Banned Jolly arrested on another drug charge

HOUSTON -- Suspended Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Johnny Jolly was jailed Monday after his third drug arrest in three years. Jolly was charged Saturday with possession of a compound containing codeine. He also was charged with tampering with evidence for attempting to conceal the substance from investigators, according to records. A Harris County sheriff's spokeswoman said no attorney was listed for Jolly and that a bond had not been set. He was held in the Harris County Jail.

Jolly grew up in Houston, still lives in the area and attended Texas A&M University. Jolly was arrested with two others during a traffic stop at 1:55 a.m. Saturday. Deputies said they pulled him over after Jolly was seen throwing a bag out a window. The bag wasn't recovered but during the stop Jolly dumped a cup believed to contain codeine on the floorboard. Officers also recovered two bottles believed to contain codeine. Jolly was selected by the Packers in the sixth round of the 2006 draft. The 6-foot-3, 325-pound lineman started all 16 games for Green Bay in 2008 and '09 but he was suspended indefinitely by the NFL in July 2010 and did not play for the Packers last year during their Super Bowl-winning season. In April, Jolly pleaded guilty to a drug possession charge and was sentenced to probation after striking the deal with prosecutors that wiped out a similar charge from March and spared him any time in prison unless he stumbled again. Jolly had faced up to 20 years in prison if he had been convicted of possessing at least 200 grams of codeine, a controlled substance. That arrest came outside a Houston club three years ago. The plea agreement called for five years of deferred adjudication, a form of probation that allowed the conviction to be removed from his record if he stayed out of trouble. State District Judge Denise Bradley also ordered Jolly to undergo drug treatment at an inpatient facility for 90 days, barred him from going to bars or nightclubs and ordered him not to drink or use drugs while on probation. She also warned Jolly that if he violated any terms of his probation, she'd send him to prison. The 2008 drug charge came after police said they found cups containing a codeine mixture in Jolly's car after he was arrested in the parking lot of a Houston club. Last March, Jolly was arrested and charged again after a traffic stop. Police said they found a bottle containing 600 grams of codeine under a passenger seat and another bottle containing an unidentified substance. Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press