Florida’s Eddy Piñeiro charged with misdemeanor after kicking scooters

Florida’s Eddy Piñeiro has been charged with misdemeanor property damage after allegedly kicking scooters on the University of Florida campus, The Gainesville Sun’s Graham Hall first reported.

A search of the UF Police Department’s crime log turns up two incidences of criminal mischief reported from the Murphree Hall area on the afternoon of November 7, when Piñeiro’s scooter-kicking allegedly occurred. Their disposition is listed as “sworn complaint.”

While Piñeiro may face — or have faced — some internal punishment, and will likely end up with a deferred prosecution agreement that may include making restitution to the owners of the scooters, it seems unlikely that he will miss any time because of the incident, given that he’s already played, making two field goals against South Carolina, since it occurred. But because Piñeiro was not formally charged until this Wednesday, there’s room for doubt.

247Sports reporter Thomas Goldkamp noted that Jim McElwain said Wednesday that Piñeiro would be available for Saturday’s game against LSU.

Though McElwain’s full comments included the phrases “Did he do something?” — a suggestion that McElwain may not have known about his kicker’s extra practice — and “Geez Louise, you guys spend too much time on that crap,” it would be very surprising if neither McElwain nor anyone within Florida’s program was aware of the incident.

Where exactly Piñeiro’s scooter-kicking ranks in the long, long history of Florida athletes doing stupid things is up for debate, but a kicker being charged with kicking property is at least in the conversation with taco theft and sandwich propulsion on the list of dumb and harmless crimes.