Southeast's Jarekious Bradley won't face punishment following arrest

Southeast Missouri State senior guard Jarekious Bradley turned himself in Friday night following a warrant for his arrest due to a minor incident that happened over the summer.

According to Southeast men's basketball coach Dickey Nutt, Bradley backed into another vehicle in his apartment complex during the summer and "went on about his business" because he was uncertain whether he had hit the other vehicle.

A police officer came to Bradley's residence the next day, saying that there was paint of his vehicle and that he would be issued a ticket and would receive a notice in the mail for a court appearance. Bradley missed his court date, which led to a warrant for his arrest last week.

"Two warrants were issued for him by municipal court. One for failure to appear for contempt of court for failure to pay fines and court costs for leaving the scene of an accident and one for failure to appear for contempt of court for failure to pay fines and court costs for no insurance," Cpl. Darin Hickey of the Cape Girardeau Police Department said.

Hickey corroborated Nutt's statement about the initial incident when the Southeast Missourian inquired about it in May.

Nutt said that Bradley had changed residences and told his coach that he never received any information about a court appearance.

"When he was made aware of it last week, and we were made aware of it, he went down and paid his fine and paid his ticket and then they cleared everything up," Nutt said.

Bradley turned himself in Friday night around 6:15 p.m., according to Hickey, and was released after he posted bond, which was $400 for the two charges.

Bradley also was given a new court date in January, Hickey said.

"Now my message to him and the entire team was is responsibility," Nutt said. "When you get a speeding ticket or any kind of ticket, and you're summoned to appear in court to take care of that ticket ... in his case he says he never did get a court date and I'll take his word for it, but the bottom line is [you're] being responsible. You know you have a ticket, it has to be paid for you to be in good standing, so it's just a matter of being irresponsible and we've handled that internally, and hopefully we won't make that mistake again and we'll move forward."

Bradley leads the team in scoring at 16.1 points per game. He's started the last eight games after missing the first two with a quad contusion. He's scored in double figures in every game except Southeast's loss to Missouri State on Saturday in which he finished with nine points.

"Not at all," said Nutt when asked if Bradley will face any sort of team punishment. "We'll take care of everything in house. He's naturally very embarrassed about everything. But his firm statement is, 'I never got a letter. ... No one ever told me what my court date was.' I don't have any reason not to believe him, but at the same time, hey, we're all young and sometimes we make those kind of irresponsible decisions, and we live with it and move on, and we let this be a lesson."