Jason Shirley was found guilty for drunken driving and hit and run on Monday. The judge trying the case, who Shirley's lawyer Charles Magill said was tough on Shirley for taking the case to trial, sentenced Shirley to 30 days in a work program.
He will be allowed to serve his time after the season. Not that it mattered, considering the Bengals labeled Shirley as a "project player" like they did with Stacy Andrews; a red-shirt season, if you will. So he won't lose any playing time.
We're still not exactly sure where Shirley falls under the Personal Conduct Policy. The policy states under "Persons covered by policy".
The following persons ("Covered Persons") shall be considered subject to this Policy: (i) all players under contract; (ii) all full-time employees of the National Football League, its Member Clubs and related entities; (iii) all rookie players once they are selected in the NFL college draft; and (iv) all undrafted rookie players, unsigned veterans and other prospective employees once they commence negotiations with a Club concerning employment.
While he wasn't under contract when the offense took place, he was found guilty by a jury while under contract.
Stanford Keglar, current Tennessee Titans rookie, was charged with battery, false informing and disorderly conduct while at Purdue. At the time, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said that the league would "examine the case", which makes us think that the league can weight in on a guilty charge even though the act was committed in college (aka, it's the verdict that's under eligibility of the Personal Conduct Policy). However, several (if not all) of the charges against Keglar were dropped.
Assuming that the league was looking into it before the charges were dropped, we'd expect the league to weigh in on Shirley in some form or another. Shirley's lawyer is likely appealing the verdict.