Jamar Goff, the 23-year-old foster son of "Pioneer Woman" star Ree Drummond, was arrested on a university campus in Birmingham, Alabama, on charges including methamphetamine possession and assaulting a police officer.
Officers responding to a call about a suspicious person on the University of Alabama Birmingham campus on September 15 found Goff sleeping shirtless on a bench near a fountain, Fox News Digital reported. Court documents obtained by TMZ describe what happened next: Goff allegedly told the officers he was waiting for someone who was going to sell him "ice", a street name for methamphetamine.
The officers initially let him go. That decision reversed quickly when they discovered Goff had an outstanding warrant for his arrest. They returned, attempted to handcuff him, and Goff allegedly ran. During the encounter, he allegedly struck an officer with an open palm.
A search of Goff's backpack turned up a glass pipe. A search of his person allegedly produced 1.8 grams of methamphetamine.
Goff was booked at Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham on four charges: drug possession, second-degree assault on a police officer, possession of drug paraphernalia, and attempting to elude a police officer. He is being held on $35,000 bond.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office inmate record confirms the booking. Court documents do not indicate whether Goff has entered a plea or retained an attorney, and the nature of the pre-existing warrant that prompted officers to return and attempt the arrest remains unclear.
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Ree Drummond. No response has been reported.
Ree Drummond, 57, is best known as the host of the Food Network's "The Pioneer Woman," built around her family's life on an Oklahoma cattle ranch. She and her husband Ladd Drummond have four biological children, Alex, 29; Paige, 27; Bryce, 24; and Todd, 22. The couple took Goff in as a foster son in 2018.
Drummond kept the arrangement private for more than two years. She revealed she was fostering Goff in November 2020 in her book "Frontier Follies," writing that he had been living with the family for about a year and a half at the time.
In the book, Drummond explained why she had stayed quiet:
"The state agency that handles fostering has strict rules against posting about foster children on social media, which I get. But mostly, and this is slightly related, I feel protective of Jamar and have always wanted his story to be his own and not fodder for my social media."
She added:
"Also, I've never wanted to subject Jamar to more attention than he wanted or needed before he had a chance to settle in and get his bearings in our home. We needed to let things breathe!"
Drummond described Goff as having become "an inextricable part of our wacky family."
Several details remain unresolved. No law enforcement agency has been identified by name as the responding department on the UAB campus. Whether any officer was injured in the alleged open-palm strike has not been reported. And the origin of the outstanding warrant that escalated a brief encounter into a four-count arrest has not been disclosed.
Goff's court status, arraignment date, legal representation, any plea, is unknown.
Drummond's instinct to shield Goff from public attention was understandable in 2020. Five years later, the charges on his booking sheet are a matter of public record, and no amount of privacy can undo the choices that put them there.
