Vick’s reinstatement as quoted from Roger Goodell’s letter to Michael Vick.

“Among the conditions of this reinstatement, you are required to abide by the terms of the supervised release that were imposed on you by the court, which include not committing any further crime, limits on who you may associate with, prohibitions regarding drug and alcohol use, possession of a firearm or other dangerous weapon, and forbidding you to own, possess or be involved with the sale of any dog.”  Source NFL.com

So the New York Post caught Michael Vick drinking Grey Goose Vodka on his first day back on the job.  If that allegation of the Post holds up, then Michael Vick may have just sabotaged his latest and often repeated ‘second’ chance.

We’d like to call on both the NFL and Parole officials to investigate whether or not Michael Vick violated his parole.  Truthfully, it would be painful to watch this man go back to jail, especially just 5 days after his younger brother was sentenced to 20 days for violating his own parole, but we were one of the first groups to say that Michael Vick should not be in the NFL and it could very well be that his latest actions prove this yet again.

Open Questions

As things stand, I am personally unclear as to whether Michael Vick is on parole in Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylvania or possibly at some federal level since he was released from Federal prison.

If someone could shed some light on this, I think it might help.  It would then be a likely next step for us to review parole conditions for whichever jurisdiction Michael Vick must report, to determine if Roger Goodells letter talking about parole requirements is accurate.

Update

It would appear that Michael Vick is under the jurisdiction of Virginia.  Furthermore, the conditions of his parole suggest that consuming alcohol may have violated his probation.  From the overall scope of Michael Vick’s judgment the root of the issue seems to hinge on Michael Vick’s substance abuse issues.  You may recall that while he was still negotiating with the courts in 2007 he tested positive for marijuana and had to undergo a special substance abuse program in prison, which helped to fast track him for an earlier release.

There are two clauses in his judgment that relate to alcohol:

1. the first states that ‘the defendant shall refrain from excessive use of alcohol’
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2. The second item in the Special Conditions of Supervision seem to be where Michael Vick may have already run into trouble, it states “The defendant shall participate in a a program approved by the Probation Office for substance abuse, which program may include residential treatment and testing to determine whether the defendant has reverted to the use of drugs or alcohol”
1.  
3. Based on the New York Post article it would appear that Michael Vick DID use alcohol after that first day of work with the Eagles.
4. It now remains to be seen whether
1. Michael Vick’s probation officer will take action and what that action might be
2. Will Roger Goodell hold Michael Vick to the NFL letter which specifically prohibited alcohol.

At a minimum it looks like Michael Vick may have broken his most recent commitment to Roger Goodell and the NFL, it remains to be seen if he broke any laws.

Its true that several major news organizations have also questioned whether Michael Vick just flamed out before our eyes and no one noticed, but obviously a little grass roots action may be required to actually get something done.

The Eagles seem to think that Michael Vick’s alcohol consumption in a bar was not a parole violation but they are not in charge of the Michael Vick’s parole nor the NFL.  The real authorities have yet to weigh in.