Former Shock Linebacker Pleads Not Guilty to Arson - Spokane, North Idaho News & Weather KHQ.com

Spokane Shock

Former Shock Linebacker Pleads Not Guilty to Arson

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Investigators say Kevin Ellison started a fire at this apartment complex in Liberty Lake because God told him to do it (Photo: KHQ) Investigators say Kevin Ellison started a fire at this apartment complex in Liberty Lake because God told him to do it (Photo: KHQ)
SPOKANE, Wash. -

The former Shock linebacker Kevin Ellison was in a Spokane courtroom Tuesday to answer to arson charges related to a fire at his apartment last week.

Ellison pleaded not guilty to allegedly setting his bed on fire with a cigar. According to investigators, he said God told him to start it. He escaped the burning building by jumping out of his third story window.

The AFL quickly suspended Ellison once the front office heard he was being charged in federal court.

He spent the last week in the Spokane County Jail and is undergoing a mental health evaluation.

This isn't the first run-in with the law for Ellison, who was once with the Seattle Seahawks and the San Diego Chargers. He was pulled over by police in California in 2010 and arrested for having about 100 Vicodin pills without a prescription. Court records show those charges were later dropped.

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