Oakland Raiders defensive lineman Darrell Russell, serving
a one-year drug suspension and facing sex crime charges, was
arrested in Nevada on suspicion of drunken driving after
leaving a well-known brothel.
Russell, 26, was stopped shortly before 6 a.m. Sunday for
driving his 1997 Acura sedan 60 mph in a 35 mph zone on
Highway 50 in a residential area of Carson City.
The two-time Pro Bowl player, who has been charged in the
East Bay with drugging a Sunnyvale woman and filming two
friends raping her, posted $1,205 bail for the DUI arrest.
Then he returned to the Moonlight Bunny Ranch brothel, in a
town east of Carson City where prostitution is legal, the
owner said Monday.
Brothel owner Dennis Hof first spotted the beefy NFL player
at the bar around 4:30 a.m. He said Russell declined his offer
of a free drink, saying he had already consumed one drink.
"The girls were kidding him (about sex crime charges filed
against him in Alameda County)," Hof said. "They were saying,
'Darrell, if you were at the Bunny Ranch, you wouldn't be out
on a million dollar bond.' "
Russell is awaiting a court hearing next month to determine
whether he will be tried on charges of drugging a woman at a
San Francisco nightclub in January, then using a video camera
to film two friends sexually assaulting her.
Hof said Russell left the brothel around 5 a.m., after
declining the drink. "I don't believe this guy was drunk at
all. The guy's as big as a condominium. It would take a dozen
drinks to get this guy drunk."
But Nevada authorities said Russell failed a field-sobriety
test.
"He showed signs of intoxication and was arrested for
first-offense DUI," said Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Patrick
McGill.
McGill said the imposing Russell was taken into custody by
one officer without incident.
"I think that he was cooperative until the handcuffs got
on," McGill said. "Darrell's a big guy. I don't think he was
really pleased that he was going to jail."
After posting bail, Russell returned to the brothel, Hof
said. He went upstairs and spent about an hour with a "pretty
blonde" and behaved "like a perfect gentleman," Hof said.
In 1999, the Bunny Ranch dedicated the "Jesse (The Body)
Ventura Suite" after the pro wrestler-turned Minnesota
governor who once patronized the place.
It also hosted a birthday party for John Wayne Bobbitt, who
gained notoriety in 1993 when his penis was severed by his
wife and successfully reattached. Bobbitt failed to attend the
event.
Russell was suspended from the Raiders last year after
violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy for the second
time.
E-mail Charlie Goodyear at [email protected].
