A judge in North Carolina has issued an arrest warrant for Bill Belichick’s daughter-in-law, Jen Belichick, after she missed a court hearing tied to a speeding ticket.

According to The New York Post, a local judge from Brunswick County officially signed an order for her arrest, which sounds incredibly intense, but the root cause is actually a pretty common mistake. Such a move stems from a missed courtroom date regarding a highway traffic ticket. Since Jen, the wife of UNC defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, has arguably the most famous last name in the football world, the news made it to national television.

On May 21, a North Carolina State Highway Patrol trooper spotted Jennifer driving a Jeep in Brunswick County and pulled her over. According to police records, she was clocked doing 88 miles per hour in an area where the maximum speed limit is 70 mph.

In North Carolina, going fast enough can turn a simple ticket into a criminal charge, and skipping that court date can trigger an arrest warrant.

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If you get caught driving more than 15 mph over the speed limit, or if you break the 80 mph ceiling at all, it automatically stops being a simple ticket you can just pay off online. It gets bumped up to a criminal Class 3 misdemeanor, which forces you to show up in front of a judge in the vicinity.

Since Jen Belichick had crossed both of those lines, her presence in court was strictly required for scheduled appearances on the 10th of July, which was Jennifer’s officially scheduled morning to stand before a judge and handle the ticket. For reasons that haven’t been made public yet, she completely missed the roll call and never showed up at the Brunswick County courthouse. For the court, missing a mandatory misdemeanor hearing is a serious step, and the judge had little choice but to escalate the case.

High-profile families in college sports have run into similar trouble before when a missed traffic court date turned into a warrant, though each case turns on its own details. Some incidents have much worse consequences than others.

In 2021, Britt Reid, who had eventually become an assistant coach under his father at Kansas City, drove while intoxicated and crashed his vehicle near Arrowhead Stadium, severely injuring five-year-old Ariel Young. She sustained a traumatic brain injury, was in a coma for 11 days and spent two months in a hospital. Britt was sentenced to three years in a correctional facility. But Missouri Gov. Mike Parson eventually commuted Reid’s sentence after he had spent 16 months in prison.

Whether this reduction the sentence was due to him being the son of the head coach of the Chiefs is an accusation with no solid proof. But it sure doesn’t hurt to have close family be in such positions of power. Therefore, it is safe to say that Jen Belichick will not be seeing the inside of a jail cell anytime soon.

What does the warrant mean for Jen Belichick?

Right now, Jen is living with an active arrest warrant, and that changes even a routine traffic stop. If she gets pulled over for any reason right now, the police can take her straight to jail. If Jen Belichick were to ignore this one for too long, the court could ask the Division of Motor Vehicles to suspend her license.

However, luckily, she does have a few ways to smooth this mess over before things get worse. Her best card is to hire a local defense lawyer who can file a special motion to “recall” the warrant, which asks the judge to cancel the arrest order.

A lawyer can also look into lowering the misdemeanor to a regular ticket so she can avoid a criminal record. Her other option is to physically turn herself in, get booked, and post bail, but nobody wants to do that. Or perhaps she and her legal team can file a specific motion to recall the warrant entirely.

As of right now, neither Jennifer nor the UNC athletic department has released an official public statement about the active warrant.

Court skips happen to everyday people. Belichick’s fame magnifies the story. When your father-in-law is a six-time Super Bowl champion and your husband, Steve Belichick, is a DC in the very same state, any infraction becomes news.