Two former players plead guilty to thefts

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Two former South Carolina football players pleaded guilty to burglary charges Monday and were sentenced to one year probation.

Woodly Telfort and Brian Brownlee pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree burglary and petit larceny in Richland County court. The sentences include 100 hours of community service, drug testing and an anger management course. They each were sentenced to five years, suspended to one year of probation.

Telfort and Brownlee were charged with taking electronic items from South Carolina's Williams-Brice Stadium on Nov. 22 after the team was told it would not play a bowl game as punishment for a fight during the last game of the season against Clemson.

The pair had faced felony grand larceny charges, more serious than any of the charges faced by six members of last year's team arrested in the stadium thefts. They pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors.

Prosecutor Barney Giese said the men could have faced up to 15 years in prison for the attempted second-degree burglary charge.

"This had nothing to do with the strength of our case. We felt like we had a strong case," Giese said. "Hopefully we treated Mr. Telfort and Mr. Brownlee like we would have treated any other college student."

Telfort and Brownlee had claimed in court documents that coach Steve Spurrier told the team no one would face criminal charges if the stolen items were returned. The two also said they were being treated differently because they are black.

"We were really disappointed with the manner with which this whole escapade went down because it really looked like a situation where nothing but African-American players were involved," attorney Hemphill Pride said. "What they did was exercise bad judgment as a result of being provoked over the fact they lost the Clemson game, got into a fight and were told that they were going to be punished."

An arrest warrant said Brownlee, a former tight end, confessed to taking two laptop computers, each valued at $4,000, and two computer projectors, worth about $1,675 and $850. The items were returned to the university. Brownlee graduated and tried out for the NFL but did not make any team, Pride said. He hopes to try out again next season.

Telfort, an offensive lineman, admitted taking a $4,000 laptop from the stadium, according to an arrest warrant. That item also was returned, but he was dismissed from the team by Spurrier and is now an offensive lineman at Northwestern State in Louisiana, Pride said.

Northwestern athletics spokesman Doug Ireland said it appears the guilty plea will clear the way for Telfort to be in the lineup before Thursday's season-opener with Louisiana-Monroe.

Newton, quarterback Dondrial Pinkins, lineman Freddy Saint-Preaux and linebacker Rod Wilson were charged with misdemeanor counts of petit larceny in the stadium thefts. Pinkins and Wilson were seniors last year. Saint-Preaux is back on the team.

Newton was accepted into a pretrial intervention program allowing first-time offenders to clear their records after performing community service.

The stadium thefts weren't the only incident Spurrier had to handle during the offseason. He kicked off leading rusher Demetris Summers for violating team rules and star defensive end Moe Thompson, who faces several burglary charges in a February dorm break-in.

Giese said Thompson's case was unrelated to Brownlee's and Telfort's.

"One is a situation where a couple of college students stole some stuff they shouldn't have stolen," Giese. "Moe Thompson's case is totally different."

Pride, who also is Thompson's attorney, has said the break-in was a prank and is claiming racial discrimination in the prosecution of Thompson's case.

Thompson has a court hearing scheduled for Thursday in Richland County.