Corey Booted From Idol

Citing an undisclosed assault arrest from last October, finalist Corey Clark was disqualified by American Idol:

the network said on Monday it was expelling another finalist, Corey Clark, who is facing trial on misdemeanor charges of battery against his sister and resisting arrest.

Fox said in a statement that Clark “withheld information about a prior arrest which, had it been known, might have affected his participation in the show.”

“Due to his failure to disclose, compounded by an error in a police report which misspelled Corey’s name, the incident was not discovered during a background check,” Fox said. “The producers and network feel that Corey’s behavior warrants his disqualification.”

The charges against the 22-year-old Kansas native stem from an arrest at his family’s home in Topeka last October, months before he was picked as one of 32 semifinalists for the second edition of “American Idol,” which debuted in January. [Reuters]

It was The Smoking Gun, naturally, that smoked Corey out:

Corey Clark, 22, was arrested last October following a disturbance in his family’s Topeka, Kansas home. Neighbors called police after hearing a girl yelling inside the Clark residence on SW 33rd Terrace. One witness told TSG that while he heard loud noises coming from the home, “what finally caught my attention was a lot of screaming. Then I knew somebody was getting hurt.”

When police arrived, Clark–now one of nine remaining “American Idol” contestants–and his 15-year-old sister Alecia were questioned separately by officers. After about 15 minutes, Clark became confrontational with cops, screaming and yelling at officers, several of whom responded by wrestling the wiry, 6-foot singer to the pavement. Clark was handcuffed behind his back and placed in a Topeka Police Department cruiser.

While sitting in the squad car, he was somehow able to get his cuffed hands in front of him, causing police to yank Clark out of the car and attempt to re-cuff him, the witness said. When he again struggled with officers, a cop showed Clark a Taser and warned that if he continued to resist, he would be shot with the stun gun. Clark then relented.

He was booked into the Shawnee County jail and charged with a variety of misdemeanors, including battery on four law enforcement officers, battery on his sister, and endangering a child. After three days in custody, Clark was released on bond, a condition of which probibited him from contacting his sister. On a bond application form, Clark wrote that he had worked as a “self employed entertainer” for the prior eight years and was “currently enrolling into school for audio engineering.”

….The pending criminal charges against Clark were not the wannabe star’s first brush with the Kansas court system. In April 2000, he was sued by Wal-Mart for passing more than $600 in bad checks at a Topeka store. One year later, Clark was sued by a Topeka grocery store where he allegedly passed a bad $50 check. In the case of the Wal-Mart lawsuit, it appears Clark made good on the bad paper nearly two years after the retail giant filed its District Court lawsuit. But that was not before Wal-Mart secured seven separate garnishment orders on Clark’s bank account (though those attempts yielded only $49.77 and repeated notices from the Bank of American that Clark’s account had “no funds,” or was “overdrawn.” The grocery store, JM Bauersfeld’s, fared better, getting repaid just five months after filing against Clark in District Court.

It’s too bad, needless to say. Corey is certainly likeable although he always seemed uneasy, eyes darting about as if he were scanning the room for the nearest exit. Of course he was wrong to not disclose these troubling incidents, but from a purely practical standpoint, he got a vast amount of priceless exposure for his undeniable singing talent by NOT disclosing and getting as far on the show as he did. Surely he is farther along toward a singing career than if he had disclosed and not been permitted on the show in the first place: he gambled and won. Note his appearance on the forthcoming Idol 2 finalist’s single below – he will be hard to erase with only two weeks until the release date.