After initially being charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence stemming from a 2007 Christmas eve traffic stop, McGee pleaded guilty on March 21, 2008, to reckless driving according to Tulsa County court documents. McGee's guilty plea for driving 16 to 20 miles per hour over the speed limit was a $635 fine and 24 hours of community service.
McGee was an assistant coach at Northwestern University at the time of his arrest. It is common for prosecutors to accept a guilty plea for reckless driving on first-time DUI charges. But that has not been McGee's only brush with the law. Reports Brooks:
While a freshman quarterback for the Arizona State Sun Devils in 1991, McGee was charged with playing a role in three burglaries. He later pleaded guilty to theft, paid restitution and was sentenced to three years' probation.
In the aftermath of those crimes, which were later documented in vigorous detail by the PHOENIX NEW TIMES, McGee transferred to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M for one season before finishing his college football career at Oklahoma.
A reporter named Tom Fitzpatrick wrote the PHOENIX NEW TIMES piece, and Brooks says "it essentially amounted to an expose on McGee." The article certainly portrays McGee in less-than-glowing terms. Writes Fitzpatrick:
Let's examine the events surrounding Arizona State University's fleet-footed quarterback and admitted sneak thief, Garrick McGee.
Charles Harris, the slippery, smooth-talking athletic director at ASU, characterizes McGee as a fine young man guilty only of making some wrong decisions.
Harris and Bruce Snyder, the football coach, agree that McGee's punishment for his crime wave along Mill Avenue in Tempe should be suspension from a single ASU football game. Incredibly, the weak-kneed president of the university, Lattie Coor, stands by and is unable to murmur even a word of dissent.
Wonderful.
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