Former Johnstown Chiefs and Pittsburgh Penguins forward Billy Tibbetts is again behind bars, according to a report in the Time Leader newspaper in Wilkes-Barre.
The Penguins signed Tibbetts in November 2000, a year after he was paroled in Massachusetts for multiple violent offenses. For three seasons, Tibbetts played in the NHL with the Penguins, the Philadelphia Flyers, and the New York Rangers. Tibbetts then played for many teams in the AHL, ECHL, a couple of seasons in the SM-liiga, before finishing his career in the low levels of the minors, bottoming out in the SPHL in 2008-09.
According to multiple reports, police and U.S. Marshalls arrested Tibbetts, 51, on Tuesday at a Red Roof Inn near Mohegan Sun Arena on a bench warrant. The original offense was harassment and later a violation of a protective order.
Prior to signing with the Penguins in 2000, he pled guilty to rape and served prison time after multiple violent offenses.
Tibbetts pled guilty on March 30, 1994, to raping a 15-year-old girl at an outdoor drinking party in Scituate, Mass. He was 17. The judge called the crime “brutal” but suspended the sentence.
In April 1994, he was sentenced to six months suspended, 18 months probation, and fined $625 on charges of assault and battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct, and intimidating a witness.
However, in 1995, Tibbetts was arraigned in Massachusetts on assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a BB gun. He was found guilty and sentenced to 2.5 years in prison, and received additional time when he was found to have violated his parole.
Massachusetts granted his parole in October 1999.
Tibbetts began his professional career with the Johnstown Chiefs in 1994-95, amassing 68 points (37-31-68) and 300 penalty minutes in 58 games before serving four years in prison.
Tibbetts again received prison time in 2019, stemming from his arrest on two counts of criminal harassment after posting social media videos about a local Massachusetts police chief and his sister. Tibbetts was released on $2,000 cash bond and ordered not to make any further posts, a condition that he violated soon after. Following a subsequent court outburst, he returned to prison and was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
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