LAS VEGAS (AP) — A grand jury in Nevada has indicted New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara, Cincinnati Bengals newly acquired cornerback Chris Lammons and two others on two criminal counts in connection with an alleged beating at a Las Vegas nightclub last February.
The Clark County grand jury handed up the indictment in Las Vegas on Wednesday on the same two battery charges prosecutors filed last year against the NFL players and two other men, KLAS-TV in Las Vegas first reported Thursday.
Kamara was arrested Feb. 6, 2022, after he played in the NFL Pro Bowl at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Police say he told officers he punched a man after he thought he had done something to someone in his group and was trying to run away.
A preliminary hearing had been scheduled for March 1 in Justice Court in Las Vegas to determine if there was enough evidence to bound them over for trial in district court on the charges — felony battery resulting in substantial bodily harm and conspiracy to commit battery.
The indictment means the case can go directly to trial in district court without a preliminary hearing. No trial date has been set.
Kamara’s lawyers say the Saints’ star running back is innocent.
“The State has avoided a contested preliminary hearing by indicting Mr. Kamara,” Las Vegas lawyers Drew Findling, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld said in a joint statement emailed to The Associated Press on Thursday.
“He intends to vigorously fight the allegations at trial as he was defending himself and others at the time of the incident,” they said.
FILE – Kansas City Chiefs’ Chris Lammons leaves the field before the team’s NFL football game against the Houston Texans on Dec. 18, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
A Las Vegas lawyer who previously represented Lammons did not respond to an email seeking comment Thursday.
The NFL has not taken any action against Kamara or Lammons.
Lammons played all this past season and one playoff game for Kansas City before the Chiefs waived him last month and the Bengals claimed him Monday.
NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said in a statement Thursday the league continues to “monitor all legal developments in the matter which remains under review of the Personal Conduct Policy.”
Police say surveillance video shows Kamara and at least three other men attacked the victim Feb. 5 at about 6:30 a.m. They say it shows Kamara punching the man, Darnell Greene Jr., repeatedly before others stomped on the man while he was on the floor at the rooftop Drai’s Nightclub above The Cromwell Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.
Kamara originally was charged with a single count of felony battery resulting in substantial bodily harm and released on bond. Prosecutors amended the complaint later that month to include both charges listed in Wednesday’s indictment.
Lammons and the two other men — Darrin Young and Percy Harris — turned themselves in after police issued warrants for their arrest in mid-February 2022. They also were released on bond.
Las Vegas lawyers who previously represented Young and Harris did not respond to emails seeking comment Thursday.
Greene filed a civil lawsuit against Kamara in court in Louisiana in October seeking $10 million in damages after it said Greene was punched in the face and stomped on near an elevator and was unconscious for “over two minutes.”
The lawsuit claims Kamara “deliberately used violent force against (Greene) with the intent to inflict actual damage.”
It said Greene’s orbital lobe was broken, and he had severe injuries to his shoulder, back, head, knees, face and neck.