Morgan Wallen’s 2024 mug-shot. (Image via AP news) 

Staff Writer: Maya Arruda

Email: marruda7@umassd.edu

Morgan Wallen, an allegedly popular country singer, was arrested on April 8th in Nashville, Tennesee. 

When I first heard he was arrested, I initially thought it was something vaguely hate-crime adjacent. I never hear about the guy for his music, and I usually only remember this man’s existence due to his whole racial slurs/ flaunting pandemic regulations that give MAGA Jake Paul vibes. So, I admit, at first, I thought he might have been arrested for a fight during a protest or something like that. 

But no: come to find out that Wallen got arrested on three felony charges because he got absolutely hammered at a random bar, thought it was a good idea to throw a chair off a building, and almost hit a couple of cops.

The situation is so absurd that I genuinely thought someone was messing with me using a recycled sitcom sketch, but no, this is the reality in which we live. 

Wallen drunkenly threw a chair from the sixth floor of a Nashville building at a rooftop bar late Sunday evening (or early Monday morning, depending on how you look at it) and somehow nearly hit two police officers outside the building. 

I don’t know if I’m more incredulous that out of all possible targets, he nearly hits the people with the authority to punish him for it or that the chair didn’t hit someone on the head and kill them. 

Someone had even caught the thrown chair on video. 

Subsequently, the cops were on him like particularly aggravated wasps, and Wallen got charged with three felony counts of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon (the chair) and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.

Wallen’s case files can be found online here in the Nashville criminal courts system for Davidson County.

Wallen’s bond was set for $15,250; his court date is May 3rd, 2024. The disorderly conduct was worth $250, while the reckless endangerment charges are $5k a piece. Talk about a bargain for nearly killing someone.  

Needless to say, for someone of Wallen’s alleged fame (I’ve never heard of him in the wilds of the music industry myself), he was able to pay that bond immediately and be released into his natural habitat.

Wallen was involved in a similar case of drunken shenanigans at a bar in May 2020, where he had been arrested and charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct at a different Nashville bar. It seems like Wallen has a bit of a pattern and possibly needs some help.

The court hearing will take place in the Birch Building (court building, not the dorm), room 4D; the presiding judge is Ana L. Escobar. Based on the online records, his court hearing will result in a settlement for nearly killing people while drunk.

Normally, a monetary settlement would clear legal wrongdoing in a civil court. Some misdemeanor charges—like disorderly conduct—can also be resolved with monetary settlement in criminal court. However, felony charges can only be reduced on a case-to-case basis and generally can’t be paid off. 

Reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon is a class E felony, so under Tennessee’s penal code, each count has a minimum prison sentence of one year and a maximum sentence of six years with a potential fine of up to $3,000. 

Considering Wallen has three class E felony counts, he may be serving jail time sequentially for these counts depending on how the judge rules, making Wallen’s possible total jail time max around 18 years. Admittedly, it’s unlikely the judge would sentence him that long for drunkenly throwing a chair, so in actuality, Wallen’s jail time may be more around the three-year mark.

Again, it all depends on the Judge’s decision in May and Wallen’s lawyer’s ability to clean up celebrity messes. Who knows, with enough money and legal rizz, Wallen may get off with a fine and the minimum possible jail sentence. At best, I can just speculate until the actual court date.

I do, however, speculate that mid-tier country fans will be riled up like the K-pop fans whenever a member of their favorite group has to do military service for a hot minute.

Moreover, I will be able to go back to forgetting this man exists until he does something terrible again.