Iowa football players Jewel Hampton and Jordan Morris, better known as Jordan Bernstine, were arrested early Saturday morning after police responded to a fight in progress at a downtown bar.

Hampton, 20, and Berstine, 21, were both charged with public intoxication. Hampton was also charged for being in a liquor-license establishment after 10 p.m. Iowa City’s new 21-ordinance went into effect midnight on June 1.

Bar staff at Vito’s, 118 E. College St., alerted police officers patrolling the Pedestrian Mall around 1:46 a.m. of a large fight taking place inside the bar, said Iowa City police Lt. Bill Campbell. Upon arrival, the officers found Hampton had been involved in “several” physical altercations.

Campbell said Bernstine was not cooperative with officers when they attempted to take Hampton into custody, leading to Bernstine’s arrest as well.

“Bernstine was pretty disruptive in hindering the officer’ ability to take Mr. Hampton into custody and into the squad car and so forth,” Campbell said. “He was warned a number of times to step back and allow the officers to do what they needed to do. He continued to specifically verbally make it more difficult for the officers to take care of what they needed to take care of.”

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said in a statement that he is aware of the arrests.
“At this time I am in the process of gathering all the facts concerning the incident. I’ll have no further comment and the incident will be handled internally,” he said.

Hampton, a redshirt sophomore running back, missed all of the 2009 football season after suffering a right knee injury last July. He rushed for 463 yards and seven touchdowns while serving as Shonn Greene’s back-up in 2008.

Bernstine, a redshirt junior cornerback, also missed the 2009 season after breaking his ankle in a pre-season practice last August. The Des Moines-native recorded 12 tackles and one interception as a sophomore in 2008.

— by Jordan Garretson