Ex-NFL, UH receiver Bess arrested after standoff at Phoenix-area home
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cleveland Browns wide receiver Davone Bess was introduced before an Oct. 2013 game between the Detroit Lions and the Browns, in Cleveland. The former NFL and University of Hawaii wide receiver was been arrested after a standoff with police at his suburban Phoenix home on Monday.
GILBERT, Ariz. » Former NFL and University of Hawaii wide receiver Davone Bess has been arrested after getting into a standoff with police at his suburban Phoenix home.
A judge ordered Bess released on $2,500 bond Monday night after his arrest on one felony count each of endangerment, unlawful flight and failure to stop for a police officer.
According to charging documents, Bess was stopped in Gilbert late Sunday for driving without his headlights on.
The documents say he pointed his finger like a gun at officers and moved it up and down, mimicking firing a gun. Police say Bess then fled to his home, where he waved a knife while still in his car.
Documents say he refused police commands and walked into his home.
Police Sgt. Jesse Sanger says a SWAT team entered after getting a search warrant and Bess was taken into custody.
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A Maricopa County public defender will be assigned to his case.
While out on bond, Bess cannot possess any weapons or drugs without a valid prescription.
The 30-year-old played for the Dolphins from 2008 to 2012 after being picked up as an undrafted rookie out of UH. He played for the Cleveland Browns in 2013 and was released after the season.
He was arrested in January 2014 after assaulting a deputy at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. It took six deputies to subdue Bess at the Florida airport.
Star-Advertiser staff contributed to this report.
39 responses to “Ex-NFL, UH receiver Bess arrested after standoff at Phoenix-area home”
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Troubled young man. Good while it lasted. Maybe PTSD.
another UH embarrassment. Please end the troubled program with its minor league schedule, overpaid coaches, embarrassing records, troubled traveling athletes with little or no tie to the UH, and poor entertainment value. Get back to academics.
Now I understand why others constantly refer to your post in unkind terms. Davone Bess made us all proud as a Warrior and later as a Dolphin. He’s been humble and generous. He’s come home to do charity events and inspire our youth. Now he’s having a rough patch and you pounce?!? I guess I’m now officially a member of the “allie is a joke” club. Thanks.
allie’s “back to academics” comment demonstrates that despite such advice allie has not been able to formulate sound and reasonable argumentation.
Like all trolls, Allie’s comments suited for a 12 year old.
Head Concussions maybe contribution to his unexplained act of violence. Seems like D.B. is going down the same path that Junior Seau went down. He definitely was a play maker and gave back to Keiki O Ka Aina in the Island while he was in the NFL. The world we live in can be pretty ruthless, depending on what part of the world you live. Hawaii have it’s own set of bias. For D.B., look like payday has come early. I wish D.B. a speedy recovery.
Incredibly inane and highly insensitive. The man is clinically diagnosed as being bi-polar. Would you tease a child with leukemia or a person with a brain tumor.
You fafa troll, go back to turning tricks under the bride in Chinatown like your momma taught you…
Allie, good academics and good sports programs are not mutually exclusive. Good academics should not be obtained as the expense of sports and vice versa.
Could it be that it is an illness beyond his control? Did you read the details of the team and police reports? They said what they could given his right of confidentiality. How can you make such tangential comments when you have no idea what is going on?
So according to your logic, if someone was a successful business type and came down with schizophrenia while at work, then the corporation is at fault or they should never have recruited the person in the first place? I have one phrase for you to look up the definition, “personality disorder”.
You’ll see why he may have been not in his right mind if you look at his Twitter account. Looks like he is going through some trouble and is having a mental breakdown again.
I hope he can receive any help he needs and is able to recover and resume a normal life.
Hoping he gets some much needed help. One of my favorite receivers at UH.
The downward spiral continues. If he is not careful he will be ordered to a State Mental Facility not just for observation but a year long treatment stint. God bless D.B. Get the help you need bruh !
Enjoyed watching Devon play at UH and in the NFL. Hope he gets things straightened out. God bless.
Keep dreaming. Most likely he’ll never get “straightened out”. He messed himself up and it’s no one else’s fault.
And you know this because you have been there every step of the way with him? It’s easy to sit back and judge others when you have absolutely no idea what is going on with them, but your opinion, is just that; your opinion.
If he has a mental illness he didn’t “mess himself up.” I hope you never have a family member with a mental illness because what they need is love and understanding, not judgment and ridicule as you are suggesting.
but football is character building?
Sure is. Just look at all the characters it’s built.
Sports and many other individual and “team activities” such as band and orchestra, math, science and debate teams, all have the potential to make profound differences in ones life. Sometimes for the positive, and sometimes for the negative. I have to believe that when you look at the whole picture, it is overwhelmingly positive.
