Sebastian Janikowski Facing Charges That Carry a Maximum 18 Month Prison Sentence

Oakland Raiders super kicker Sebastian Janikowski is facing some fairly serious charges. The Contra Costa Times broke the news and Ozraider first posted it here in the fanposts.

Apparently Janikowski has been charged with misdemeanor battery and false imprisonment against a woman. According to the Times:

What is known comes from court documents in which Nicholson, 36, says Janikowski "did unlawfully violate (her) personal liberty" and "did willfully and unlawfully use force and violence upon (her) person" in Walnut Creek on Sept. 24, 2010 -- one day before Janikowski and the Raiders flew to Arizona for a game against the Cardinals. No arrest was made at the time; Nicholson, a Berkeley woman, filed her complaint after the fact.

Attorneys for both parties met in court Thursday for a pretrial conference. No trial date has been set. The charges against Janikowski could result in a maximum of 18 months in jail and a $3,000 fine.

Amy Trask released the following statement on behalf of the Raiders:

"This incident occurred over a year ago. Sebastian was not arrested, we were aware of this matter and this is not news."

The alleged incident reportedly happened days before Janikowski missed a possible game winning field goal in Week 2 of last year against Arizona. Janikowski had seemingly turned his life around after he went through many legal battles during his college career and early years with the Raiders.

Since this matter is already in pretrial status, it looks like the NFL and the Raiders will wait for the legal process to run its course before deciding on any possible punishment or suspension for Janikowski.

I don't know what to say about this, other than I hope the allegations aren't true. I'm certainly not a criminal lawyer, but I believe false imprisonment could be anything from a person blocking or holding another person from moving to throwing a person in a pit with no ladder to get out. Given that it was a misdemeanor charge, it is probably safe to assume that it was something much closer to that first example.