Chiefs defensive tackle Isaiah Buggs surrendered to Tuscaloosa (Ala.) police on Thursday after being handed two arrest warrants for misdemeanour animal cruelty, according to Ryan Phillips of Patch.com. According to a recent ESPN article, Buggs was released on a $600 bond and will appear in court on June 13.
Court documents allege that two dogs, a pitbull and Rottweiler mix, were found by animal control at a home rented by Buggs. The animals were described as “malnourished, emaciated and neglected” and were allegedly left on a screened-in back porch surrounded by feces and without access to food or water. The pitbull was ultimately euthanized at a local animal shelter after becoming increasingly aggressive and failing heartworm treatment, and the Rottweiler mix — which tested positive for Parvo and weighed a dangerously-low 52 pounds when it arrived at the shelter — is still in the shelter’s care pending a court determination as to whether Buggs should be allowed to own it or any other animals.
According to witnesses, Buggs had recently vacated the residence where the animals were found, and Phillips writes that the player’s lease was subsequently terminated due to his rent arrearage. Phillips adds that Buggs faces other charges stemming from his allegedly pushing a police officer during an April arrest and allegedly pointing a gun at a woman outside of his business.
That business — Buggs owns the nearby Kings Hookah Lounge — is at the root of Buggs’ legal issues, according to his agent, Trey Robinson. In the wake of the animal cruelty warrants, Robinson argued that local police are engaged in a “subversive campaign” to force Buggs to close the hookah lounge, and that authorities offered to drop the earlier charges — which were not initially made public — in exchange for the voluntary surrender of Buggs’ business license (the full statement can be found here, courtesy of NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero).
Phillips, meanwhile, reports that Buggs does not have a business license at all, and that the lounge has been cited for operating without a license, overcrowding, and failure to pay city taxes. With respect to the dogs, Robinson said, “under no circumstance does Mr. Buggs condone the mistreatment of any animal. The dogs at issue did not belong to him, and he was unaware they remained at the property in question.”
Buggs, 27, was selected by the Steelers in the sixth round of the 2019 draft and landed a one-year deal with the Lions prior to the 2022 season. He wound up appearing in all 17 of Detroit’s games that year, including a career-high 13 starts. While his efforts earned him a two-year contract worth up to $6MM last March, he did not make it through the first year of that pact. He was waived in January and subsequently caught on with the Chiefs’ taxi squad in advance of KC’s playoff run. He did not see any postseason work, though the Chiefs retained him via a reserve/futures deal in February.
Buggs declined to speak to a reporter after leaving the Tuscaloosa County Jail on Thursday, and a Chiefs spokesperson said the club was aware of the situation but also declined comment.