DuckSouth.com

Ex-UM assistant convicted, loses claim with College Board

By Michael Wallace
mwallace@clarionledger.com

OXFORD — Former Ole Miss assistant football coach Joe Cullen was convicted Wednesday of public drunkenness, a charge that led to his dismissal from the program in March.

An Oxford Municipal Court judge ruled Cullen was guilty of the misdemeanor charge and ordered the ex-defensive line coach to pay a $182 fine.

The ruling comes a week after Cullen's $424,000 wrongful termination claim against Ole Miss was denied by the state College Board.

Cullen declined to comment as he left the courtroom. Mike Wall, Cullen's Oxford-based attorney, said he plans to appeal.

Ole Miss attorney Lee Tyner said Wednesday that Cullen's $424,000 claim was denied by an independent auditor hired by the College Board to review the case. Ole Miss had 60 days to respond to the complaint Cullen filed against the school on March 21. Wall said Wednesday he has not yet heard anything from Ole Miss or the College Board regarding Cullen's claim.

In his complaint against the university, Cullen said he was fired by coach Ed Orgeron on March 10, seven days after his arrest and only after news of the arrest appeared in newspapers. Wall has said his client was initially told by Orgeron that his job was safe and that Orgeron later changed his mind when the arrest was reported in the media.

Ole Miss athletic director Pete Boone said Cullen was never fired and was in the process of being reassigned when he stopped showing up for work.

Boone declined to comment when reached on his cell phone Wednesday.

"What happened here and what's happening with the university are two separate deals," Wall said. "We'll just move to the next step."

Oh, Crap. Rebuttal time for Po Monkey. Cut off your server, GH. Here we go.

Cullen has an idiot for an attorney giving him really bad advice. He was going to be re-assigned for a while until the dust had settled on all this, the charges fought and cleared, and then brought back after a sabatical. But nooooooooooo, this dumbass, following the advice of his idiot attorney, raises holy hell in the newspaper about his re-assignment, publicly threatens to sue the university for breach of contract, and stops showing up for work, retreating to his parents home in another state. Yeah, that will show em. All the while acting as if the charges against him were no big deal, despite the earlier DUI charge against another coach who was fired immmediately thereafter.

The good ol boy system could have worked here perfectly fine had he just given it a chance. He could still be employed on the athletic staff, earning the same salary as agreed upon to coach; the university would then have likely helped him retain the services of a real lawyer with local connections to work the system and get him off; and after a few months sabatical, he would have been eased back onto the field this fall to resume his coaching duties. But, this yank would have none of that ---just had to show that ass.

Now look ------- he lost on the misdemeanor charge of public drunk; he will likely lose his civil suit; no one else will want to hire him since he sued his employer.....etc etc . It is the real life version of dumb and dumber.

Should have taken the reassignment.