BOOZING Coach Billy Gillispie Catches Another Drunk Driving Charge.

Gillispie charged with DUI
by Ashlee Clark

Former University of Kentucky men's basketball coach Billy Gillispie was being held in the Franklin County jail Thursday morning on a driving under the influence charge.

Gillispie was brought to the jail at 5:20 a.m. Thursday, jail officials said.

Gillispie was arrested by Lawrenceburg police around 2 a.m. Thursday. Another man, Charles O'Conner, was arrested and charged with alcohol intoxication. O'Conner also was taken to the Franklin jail where he remained at 8 a.m. Thursday morning.
Gillispie left the coaching job in March 2009 after two seasons when UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart said, "We obviously did not achieve the results we all desired on the floor this season," Barnhart said of UK's 22-14 record. "Those results can occur when you are trying to grow a program. We clearly understand that.

"However, it is as important to represent the Kentucky program and the basketball program, more specifically, in a manner which best utilizes our incredible tradition, assets and platform. ... It is my evaluation that we have not done all we can to manage the entire scope of the program and all that we expect."

Gillispie sued the UK Athletics Association in Texas federal court, alleging breach of contract over his dismissal. He alleged that UK's athletics department owes him $6 million for firing him two years into a seven-year agreement. The university, which filed a countersuit in Kentucky, has argued it does not owe the Texas native because he never signed a formal contract.

Thursday wasn't Gillispie's first alcohol-related arrest.

Gillispie was arrested in 1999 on charges of driving while intoxicated and improper use of a lane in Tulsa, Okla. He pleaded guilty to reckless driving and other charges were dismissed.

In 2003, he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving while in his first year at the University of Texas-El Paso, but the charges were dismissed after a prosecutor decided there was not enough evidence to suggest Gillispie was drunk.

Gillispie was living in Jessamine County while he was coaching, but the house sold late this summer for $1.2 million.