NEW ORLEANS -- Charles Carmouche is still basking in championship glory as a star wide receiver for Fighting Cancer, the New Orleans flag football team that, earlier this month, beat long odds and 127 other amateur teams to win $1 million by defeating a squad of former NFL players.
But far from the athletic spotlight, Carmouche was juggling far more serious responsibilities throughout his team’s improbable run to victory.
Carmouche is one of dozens of first-time offenders trying to put their criminal mistakes behind them as part of the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office diversion program.
Carmouche, 27, was booked in December with possession with intent to distribute marijuana.
As a first offender, Carmouche was allowed to enter diversion, which gives defendants a chance to avoid prosecution by completing up to two years of rigorous counseling and rehabilitation.
“I've come to court, take drug tests, come to my diversion every week and then still go to the airport every weekend, going to New York, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Indianapolis chasing this million-dollar dream,” he said.
As Fighting Cancer began climbing its way up the bracket of the two-month single-elimination tournament, Carmouche started sharing his on-field exploits at weekly counseling sessions of his diversion group.
An unlikely cheering section was born. Every Wednesday night at their meetings, Carmouche’s group would wait anxiously for the results of the games played each weekend.
“Every week he'd come in and say, ‘We won, we won,’ ” said Todd Juluke, Carmouche’s diversion counselor. “He brought a new inspiration to the group. Everyone got behind him.”
After Fighting Cancer made it to final 16, Carmouche offered to buy the group a chicken dinner if his team won it all. By the time the team made it to championship game on July 14, many in the group were tuned in to the NFL Network to watch the nationally televised contest.
They saw Carmouche score the first touchdown of the game on the way to an 26-6 upset victory over the retired NFL professionals.
Following a whirlwind week of interviews and TV appearances, Carmouche delivered on his promise. He was the first person to arrive Wednesday for his group session at the DA’s office, carrying two large trays of take-out chicken.
District attorney Leon Cannizzaro was there to offer his congratulations.
“I'm very proud of you, I thank you very much for what you did,” Cannizzaro said. “I just ask you to keep doing it. Because there are people looking at you and you make a difference. I appreciate that.”
Perhaps nobody is prouder than Juluke.
A highly recruited St. Augustine basketball star, Juluke gave up a scholarship to Florida Memorial College when he got lured into the cocaine lifestyle, first as a user, then as a dealer.
Juluke, now 55, served a total of 15 years in prison before getting a pardon, a master’s degree and a job at the DA’s office. His story was full of warning signals for Carmouche, who himself was a basketball star who played under the bright lights at Memphis and LSU before playing professionally in Australia.
“I could really relate to Todd, being a star basketball player, heavily recruited, who made a couple of mistakes in life and now he's here working the opposite side,” Carmouche said. “He’s been a good mentor for me.”
Carmouche is scheduled to graduate from the diversion program at the end of the summer. If he does, his criminal record will be expunged, giving him a fresh start.
While his record may be wiped clean, he said his experience in diversion will never be forgotten.
“I was always the athlete – the basketball player, and now the football player – so this has been a good chance for me to re-evaluate my life, to look in the mirror,” he said. “I think I kind of needed this to slow me down. To kind of re-humble me.”
