The drunken driving charge against Radford University men’s basketball coach Darris Nichol resolved quickly, report
Darris Nichols, the men’s basketball coach at Radford University, settled a drunk driving charge quickly on Thursday. This was only four days after he was arrested and a week before he was supposed to go to court for the first time.
Nichols, who is 36 years old and lives in Radford, went to Radford General District Court, pleaded guilty, and was found guilty of driving while drunk for the first time. The charge is a minor crime.
Nichols was fined $2,500 and had his license taken away for a year by Judge Erin DeHart. However, he was given a restricted license that will let him drive again after he has an ignition interlock device installed. Nichols was also given a jail sentence of 180 days, but after he served two days, the rest of the sentence was put on hold.
Staff at the court said that means Nichols has already served the two days because he was in the New River Valley Regional Jail after his arrest on Sunday night.
In an email sent after the hearing, Radford Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Rehak said that Nichols’ lawyer, Clinton Kegley of Wytheville, asked for the case to be settled quickly, which is why it did.
“I carefully thought about the facts and circumstances, then negotiated the agreement and moved the plea up when the defense attorney asked me to,” Rehak wrote.
Nichols wasn’t supposed to show up in court until March 2. An assistant left a message for Kegley after Thursday’s hearing, but he didn’t answer.
Thursday, it was still not clear what Nichols’ job at the university was.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the university’s athletic department said that Shane Nichols, Nichols’s older brother and an assistant coach, would be the acting head coach. The tweet didn’t say what was going to happen with Darris Nichols’ job, but it did say that the university was “looking into the situation with our head men’s basketball coach.”
The Roanoke Times sent a text message to Radford athletic director Robert Lineburg on Thursday, asking if the end of Darris Nichols’ court case has changed his job status or allowed him to return to coaching.
“This is still a personal matter, and I have nothing else to say at this time,” Lineburg said in a text message on Thursday.
The Highlanders, led by Shane Nichols, lost 69-64 at High Point on Wednesday night. Their record is now 17-13 overall and 11-6 in the Big South Conference. On Saturday, the regular season for Radford will end with a home game against Campbell. Radford will not have to play in the first round of the Big South tournament next week.
Darris Nichols is in his second year as the head coach of the Highlanders. He was a great basketball player at Radford High School and West Virginia University. Before becoming the head coach at Radford University, he worked as an assistant coach at several schools, including the University of Florida.
Nichols was charged with DUI late Sunday night, after police got a report that a man who seemed to be drunk was going to a house on Radford’s Wadsworth Street, near where it meets Pershing Avenue. The caller said that the man had left in a black SUV.
The officer saw the SUV parked in the middle of the street with its engine running, according to a report filed with Nichols’ arrest papers. Nichols was driving and looked like he had been drinking. He didn’t want to do field sobriety tests, so he was taken to a Breathalyzer, which showed that his blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit for driving.
Documents from the court show that Nichols’ blood alcohol level was 0.25%.