Ex-NBA star and collegiate hall of fame basketball player Ralph Sampson has had a number of glory-soaked and fondly remembered evenings in his life. None of them involved being arrested for multiple traffic violations, including driving with a suspended license.
That was the outcome last Tuesday evening for Sampson, following his encounter with a police officer as he was driving through the Peachtree Corners area of Gwinnett County.
The officer was conducting license tag checks when he observed that Sampson was driving with an expired license plate tag. A few minutes later, a computer check revealed that Sampson's license was suspended for his failure to meet child-support obligations. After noting an open arrest warrant from 2008 for Sampson's failure to appear in court on a vehicle insurance violation, the officer took Sampson into custody. Sampson spent the night in the Gwinnett County jail.
Sampson denies that his suspended license relates in any way to non-payment of child support duties.
"This issue had nothing to do with child support," he stated. He said that it resulted, rather, from his failure to pay a small license reinstatement fee.
A Gwinnett County police spokesman stated that the written arrest report simply relied on the computer information received from the Georgia Crime Information Center and was unlikely to be in error.
"If [the officer] put it in the report, I doubt it," the spokesman said when asked if the information was inaccurate.
Sampson was released on bond early Wednesday morning.
Related Resource: Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Ex-NBA star Ralph Sampson jailed in Gwinnett; disputes claim of child support failure" Aug. 25, 2011
