PITTSBURGH -- Just days after an off-campus drug arrest got him suspended from school, Duquesne University basketball player Stuard Baldonado was arrested again on a new drug charge.

A Pittsburgh police narcotics lieutenant said a street response unit spotted Baldonado sitting in a plastic chair and smoking a blunt early Wednesday evening in the 2000 block of Tustin Street, a few blocks away from campus in the uptown section of the city.

Baldonado threw the blunt on the ground when he saw police, but the officers picked it up and smelled marijuana, according to the lieutenant.

Baldonado, 22, was arrested and charged with possession of a small amount of marijuana, police said. The case will proceed by summons.

The unit that picked up Baldonado is the same one that arrested him Friday, when he was allegedly standing in the general area of a marijuana deal for which police believe he was serving as a lookout.

Baldonado faces a Sept. 13 hearing on a conspiracy charge in connection with the Friday incident.

Both arrests happened within blocks of each other in the same neighborhood.

His attorney, Teresa Toriseva, has not commented on the new arrest yet.

On Wednesday afternoon, a few hours before Baldonado was arrested for the second time, Toriseva said Baldonado's alleged involvement in the first case was bogus and she expected all charges to be dropped.

Baldonado, a junior, was one of five Duquesne players shot on campus last September. Doctors said he narrowly avoided being paralyzed by the bullet, which struck him in the back and came close to his spinal column.

He sat out all of last season with his injuries but was expected to be a major player for the Dukes this year.

Baldonado has an ongoing lawsuit against Duquesne in connection with his shooting, which happened after a dance at the student union.

---

Related Links:
More Allegheny County News

Get RSS Headlines | Free Desktop Alert

---