Vick silent on visit to courthouse

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NORFOLK, Va. -- Michael Vick walked into a federal courthouse in Virginia on Friday to meet his probation officer, ignoring questions from waiting reporters about his life under home confinement after being released from a federal prison this week.

The suspended NFL star arrived at the Norfolk courthouse at 10 a.m., his first-known public appearance since he left the federal prison camp in Kansas undetected early Wednesday and drove cross-country to arrive in Hampton early Thursday, where he began serving two months of home confinement.

The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback is nearing the end of a 23-month sentence for a dogfighting conspiracy.

Vick arrived at the courthouse in the passenger seat of a Range Rover driven by his fiancée, Kijafa Frink. She let him out near the front door and Vick walked silently past waiting cameras and reporters, ignoring questions about his first day home and his plans. Vick was wearing jeans, a light blue shirt and a dark blue blazer.

He left the courthouse after nearly an hour, with Frink and a lawyer in tow. Vick again said nothing to waiting reporters before getting into the waiting Range Rover. One man in a crowd of bystanders yelled out, "Keep your head up, Mike!"

Vick returned to his Hampton home a little more than six hours after departing. His attorney, Lawrence Woodward, said after Vick met with probation officials that he had "court obligations" in Surry County -- where the dogfighting operation was discovered -- and attorney meetings. Woodward added that Vick received permission from the court to attend to those matters.

Vick previously had met with probation officials. They went to his house Thursday to equip him with an electronic monitor so they can track his movements until he is released from federal custody July 20. The monitor was not visible under his clothes at the courthouse.

Vick had managed to remain mostly out of sight since returning home in a van equipped with blackout curtains.

But now that he has been outfitted with the electronic monitor, federal officials probably won't be the only ones watching his movements.

As his first day at home wore on, Vick may have gotten a taste of what's ahead.

NFL.com Video

A chronology of events around Vick's troubles, ending with a guilty plea for dogfighting.

Another visitor wanting to see Vick claimed to be a friend of a friend named "Flattop." He, too, was turned away, but shouted, "I love you, Mike," before leaving the porch, then immediately called a friend to boast he had just spoken with Vick.

Surrounded by family members and supporters celebrating his return, Vick also still had the security team that accompanied him on the trip looking out for him on Thursday.

Vick is likely to continue to encounter people who say he deserves a second chance as well as those who believe his crimes were so egregious that he should never be allowed to play again.

"It's really inhumane what he did," said Shaun Brantley, 30, of Chesapeake, who spent hours outside Vick's home Thursday with his pit bull. "He deserves a whole lot more than what he got."

There has been no word directly from Vick, and may not be for days.

Woodward accompanied the probation officers to the home Thursday and explained afterward that the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback remains a federal inmate and cannot speak to the media without permission from the Bureau of Prisons.

Efforts to get permission are under way, Woodward said, but he gave no further information.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

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