Henry incident at Newport Levee

By Kevin Kelly and Mark Curnutte
kkelly@nky.com, mcurnutte@enquirer.com

A valet parking attendant at Newport on the Levee allegedly got into a confrontation with Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry and another man over a $5 parking charge Tuesday.

Bellevue resident Jason C. Baker, who intervened and tried to resolve the dispute, ultimately filed a menacing and harassment complaint with Newport police shortly before 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Henry has not been charged with a crime.

The Bengals reinstated Henry to the 53-man roster Monday. He is coming off an eight-game suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy and is expected to play Sunday at Baltimore.

Is the incident enough to jeopardize Henry's status for the game?

"Based on the info below, the answer would be no," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello wrote in an e-mail to The Enquirer after viewing this report. "It is not an issue in terms of his playing status at this time."

Aiello is NFL Senior Vice President of Public Relations.

Henry spoke to the media earlier today.

"I'm really excited to get out there and help my teammates," he told a group of reporters and TV cameras.

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, through a team media relations official, said Henry had been told only to answer football-related questions. Henry would have no comment on the Newport incident, Bengals spokesman Jack Brennan said. The club had no additional comment as of 3 p.m. The Bengals view it as a non-substantive issue, Brennan added.

According to the incident report, the valet parking attendant approached Henry and Desious Dyneal Alston, 24, after they parked a Land Rover without paying and started walking away Tuesday. The valet, according to the incident report, said Henry started arguing with him about parking when Baker approached and tried to resolve the argument.

According to the incident report, Baker told police that Henry came up to him and, chest to chest, said, “(Expletive) you. (Expletive) this. Don’t you know who I am?” before throwing a $5 bill on the ground and saying, "You better pick that up (expletive)."

Henry and Alston left the Newport on the Levee in the Land Rover but later returned, the incident report said. Police were called back to the entertainment complex and Henry and Alston were banned from the complex, the incident report said.

Baker located an officer a few minutes later, according to the incident report, and said Henry and Alston had walked past him on the way to an elevator and told him, "(Expletive) you. You better hope I don’t see you again."

Baker has not returned a phone message seeking comment.

To pursue charges against Henry would require a visit by Baker to the Campbell County Attorney's office, which would review the incident and decide if charges were appropriate. There’s also the possibility that the county attorney would require the sides to go through mediation before the issuance of charges.

"Legally any misdemeanor such as this needs to be filed within one year," Campbell County Attorney Justin Verst. "But as a practical matter the longer somebody sits on it and doesn’t do anything the less serious we're going to take it."