After a bizarre situation this past Friday that saw Jeremy Stephens arrested the morning of his scheduled UFC on FX 5: Browne vs. Bigfoot fight with Yves Edwards, Stephens’ management has released a statement.
As many are already aware, the UFC and president Dana White spent the day of the arrest saying that he was still fighting and trying to get him out of jail, but a deal could not be worked out as Stephens was being held on a felony warrant. White blamed the Polk County, Iowa police for being impossible to work with, something that the Stephens camp maintained in their statement.
Here it is in full:
In response to the recent arrest and allegations regarding Jeremy Stephens we would like to take this opportunity to reach out to his supporters and clarify some of the information that has been circulating in the media.
In 2011, Jeremy was attending a homecoming party in Des Moines, Iowa. A person in attendance became intoxicated and disorderly, and was asked to leave by the owner of the establishment. The intoxicated individual subsequently became involved in a physical altercation with another person at the event. We have learned that, as the featured guest at the party, Jeremy’s name came up during the police investigation of the assault.
Prior to being detained the morning of October 5, 2012, in Minneapolis, Jeremy had never been arrested in connection with the assault, contacted about any possible charge and or notified about any outstanding warrant by mail or any other means. Jeremy has lived at the same residence in San Diego and has maintained the same phone number for the past year or more. Jeremy also uses social media to provide updates on his training, and to thank fans, supporters, sponsors, and the UFC. In short, Jeremy is not a hard guy to find, which can be seen at www.LilHeathenMMA.com.
At this time, we do not know why Polk County (Iowa) authorities waited to have a warrant served on Jeremy until the morning of his fight. He arrived in Minnesota four days earlier, stayed at the hotel with other fighters for the event, and attended the public weigh-in on Thursday afternoon. Because he was arrested so close to the time of the fight, arrangements for his release could not be made in time for him to compete despite the diligent efforts of the UFC. Minnesota state officials were great to deal with, but Polk County kept changing the deal making it impossible to get Jeremy released.
It will take some time for this unfortunate situation to be resolved. We ask that everyone be patient and wait for the truth to come out. We also would like to thank Jeremy’s fans who are standing by him during this tough time and especially Dana White and the staff at UFC for their incredible display of support for Jeremy throughout the ordeal.
There is nothing to hide, so we will keep everyone updated as things progress.
I’ll refrain from further editorializing on the situation, having already written about it not once, but twice.
I’ll just leave it at this. I doubt Jeremy would still be held if it was really a matter of “his name came up because he was a guest so now there was a felony warrant” and I’ll probably never get on board with the idea that the timing was anything other than it being the most convenient, available time for the arrest to have been made.
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