I am a letterman and have advanced degrees from Ivies, and you??? Fafa troll go back under the bridge….
You and Klastri. Obviously you two are highly intelligent.
All sports should be. Teaches discipline, playing within the rules, how to compete, how to be a good winner, and how to be good loser. You don’t go one on one against somebody in physics class. I know a lot of lettermen who are professionals in town, even some Judges.
Maybe other messed him up real bad. Just like criminals who mess up there victims all the time.
Think he just needs to flip the switch and see the light.
I don’t know it can be done but they should check to see if Bess is suffering from the effects of CTE. Showing classic symptoms of the disease.
Maybe. Junior Seau and many other ex-football players self-destruct later in their lives because of brain trauma they suffered from playing football.
it’s a post mortem test for now.
Not really consistent with CTE. His behavior is more digestive of untreated Bipolar Mania, or possibly stimulant intoxication.
He has been described as agitated, not sleeping, bizarre, irritable, taking off his clothes at the airport… He haa also apparently been to a mental hospital. There were reports of Cannabis use, but not stimulants.
Bipolar Mania is one of the most challenging psychiatric disorders because while it usually responds well to treatment allowing individuals to lead normal lives and with essentially no symptoms in most cases, without treatment it can be devastating. Perhaps the most tragic aspect is that individuals who are manic often experience a sense of grandiosity and extreme reluctance to admit faults, weakness or mistakes. This causes them to deny the illness and refuse treatment.
The medications for Bipolar Mania are complex and risky, and the choice of drugs, doses and lab tests must be done carefully. Gaining trust and being successful can be a challenge even for an experienced, well-trained psychiatric physician and his/her team. Add to that the special legal burdens and societal stigma put on psychiatrists, not to mention the expanding quagmire of our Healthcare system.
It is easy to see why Psychiatric medicine is the easiest specialty to do poorly and the hardest to do well, easy to grasp why there is a shortage of good psychiatrists and facilities, and easy to understand why poor substitutes don’t work.
Tragically, it is also easy to grasp how someone who develops a severe mental illness can be labeled a troublemaker, easy to understand how so many of them are arrested and jailed (way, way more are in US jails and prisons than in hospitals), and easy to envision how they fare in these institutions (negleted, maced, beaten, tazered, abused, locked in solitary confinement for weeks, months, years).
Devon and his family certainly need our thoughts and prayers, but if he is mentally-ill, mostly he needs safe, effective care lead by a competent, compassionate psychiatric doctor. This could save his life and restore to him the health and strength he once dedicated to inspiring all of Hawaii.
“His behavior is more suggestive of untreated Bipolar Mania,”
BTW, for the bean counters out there, proper psychiatric care is much much less costly than the ineffective and barbaric criminalization of the mentally-ill.
And for the ACLU types, you should realize that a major part of the problem is due to smug civil rights attorneys and detached judges thinking they knew more about mental illness and had more compassion than the ‘evil doctors’ on the front lines. Once the courts usurped authority from clinicians about the most important treatment decisions they took on responsibility for what happens to the most vulnerable and severely troubled of us. Presumably they were confident they could do better.
I wonder, do these lawyers yet realize that when you break it, you own it?
Blame it on the high heat in AZ?
He was such a good guy while here at UH. Got to know him personally and I feel so badly for him.
Bess was saved by Jones bringing him here. This was pretty much his only chance to play college ball. While here. he was a hard worker and stayed spright. Ko problems that I heard of. Even with the Dolphins he did alright the first couple of years. IMHO I think he had some money and the he strayed back to a dark period in his life. I wish him well and gets the help he needs.
yet another pro athlete KNUCKLEHEAD
Looks like untreated bipolar. I wonder if he has and has allowed good people in his life to keep him on track. Bipolar disorder is an organic dysfunction. The brain of this disorder is much different.
Poor guy man…I believe he has football related (college and pro) concussion related issues. NFL and June Jones should be giving this guy some support.
Really feel sorry for this troubled man. June Jones gave him a second chance and he did more than his part while at UH. He was a dedicated player, kept out of trouble, was humble and articulate, and turned it into a productive, if not spectacular, NFL career. What demons overtook him, can’t even venture a guess, but he certainly don’t deserve any of the vitriol being spouted here. That man was one of the best, if not the best, slotback in UH history and I’ve never seen anyone make as many spectacular one-handed grabs as he did. He did UH proud, at the very least, we owe him a measure of gratitude and a deep wish that he comes out of this successfully.
Too bad and sad . . . . . but, typical! Simply comply with the officer’s commands