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Rosenhaus: Ikegwuonu acquitted

    by Sheil Kapadia
    Published 

Eagles cornerback Jack Ikegwuonu was acquitted today of residential burglary and criminal trespassing charges, according to his agent, Drew Rosenhaus' Twitter account.

The charges stemmed from a Nov. 2006 incident, in which Safyian Baba testified that Ikegwuonu and his brother Bill broke into Baba's DeKalb, Ill. townhouse at 2 a.m. When Baba returned, he found them allegedly holding an Xbox.

Ikegwuonu's brother, Bill, was found not guilty during a separate trial in April.

The brothers said they had been told about a party at the residence.

The Eagles selected Ikegwuonu out of Wisconsin in the fourth round of the 2008 draft. He told Bob Brookover of the Inquirer last month that he was looking forward to finally putting the trial behind him.

"It has lingered for a long time," he said at the time. "We've been unfairly prosecuted for three years, and it's really unfortunate that they decided to take this to court because no one but [the prosecutor] wanted to take it to court. It's unfortunate that we got ourselves in this situation."

Ikegwuonu missed his rookie season after tearing his ACL, but was considered to be a talented prospect after twice earning All-Big Ten honors with the Badgers.

It's unclear exactly what role Ikegwuonu will fill this season, but as Andy Reid reminded us after trading for Ellis Hobbs, and claiming it had nothing to do with the disgruntled Sheldon Brown, NFL teams can never have enough depth at cornerback.

Here's exactly what Rosenhaus said via Twitter:

I'm happy for our client Jack Ikegwuonu who was acquitted of all charges filed against him. Justice prevailed as Jack was found not guilty.

Update (5:17 p.m.): Since I posted the original entry, the Daily Chronicle (Ill.), which has been all over the story, published a new article online.

"The very competent prosecutors in this case made me think about ... and question the facts," said Judge Kurt Klein. "But I have to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. It's the law, it's a law I believe in and it's a law I'll follow. I find the defendant not guilty."