Doubts are surfacing about Raiders receiver Javon Walker’s story that he was kidnapped from his Las Vegas hotel room before being beaten, robbed and left in a street off the strip.
According to the the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Metro police have surveillance video of Walker getting into a car on his own power the morning before he was found.
Las Vegas TV station KVBC-TV published a statement last week from the MGM-Mirage, owner of the Bellagio Hotel, saying: “The facts that have been reported regarding the incident involving Javon Walker are incorrect. I am unable to provide further detail out of respect for the Metro investigation which is currently underway.”
Walker told a gossip website last Tuesday that he was abducted from his room at the Bellagio.
“I was just back at my room, and at about 5:30 in the morning, I got a knock at the door,” Walker told TheDirty.com. “I opened it, and three guys with guns were there. They cracked me in the head a few times, knocking me unconscious.
“They then robbed me of everything I had; my watch, money, everything. Somehow they got me to a car and dropped me off in the street. That’s what happened.”
Walker was found in a pool of blood around 7:30 a.m. June 16 about a block east of Las Vegas Boulevard. The Hard Rock Hotel confirmed Walker left Body English nightclub sometime after 3 a.m., after spraying clubgoers with champagne. Las Vegas police said he was taken to a hospital with “significant injuries.”
Police said a large amount of cash and expensive jewelry were taken from Walker.
Walker was released by the Broncos in February. He signed a $55 million contract with the Raiders, including $16 million in guarantees and $27 million over the first three years.
Strahan joining Fox
NEW YORK — Michael Stra- han is taking his gap-toothed grin to Fox.
The former Giants defensive end, who retired this month, will join the network’s NFL pregame show.
• Backup quarterback Jared Lorenzen was waived by the Giants a little more than a month before training camp opens. Lorenzen’s status had been a question mark since the Giants signed veteran David Carr as a free agent and drafted Andre Woodson, who, like Lorenzen, played at Kentucky.
Footnotes.
Two Green Bay, Wis., men — Yeshua Tate, 31, and Joel Mullin-Romo, 20 — face charges of burglarizing the home of Packers running back Noah Herron, who hit one of them over the head with a bedpost when the man came in his bedroom.
• Former Bears running back Cedric Benson was ordered to install an ignition- lock breath tester in his car after he was charged with drunken driving. Benson was charged in separate incidents of boating and driving while intoxicated. Travis County (Texas) Court-at- Law Judge Elisabeth Earle ordered him to install the device within 72 hours as a condition of his bail at a pretrial hearing. The device prevents the car from starting if it detects alcohol.
• Panthers receiver Dwayne Jarrett pleaded guilty to driving while impaired minutes before he was scheduled to go on trial in Charlotte, N.C. He surrendered his driver’s license and was ordered to pay $420 in court costs and perform 24 hours of community service.
