EXCLUSIVE: Vick's cousin says 'I'm no snitch'
Davon Boddie was in court Wednesday for charges that he says led to Michael Vick's woes.
<DL class=byline>By Peter Dujardin 247-4749 <DD>October 4, 2007 </DD></DL>
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HAMPTON - <!--Boddie
-->— Davon Boddie says some of his own extended family blames him for the legal trouble surrounding his cousin, suspended star NFL quarterback Michael Vick.
Some of those relatives, Boddie says, accuse him of spilling the beans to investigators about a dogfighting ring at a house Vick owned in Surry County. But Boddie wants them — and everyone else — to know one thing: "Put this in the paper," he said. "I'm no snitch. That's not what happened at all."
Boddie, 27, who once lived in the Surry County house but now lives in Newport News, pleaded guilty Wednesday to possession of marijuana with the intent to sell.
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<!-- END rail -->He was given a five year suspended sentence by Hampton Circuit Court Judge William C. Andrews III.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Boddie will not have to serve time in prison so long as he maintains good behavior and meets regularly with a probation officer.
Also, as part of the sentence, he had to submit a sample of his DNA to the state.
Boddie was arrested April 20 after a police dog sniffed out marijuana in his parked Dodge Intrepid during a K-9 investigation of cars in a parking lot on Cunningham Drive in Hampton. Boddie was later patted down, and 79 grams of drugs were found, both on him and in his trunk.
He told the Daily Press he didn't give up Vick and the dogfighting ring. Instead, Boddie said, authorities simply decided on their own to search the Surry County house he lived in after arresting him on the drug charge. "People knew where I lived," he said.
Boddie acknowledges that if he had not been arrested, the dogfighting ring might not have been discovered. It might have eventually come out, he said, "but it wouldn't have been on my bad that they (investigators) had been there."
After the investigation began, Boddie said, he didn't seek to get his cousin in trouble. "I tried to hang my own neck, but it didn't work out that way."
The federal and state dogfighting investigations led to indictments against Vick and three associates: Purnell A. Peace, 35, of Virginia Beach; Quanis L. Phillips, 28, of Atlanta; and Tony Taylor, 34, of Hampton. All four have now pleaded guilty to various federal dogfighting charges and await sentencing.
Boddie, whose grandfather was the only family member in attendance at Wednesday's court hearing, said some relatives still think he turned on Vick while others don't blame him. As for what Michael Vick himself thinks, Boddie said he didn't know: "I haven't talked to him yet."
When the media exposure of the case was at its high point in August, Boddie says, some Vick fans accosted him at a local McDonald's and accused him of turning on his cousin. Having "gotten tired" of such incidents, Boddie decided to get a new haircut a few weeks ago to become less recognizable.
He lost the cornrows that he had sported in previous court appearances and now has a short haircut.
"It's working a little better," he said.
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Copyright © 2007, Newport News, Va., Daily Press
Davon Boddie was in court Wednesday for charges that he says led to Michael Vick's woes.
<DL class=byline>By Peter Dujardin 247-4749 <DD>October 4, 2007 </DD></DL>
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/trb.dailypress/news/local/hampton;tk=10560;tk=11268;tk=11381;tk=11382;tk=11587;tk=12525;ptype=s;slug=dp-news_boddie_1004oct04;rg=ur;ref=googlecom;pos=1;sz=88x31;tile=2;ord=27598149?" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT>
<NOSCRIPT></NOSCRIPT>
HAMPTON - <!--Boddie
-->— Davon Boddie says some of his own extended family blames him for the legal trouble surrounding his cousin, suspended star NFL quarterback Michael Vick.
Some of those relatives, Boddie says, accuse him of spilling the beans to investigators about a dogfighting ring at a house Vick owned in Surry County. But Boddie wants them — and everyone else — to know one thing: "Put this in the paper," he said. "I'm no snitch. That's not what happened at all."
Boddie, 27, who once lived in the Surry County house but now lives in Newport News, pleaded guilty Wednesday to possession of marijuana with the intent to sell.
<!-- END topix links -->
<!-- END rail -->He was given a five year suspended sentence by Hampton Circuit Court Judge William C. Andrews III.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Boddie will not have to serve time in prison so long as he maintains good behavior and meets regularly with a probation officer.
Also, as part of the sentence, he had to submit a sample of his DNA to the state.
Boddie was arrested April 20 after a police dog sniffed out marijuana in his parked Dodge Intrepid during a K-9 investigation of cars in a parking lot on Cunningham Drive in Hampton. Boddie was later patted down, and 79 grams of drugs were found, both on him and in his trunk.
He told the Daily Press he didn't give up Vick and the dogfighting ring. Instead, Boddie said, authorities simply decided on their own to search the Surry County house he lived in after arresting him on the drug charge. "People knew where I lived," he said.
Boddie acknowledges that if he had not been arrested, the dogfighting ring might not have been discovered. It might have eventually come out, he said, "but it wouldn't have been on my bad that they (investigators) had been there."
After the investigation began, Boddie said, he didn't seek to get his cousin in trouble. "I tried to hang my own neck, but it didn't work out that way."
The federal and state dogfighting investigations led to indictments against Vick and three associates: Purnell A. Peace, 35, of Virginia Beach; Quanis L. Phillips, 28, of Atlanta; and Tony Taylor, 34, of Hampton. All four have now pleaded guilty to various federal dogfighting charges and await sentencing.
Boddie, whose grandfather was the only family member in attendance at Wednesday's court hearing, said some relatives still think he turned on Vick while others don't blame him. As for what Michael Vick himself thinks, Boddie said he didn't know: "I haven't talked to him yet."
When the media exposure of the case was at its high point in August, Boddie says, some Vick fans accosted him at a local McDonald's and accused him of turning on his cousin. Having "gotten tired" of such incidents, Boddie decided to get a new haircut a few weeks ago to become less recognizable.
He lost the cornrows that he had sported in previous court appearances and now has a short haircut.
"It's working a little better," he said.
More articles
Copyright © 2007, Newport News, Va., Daily Press
