Carter King Charged With Possession After the Michael Phelps Controversy

by Hillary LaClair, Senior Editor
February 14, 2009

                Sports fans everywhere were shocked to hear of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps having been photographed smoking marijuana earlier this month. Of the eight others facing charges is 2008 World Championship of Online Poker Main Event winner, Carter “ckingusc” King. According to circulating rumors, King cited the bong used as his own.

                The Smoking Gun claims that King’s arrest is not directly associated with Phelps’ partaking, but on a Something Awful forum thread, King posted, “fwiw that’s my bong at my house. Gobbo/psyduck or any other poker guy on SA can confirm. More important, how much {do you} think that bong is worth on eBay?”

                Someone had apparently read the forum thread that King wasn’t expecting on February 11^th, and King has since been arrested. However, according to the Smoking Gun, the arrest had “nothing to do with the November house party attended by the Olympic champion, court documents show. A second man, Zachary Carter King, 22, reportedly admitted that pot had just been ‘consumed in his presence’ at the Blossom Street home.” The article notes that the police search warrant had not specifically mentioned Phelps at all.

                The online poker champ responded to rumors on a TwoPlusTwo forum thread, inquiring about the arrest. “As far as the charges vs me I cant speak about but the penalties will be very minimal. This entire thing has basically proven to me that you cannot trust the media or the police if you stand in the way of their interest. Also fwiw, no I am not dumb enough to actually try and sell a bong on eBay {sic}.”

                A news venue in Columbia, WIS-TV was able to get the story. The television station reports that King was charged with possession of marijuana, not in the party involving Phelps, but at a separate location at 2101 Blossom Street. King’s attorney, Joe McCulloch would not comment on the arrest, but WIS-TV says his court date is set for March 26^th, where he could face a potential sentence of $200 in fines and 30 days in prison.

                King competed against a total of 2,185 players at the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker, WCOOP, which eventually came down to five final players. While the gold bracelet event was expected to return $200,000, King won one of the largest online poker winnings at $1.3 million.

                The record-breaking eight Olympic gold medals were not enough to keep Phelps’ out of the dog house. His potential arrest has ended in the loss of his Kellogg’s sponsorship. He has yet to hire a lawyer and has not commented on the future of his Olympic swimming career. The owner of the bong in question did attempt to sell it on eBay for $100,000 – however, he was not cited to have been at the party during the fateful night.

                “Multiple sources identify one of the four people who live at the lake house, who is now charged with possession. He is said to be 23-year-old professional poker player Zachary ‘Carter’ King. Poker websites say last September, King won more than a $1 million playing poker,” WIS-TV reports.