Gophers' Mbakwe avoids jail time
Minnesota forward Trevor Mbakwe won't go to prison after a Friday court hearing, Miami-Dade state attorney's office spokesperson Ed Griffith told reporters.
Mbakwe had to appear in Miami because of a September DUI conviction, which loomed as a possible probation violation from an earlier case.
He received additional probation and community service.
"Judge Fernandez determined that the defendant (Trevor Mbakwe) was not a danger to the community, thus Judge Fernandez had the discretion to extend probation which he did, by two years," Griffith said via email. "He did modify it to reporting probation instead of non-reporting probation, and ordered the defendant to perform 20 hours of community service a month and attend AA meetings three times a week."
Mbakwe is getting ready for his sixth year of college basketball after missing most of last season with a torn ACL. He didn't play in 2009-10 season because he was awaiting trial on a felony assault charge. He was accused by a woman of punching her in the face and breaking bones that required surgery.
While claiming his innocence, Mbawke entered a pretrial intervention program that would expunge the charge if he stayed out of trouble.
