When Dolphins center Mike Pouncey went to Massachusetts on Sunday, he left with a loss. And with an invitation to return.
Involuntarily.
According to Pete Thamel and Greg Bedard of SI.com, Mike Pouncey was served with a grand jury subpoena after Sunday’s game. Per the report, police are focusing on Hernandez’s “potential involvement in interstate gun trafficking, which is being investigated by several agencies in multiple states -- at least Massachusetts, New York and Florida.”
It’s unclear whether the subpoena comes from an existing Massachusetts grand jury, or a federal grand jury. The reference to interstate gun trafficking suggests that it’s possibly a federal grand jury.
That said, the subpoena was served by the Massachusetts State Police, which would suggest that it comes from one of the existing state-level grand juries.
It’s unknown whether Pouncey is simply a witness or also a target.
“Organizationally, we do not have a comment,” Dolphins spokesman Harvey Greene told SI.com. “And Mike Pouncey does not have a comment.”
Per the report, “signs that Hernandez was involved with a large-scale, multi-state gun running operation began to emerge” shortly after the investigation began regarding the June 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd.
The possibility of additional weapons charges (Hernandez already has been indicted on several weapons-related offenses) provides a potentially valuable fallback for prosecutors who may have a hard time proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Hernandez killed Lloyd -- or that he killed Safiro Furtado and Daniel Abreu in July 2012.
As to the July 2012 murders, Hernandez is believed to be the target of a grand jury investigation. While he has been indicted for the murder of Lloyd, he has not been indicted for the murders of Furtado and Abreu.
Mike Pouncey and his twin brother, Maurkice, made waves in July when they wore “Free Hernandez” hats at their birthday party. Maurkice Pouncey later apologized; Mike didn’t.
It’s unknown whether Maurkice Pouncey, who plays for the Steelers, is also a potential witness in any of the potential cases against Hernandez.