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Already under fire for its handling of the Jameis Winston rape case, the Tallahassee Police Department is facing scrutiny yet again for allegedly covering up the crime of another Florida State University football player.
The New York Times reported Friday that Seminoles cornerback P. J. Williams was only given traffic tickets after fleeing the scene of a major car crash he reportedly caused on the morning of Oct. 5, hours after FSU cruised to a 43-3 win over Wake Forest.
Cops responded to a 911 call around 2:37 a.m., but only found Ian Keith, whose Honda CRV was totaled by Williams' Buick Century, at the scene of the wreck.
Williams, along with fellow Florida State cornerback Ronald Darby, took off on foot after the crash.
According to the Times, officer Derek Hawthorne originally labeled the incident a 'hit and run' and requsted that the car be held for evidence. That quickly changed once the driver was identified as Williams, who wasn't given a breathalyzer test upon returning returning to the scene of the crash 'approximately' 20 minutes later, nor did police ask him whether he'd been drinking or why he fled in the first place.
All this despite the fact that Williams, the MVP of Florida State's national title game win over Auburn, was driving with a suspended license.
For reasons also unknown, the university sent two security officers to the scene of the crash despite campus police having no official jurisdiction.
Florida State told the Times that a 'mutual aid agreement' between both sides required cops to contact campus police - a claim that was denied by the Tallahassee Police Department.
Just last month, Fox Sports accused Tallahassee police and university administrators of hampering the investigation into Winston, the Heisman Trophy-winning FSU QB who escaped rape charges in Dec. 2013. That report was followed by a Times story that claimed the 'treatment of the Winston complaint was in keeping with the way the police on numerous occasions have soft-pedaled allegations of wrongdoing by Seminoles football players.'
Williams seems to have been the latest beneficiary of this special treatment.
'Two-thirty in the morning, people fleeing on foot - at the very least you've got to charge them with hit and run,' Miami-based lawyer Elijah Stiers told the Times.
'You don't get out of it just because you come back to the scene.'
Even after escaping with a slap on the wrist, Williams didn't learn his lesson and reportedly had his suspended again. The reason? Failing to pay the $392 in fines related to the crash.
Posted by Unknown on Friday, November 14, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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