Mississippi coach Andy Kennedy returned to Cincinnati to handle legal problems that were a result of a December 2008 incident with a cab driver. Court documents indicate that Kennedy could settle a criminal charge of assault, avoiding a trial that could produce a sentence as long as six months in jail.
Kennedy and the Rebels were in Cincinnati to play Louisville in the SEC/Big East Invitational, and the coach met with some friends and Mississippi staff members at a bar. Kennedy hailed a cab, and four of his friends tried to enter the cab with him. According to the cab driver, he refused to take everyone because he could not legally take all the passengers. The cab driver said Kennedy punched him in the face and called him bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Police found that the cab driver had a swollen face the next day.
After the incident, Kennedy sued the cab driver and a valet who witnessed the incident for defamation. Those two countersued. The civil suits will linger regardless of the outcome of the criminal suit.
