Sports: Football

Former UW running back in county jail for 20 days

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When the Wisconsin football team took the field against Akron on Saturday, there was one former Badger wearing a different uniform — one issued by the Dane County Jail. 

Former Badger running back Lance Smith is currently serving a 20-day jail sentence for battery and disorderly conduct charges stemming from an incident that took place in July 2007. That night, Smith was involved in an altercation with his girlfriend, Kandl Light.

According to Judge Stuart A. Schwarz, who presided over Smith’s Aug. 14 hearing, Smith repeatedly choked Light and threw her to the ground, an act Smith’s attorney called “ugly and inappropriate.” 

After the incident, Smith was suspended from playing in Wisconsin’s five road games and was enrolled in Madison’s first offender program. However, he was eventually kicked out of the program — and off the UW football team — for missing two scheduled services and failing to pay some of the program fees. 

“What I did was wrong,” Smith told Judge Schwarz at the hearing. 

The fact that Smith was a high-profile athlete did not affect Schwarz’s ruling. He also dismissed statements by Smith’s attorney that his client’s case had been treated with unfair media attention. 

“That comes with the proverbial turf,” Schwarz said of the media’s coverage of the situation. “We punish individuals not because of who they are but what they do.” 

Smith hopes football is still in his plans for the future, and it is likely he could transfer to a Championship Subdivision school to avoid having to sit out a year following a transfer. In eight games with the Badgers last season, he rushed for 429 yards and three touchdowns. He would have likely become the third-string running back behind starter P.J. Hill and Zach Brown in what would have been a very deep and talented backfield.