RICHMOND, Va. – Michael Vick will head back to a Kansas prison after a judge rejected an effort Tuesday to keep the suspended NFL star in Virginia to work on a new bankruptcy plan.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Santoro denied a motion Tuesday to require Vick to attend an April 28 status hearing on his case in Newport News. Vick’s lawyers had hoped such an order would prompt U.S. marshals to leave him at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail in southeastern Virginia until then.
Santoro had ordered Vick to testify in person at a hearing last week, but the judge ruled Tuesday that he did not need Vick at the next hearing because no evidence will be presented. Vick and his lawyers are developing a new plan for the 28-year-old former Atlanta Falcons quarterback to pay back his creditors after Santoro rejected Vick’s Chapter 11 reorganization plan on Friday.
“It just means he’s going to end up back in Leavenworth, and we’ll have to deal with the case long distance,” said Paul Campsen, one of Vick’s bankruptcy attorneys.
Vick remained in the Suffolk jail Tuesday afternoon, and it was unclear when he will be returning to the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., where he is serving a 23-month sentence for bankrolling a dogfighting ring. Vick is scheduled for transfer to home confinement in Hampton, Va., on May 21 and for release from federal custody July 20.
NHL: Coyotes lose
GLENDALE – B.J. Crombeen scored twice, Chris Mason made 28 saves and the St. Louis Blues beat the Phoenix Coyotes 5-1 to inch closer to the playoffs.
The Blues, who have not made the playoffs since 2004, won for the seventh time in nine games to move two points ahead of Nashville for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Predators lost 4-2 in Chicago.