Andy Kennedy, Ole Miss Coach, Arrested in Racist Assault on Cab Driver

Andy Kennedy, the Ole Miss head basketball coach, was arrested and charged with assault on a cab driver on Thursday in Cincinnati after hitting the driver while calling him racist epithets.

Early Thursday morning, Kennedy was arrested after punching Mohamed Moctar Ould Jiddou while calling him "bin Laden" and other racial insults.

Kennedy was charged with a first-degree misdemeanor count of assault, which would carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail if he is convicted. A pretrial hearing has been set for Jan. 16.

Kennedy, a former assistant and interim head coach at Cincinnati, was set to coach the Rebels against No. 9 Louisville in the SEC/Big East Invitational later Thursday.

Police subsequently arrested Bill Armstrong, director of operations for the basketball team, on a charge of disorderly conduct. Armstong, 31, was intoxicated and had been ejected from the Lodge Bar Cincinnati downtown, and had continued taunting the taxi driver, according to the police report.

Jiddou, a 25-year-old native of Mauritania in northwest Africa, told reporters that the altercation broke out after Kennedy hailed him and then asked him to pick up his friends. When four other people tried to get in, Jiddou said, he told them he couldn't take that many because he only had four seat belts.

Jiddou said Kennedy then began yelling, cussing him and calling him "bin Laden, Saddam Hussein," and hit him in the face.

Kennedy denied the allegations and his attorney, Mike Allen, entered a written plea of not guilty in Hamilton County Municipal Court on Thursday.

Click here for more Sports News on YourFindit