Jan. 20, 6 p.m. — After spending a night in the Orleans Parish jail, Brian Downing was released on a $10,000 bond, according to reports from NOLA.com.
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Jan. 19 — Brian Downing, the Alabama fan seen thrusting his genitalia in the face of an incapacitated LSU fan after the BCS National Championship game, was arrested late Thursday for sexual battery and obscenity, according to reports from The Associated Press.
Along with the release of a wanted poster on Wednesday, the New Orleans Police Department opened an investigation to determine whether the Alabama fan’s actions, which occurred at the Krystal restaurant on Bourbon Street, constituted sexual battery.
No charges had been filed, but a spokesman for NOPD told The Associated Press that Downing was traveling from Alabama to New Orleans on Thursday to meet with police.
The Associated Press reported that sex crimes detectives met Downing at his attorney’s office in New Orleans before taking him to lockup.
The Alabama fan is reported to be the second cousin of Alabama sheriff Heath Taylor, who did not want to personally identify his relative to police, according to The Associated Press.
Taylor said he had not himself seen the YouTube video that feature the incident, but other family members informed him Thursday that his relative had been identified in the video.
Taylor told The Associated Press that he called NOPD to ask whether officers wanted to jail and extradite his relative or have him travel to New Orleans to surrender. Police requested the latter, and Taylor gave his relative’s attorney a card with an NOPD detective’s name and phone number on it.
“I wasn’t going to let anybody say that because he’s my family I wasn’t doing anything about it,” Taylor told The Associated Press. “It wasn’t a hard decision. You’ve just got to do the right thing.”
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Contact Matthew Jacobs at [email protected]