Three UTM football players were cited for underage drinking and referred to Weakley County General Sessions Court on Sunday after being stopped by officers outside of Browning Hall.

Jordan Cain, 19, of Dunlap, Tenn., Brian Kissell, 19, of Troy, Tenn., and Jacob Sutton, 18, of Decatur, Ala., were observed by dorm patrol on Sunday morning at 3:15 as they were getting out of a vehicle and emptying ice from a cooler. The dorm patrol notified officers on duty who responded to the area.

When responding officer, Michael Wenz, arrived he observed the three individuals shut the cooler and walk away from it. Wenz asked for the students to stop. Two of them stopped and returned to the cooler. Kissell kept walking and returned after having to be asked again.

According to the public safety report, Wenz was able to detect the odor similar to an alcoholic type beverage on all three individuals as they were talking. When asked about the cooler, Kissell said that he didn’t even know the other two individuals (Cain and Sutton). All three subjects initially said that they had not been drinking. They also denied that the cooler was theirs, and stated that they found it in the parking lot.

Inside the cooler, Officer Wenz found six cans of Busch Light beer and one bottle of Sweet Water beer, all full and unopened. Wenz explained to the subjects that they had been observed emptying and dragging the cooler. All three men continued to deny that it was theirs and stated again that they had found it in the parking lot.

Lt. Ray Coleman with the Department of Public Safety arrived on scene to assist. After more discussion, each of the subjects admitted to drinking. The officers checked the subjects’ drivers license and found that each of them were under the age of 21. Initial court dates were assigned for Oct. 11 at 1 p.m.

All three subjects were noted to be uncooperative at times during the incident. When subjects are cooperative, first time violators of crimes involving alcohol can be handled through Student Affairs, rather than being sent to court. Due to the uncooperativeness of the three subjects, officers chose to refer them to Student Affairs and Weakley County General Sessions Court.

At press time, no additional information was able to be obtained from Weakley County General Sessions Court or Sports Information.

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Editor's Note This story's headline read "Freshmen football players arrested" at the time of printing.

While factual, the word "arrested" here means that the suspects were detained and charged. We do not have record that these three individuals were ever read their Miranda rights or restrained.

We have also removed the word "full" from the subhead, as six cans of beer and one bottle of Sweet Water beer would not have filled the cooler.

The Pacer apologizes for any confusion this may have caused.