DeMonte Capehart back with Clemson football after arrest. Here’s the latest
Three weeks after being arrested on a charge of unlawfully having a gun on school property, DeMonte Capehart is back with the Clemson football team.
A team spokesperson told The State that Capehart, a redshirt senior defensive tackle, rejoined the program late last week and will be available for the start of spring practice Wednesday after going through a pre-trial intervention program surrounding his Feb. 6 arrest on campus on a weapons charge and a traffic charge.
According to online court filings in Pickens County, where Clemson is located, Capehart’s weapons charge was dismissed Feb. 21 on grounds of “prosecutorial discretion” and his traffic charge was dismissed Feb. 22 on similar grounds. Capehart’s criminal court case stemming from the arrest is now listed as “disposed,” or closed, in the court system.
Capehart’s charges were dropped after he participated in a pre-trial intervention program, or PTI, the team spokesperson said.
PTI allows defendants to be “diverted from court” and provides “rehabilitative services with the goal of deterring the defendant from committing future crimes,” according to information provided on the website of the SC 13th Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office (which covers Clemson and Pickens County).
Requirements for PTI “may include but are not limited to community service work, program fees, random drug screens, individual or group counseling and restitution to the victim, if applicable,” according to the website. Once a defendant successfully completes the program, their charges will be dismissed and they can also apply for an expungement of the charges.
Before completing PTI, Capehart was not “participating in team activities while awaiting completion of all legal and university processes,” according to a Feb. 14 statement from Clemson athletics, which cleared his return to the team last week.
With those processes completed, Capehart, 21, is now in line to participate in full in Clemson’s spring practice schedule. A fifth-year senior, he emerged as a rotational player late last year for the Tigers and could be one of the team’s two starting defensive tackles in 2024.
Coach Dabo Swinney is expected to address Capehart’s situation Wednesday ahead of spring practice in his first media interview of the new year.
Details on DeMonte Capehart arrest
According to a Clemson University Police Department report obtained by The State via public records request, Capehart was initially stopped by university police around 8:17 p.m. Feb. 6, 2024 for spinning the car’s tires and accelerating to a “high rate of speed” in a 25 mph zone on campus in a 2021 Dodge Charger.
During a traffic stop conducted in the parking lot of Clemson’s tennis facility at 188 Old Greenville Highway, police reported that they found a 9 mm rifle, which Capehart said did not belong to him, in the trunk of his car during a consensual search.
During a full search of the car, the report said officers also found “several empty liquor/beer containers and, in the back seat, a yellow plastic baggy containing four live 9 mm rounds.”
After the conclusion of the search, according to the report, officers informed Capehart he was being arrested on two charges: a weapons charge for “carrying or displaying firearms (on) school property” and a traffic charge for “failure to exercise due care while operating a motor vehicle.” Capehart cooperated with CUPD throughout the encounter, the report said.
Capehart was transported to the Clemson City Police Department jail and “booked without incident” the night of Feb. 6. According to Pickens County court filings, he posted a $232.50 bond for the traffic charge and a $10,000 bond for the weapons charge on Feb. 7. Charges were filed in court the following week.
Both of those charges have now been dismissed after Capehart’s participation in PTI, which is reserved for offenders who have “no significant prior criminal history and has no prior participation in PTI” and are “unlikely to be involved in further criminal activity and poses no threat to the community,” per the solicitor’s office.
