Leeds Utd co-owner given jail sentence after accusation of $140 trailer park sex arrangement
Leeds United's co-owner was keen to celebrate their opening day Premier League victory in a rather unusual way after police caught him red-handed at a trailer park in Ohio.
Jed York, who also owns the American football team San Francisco 49ers and has a family net worth of around $8.5 billion, ended up getting nothing in return for his alleged $140 offer last weekend.
The 46-year-old businessman filed for divorce from his his wife of 15 years Danielle Belluomini, with whom he shares two sons, back in May and clearly isn't taking it all that well after arranging a meet up with what he thought was a sex worker on Sunday.
He is reported to have responded to an advert from a well-known prostitution website in Columbiana County and he then picked the glamorous location of an Ohio trailer park as his desired destination, without knowing that it was actually the police who would be waiting for him.
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While he might have been hoping that those in police officers were simply in costume, his luck was out and he was arrested at the scene and taken into custody by an agent from the Mahoning Valley Human trafficking Task Force.
The court documents suggest that York had 'in his possession his cellular device which was used to arrange the criminal act' while they also reveal that he was booked on two separate charges - one count of engaging in prostitution and one count of possessing criminal tools.
However, Columbiana County Municipal Court records also suggest that he was able to cut a plea deal on Monday 24 August, after he was initially released on a $5000 bond.
He pled no contest to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct as well as no contest to one count of possessing criminal tools, which essentially means that he is accepting his punishment without admitting his guilt.
York was eventually sentenced to one day in jail and ordered to pay a further $1150 in fines, which made his original $140 plans turn into a very expensive weekend indeed, not that it puts much of a dent in his personal fortune or the summer transfer plans of Leeds United.
York took over as CEO of the 49ers in 2008 after his uncle Eddie DeBartolo Jr ran into his own legal troubles, and 15 years later they assumed full ownership of the Yorkshire football club, having first invested in the Elland Road outfit back in 2018.
The love-in with the real football didn't end there either as in 2025, the San Francisco 49ers also completed a takeover of Scottish giants Rangers.
In a statement issued on Monday morning, the 49ers said: “As this is a legal matter which has been resolved, we will not be providing any further comment at this time.”
The NFL added through a spokesperson that it is 'aware of the matter' and it 'will be reviewed under the personal conduct policy'.
Topics: San Francisco 49ers, Premier League
James Moorhouse