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Florida CB Jalen Tabor cited for marijuana possession in May, had prosecution deferred

I got to use the Florida Gators Police Blotter section!

By Andy Hutchins
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Florida freshman cornerback Jalen Tabor was cited for marijuana possession on May 27, 247Sports' Thomas Goldkamp reports.

Goldkamp also notes that Tabor reached a deferred prosecution agreement on June 3.

The Gainesville Police Department report on Tabor's citation notes that he was arrested shortly before 2 a.m. on May 27 at 725 NW 13th Street, which is the address of the University House apartment complex. This is the "Narrative" portion of the report.

On the above date, time and location, DEF was the front seat passenger of a vehicle lawfully stopped after LEO smelled the odor of cannabis emanating from the vehicle. A probable cause search of DEF yielded a small baggie of cannabis which fell out of his shorts when DEF exited the vehicle. I identified the cannabis by sight and smell based on my training and experience.

Post Miranda, DEF denied possession of the cannabis.

The police report also indicates that Tabor was "ARR TO INTK" — which could mean arrested to the intake facility at the Alachua County Jail, though the date associated with that is May 28, which makes no sense with that interpretation — and that he was given a notice to appear in court on the morning of June 19. Whether or not Tabor was "arrested," a citation is technically an arrest; this one is Florida's first since Antonio Morrison was arrested for barking at a police dog and resisting arrest on July 21, 2013.

Possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana is a misdemeanor of the first degree under Florida law, and punishable by up to a year in jail and/or a fine of up to $1,000.

A deferred prosecution agreement, customary for first-time misdemeanor offenders, obviously precludes further prosecution of this case, and likely means (or meant) that Tabor would have to (or has had to) complete some sort of community service in exchange for avoiding further punishment. Update: Goldkamp also reports the details of Tabor's deferred prosecution agreement:

Tabor must avoid breaking any federal or state laws and county or municipal ordinances for six months. In addition, he must pay $100 in prosecution fees to the Office of the State Attorney and donate $150 to Project Payback or serve 12 hours of community service in order to have the charge dismissed.

Tabor will also face no further punishment from Florida, according to The Gainesville Sun's Robbie Andreu:

And here's Florida's statement on all of this:

Tabor's mother weighed in on the story late Monday night.

This is all excruciatingly minor — a cop smelled weed, likely in a parking lot, from a car; Tabor, in the car, had a bag of weed; the cop searched Tabor and found the weed — and mostly a reminder that kids do dumb things, and that smoking weed out in the open, especially at 2 a.m., is a good way to get cited or arrested for smoking or possessing weed. (It's also a reminder that drug laws are stupid, but I digress.)

Tabor did a dumb thing; Tabor has been made to answer for that dumb thing. And given that no one cared enough about this for six weeks after the case in question was adjudicated for this to get reported until now, it's pretty clearly not a big deal in any sense.

One last thing: I usually embed the police reports in question in cases like this, both for transparency's sake and because you can't quite link reports from the GPD's case search tool, but this one includes Tabor's address in Maryland and phone number, so I'm not going to do that unless/until I can block those out. There's nothing of value in the report that isn't noted above, trust me.