Basketball Cop Robert “Bobby” White Makes Arrest at Gainesville Christian Center; Kramer Submits Pretrial Detention Motion
Edited 12/8: Mistakenly reported that White rose to fame in January 2015, when it was January 2016.
Anthony Lee Gainey Jr., 33, was arrested on October 27 and charged with robbery, larceny, attempted escape and resisting an officer without violence. State Attorney of the Eighth Judicial District Brian Kramer has submitted a pretrial detention motion on Gainey. On Tuesday, Judge James Colaw will determine if Gainey will be held as his case forgoes or if he’ll have a bond.
If the motion is denied, Gainey may have a bond of $102,000 for the aforementioned charges. Gainey currently has no bond for his probation violation in a 2021 child abuse case, where he pled no contest and was granted a withheld adjudication.
Robert “Bobby” White, AKA “The Basketball Cop,” responded to the Dollar General located at 1080 NE 16th Ave. in reference to a theft.
One of the victims, a Dollar General employee, told White that Gainey began walking east of the store with merchandise he did not pay for. The employee said that Gainey “brought several items to the register, refused to pay for the items, and then demanded [she] give him $100 from the register."
The employee didn’t comply with Gainey’s robbery. Gainey reportedly “walked behind the counter, placing the victim in a well-founded fear for her safety.” The victim said she was afraid Gainey would hurt her. Gainey fled the scene with candy, a bottle of Gatorade, cigarettes and a lighter.
White reported that he observed Gainey walking and ordered him to stop. Gainey reportedly refused to stop, and White attempted to grab him. Gainey pulled away and continued walking.
White reported that Gainey turned towards him in a fighting stance while stating, “You want one.” White reportedly “laser-targeted” Gainey with his taser and Gainey resumed walking away.
Gainesville Police Corporal Michael Cavett responded to the scene and cut off Gainey as he was walking. White told Gainey to “get on the ground,” and he reportedly refused. Cavett grabbed Gainey. White reported that Gainey resisted by attempting to free himself from Cavett’s grasp.
Cavett tased Gainey, and he fell to the ground.
White reports that Gainey should have known he was being arrested because he was tased. White did tell Gainey to "stop" several times but it appears White and Cavett did not explicitly state to Gainey, “You are under arrest,” before using force on him.
Lenard Gainey is the pastor of Gainesville Christian Center and Anthony Gainey’s father.
Lenard Gainey told TV20 that he tried telling police his son had mental health issues, and they pushed him out of the way. Lenard Gainey told TV20 that GPD Chief Nelson Moya needs to “discipline his officers when they come into a sanctuary of God.”
A Facebook video shows several officers using force by crowding around Anthony Gainey as concerned church members told them to stop.
Facebook Video of Anthony Gainey's arrest
A congregant can be heard on the video telling GPD about Anthony Gainey’s mental health problems. One man said, “You ain’t have to do all that,” before telling GPD to “Get out of this church.”
In 2011, Anthony Gainey was arrested and charged with battery, but the charges were dropped.
In 2017, Anthony Gainey was arrested and charged with domestic battery, but the charges were dropped. Anthony Gainey allegedly threw a woman to the ground in front of multiple witnesses.
In April 2021, Anthony Gainey was arrested and charged with child abuse. He would post a bond in this case but was arrested while on pretrial release in July 2021 for child molestation.
Anthony Gainey would be given probation until 2026 for his child abuse case and was required to take mental health treatment. His sexual abuse case was not prosecuted.
Anthony Gainey’s recent arrest has prompted mass coverage from nearly every local news outlet and responses from multiple city leaders.
Gainesville City Manager Cynthia Curry sent an email about the incident to Mayor Harvey Ward and the Gainesville City Commission. Curry CCEd Gainesville Director of Government Affairs John Alexander Jr., Gainesville Marketing and Communications Director Jennifer Smart, GPD Public Information Officer Brandon Hatzel and GPD Chief Nelson Moya.
Curry’s email reads as follows:
TV20 reported that Mayor Harvey Ward and Moya spoke to city leaders and church congregants.
Moya reportedly told TV20 that GPD currently has some “challenges they’re working on internally and takes everything people said into consideration.”
White reported that Gainey is “listed in GPD’s [Law Enforcement Records Management System] as a documented/verified ‘Out East’ gang member.
White started the Basketball Cop Foundation after making a viral video where he played basketball with local teenagers.
On January 15, 2016, White was called out for a complaint of kids playing basketball “loudly.” A dashcam video showed White walking up to one of the kids and saying, “Can you believe someone is calling to complain about kids playing basketball?”
After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Gainesville native Chanane Jackson posted a video where White is slamming her son into a car. The New York Times reported that “with just a click on Facebook, she set off an uproar that stripped away not only Mr. White’s image as the face of what good neighborhood policing should be but also the assumption.”
The teenager White approached, Aathrell Johnson, told the New York Times his “perception changed” after he saw the video of White slamming Jackson’s son and that he “wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a video of every policeman in the world like that…. It’s what they’re taught.”
White reportedly has said he identified with “some of the struggles of many [of Gainesville’s] Black youth” because he “grew up with a single mother who died of drug addiction at a young age [and] there was never a male role model in his household.”
The Basketball Cop Foundation remains actively registered as a non-profit. White runs the foundation with former GPD Public Information Officer Benjamin Tobias and GPD Officer Rebecca Holcomb.
According to a WUFT report, Holcomb was previously placed on a five-day suspension by GPD internal affairs due to publicly criticizing Officer Andrew Milman for bragging about his traffic stop leading to Terrell Bradley’s maiming by a K-9.
The Gainesville Christian Center is not the only church in Gainesville that White has interacted with. According to PR NewsWire, White used his Basketball Cop Foundation to help build the basketball court at Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church Ignite Life Center (ILC).
ILC has seen the arrest of three people for child sexual abuse. Seven anonymous ILC whistleblowers have reported witnessing and/or experiencing financial frauds, spiritual abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and the coverup of all the former at ILC. More recently, four former Ignite School of Ministry (ISM) students have come forward with their names to publicly back up the anonymous whistleblowers’ claims. One of the public informants is the sister of a survivor.
As legal directors of the Basketball Cop Foundation, White, Holcomb and Tobias are all technically still associating themselves with ILC, as a sign with the Basketball Cop Foundation’s logo remains at ILC’s basketball court today.
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