FSU CB P.J. Williams reportedly fled scene of accident, was only issued two tickets
Update: 11/14 8:00 p.m. ET
Florida State expressed "profound disappointment" in a response to the New York Times article published on Friday and said "the evidence simply does not support the implications" in the article.
In the response, Florida State says officals worked with the Times reporter "for weeks" to provide him with "the information he sought." The university also maintains that officers "acted entirely appropriately."
You can read the entire statement here.
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A Florida State football player fled the scene of a car accident in the early morning hours of Oct. 5, yet he was only issued two traffic tickets and not charged with hit-and-run by the Tallahassee Police Department, according to a report from the New York Times.
The accident involving Seminoles starting cornerback P.J. Williams, who was driving with a suspended license, left both cars totaled, but Williams “left his wrecked vehicle in the street and fled” along with two passengers, including Ronald Darby, the team’s other starting cornerback.
Tallahassee police responded to the accident, which occurred off-campus at 2:37 a.m. in the hours following FSU’s win over Wake Forest, and reached out to University police and the FSU athletic department.
The day after the accident, “it was as if the hit-and-run had never happened,” the Times wrote.
From the Times:
The New York Times looked into how the police handled this case, reviewing law enforcement records and interviewing witnesses, lawyers, the police and a university representative. The examination found that Mr. Williams, driving with a suspended license, was given a break by the Tallahassee police, who initially labeled the accident a hit-and-run, a criminal act, but later decided to issue him only two traffic tickets. Afterward, the case did not show up in the city’s public online database of police calls — a technical glitch, the police said.
Williams did eventually return to the scene of the accident “approximately 20 minutes later” and police did not test him for alcohol consumption. Additionally, a police report did not say “whether they asked if (Williams) had been drinking or why he had fled. It also “minimized the impact of the crash on the driver of the other car.”
The driver, 18-year-old Ian Keith, was driving home from a shift at Olive Garden and suffered “cut and bruised hands” when his airbag deployed. His Honda CRV was hit by a Buick Century that “darted in front of him, attempting a left turn.”
Two FSU officers, including the shift commander, were sent to the scene, but they “wrote no report about their actions that night,” saying their role in the incident was “too minor” to complete a report. Additionally, Tallahassee police chief Michael DeLeo said an investigation would be conducted “to determine what happened and whether the (TPD) officers acted appropriately.”
“This was a routine matter of our agency responding to a simple request from TPD and it was all together proper for our officers to go to the scene,” Campus Police Chief David L. Perry said in a statement after reviewing the actions of his officers.
When reached by the Times, Florida State “declined to make anyone available for an interview,” but did provide a series of written responses to questions. The Times described FSU’s answers as “shifting.”
Florida State declined to make anyone available for an interview. In a series of written responses to questions, the university gave shifting answers, at one point saying, incorrectly, that Mr. Williams drove his car home and that the Tallahassee police were required to call campus police under a “mutual aid agreement.” A Tallahassee police spokesman said there was no policy requiring its officers to contact the university when its students commit traffic violations.
Later on at the scene, Keith said a football player said that they “had a lot on the line” and apologized for leaving the scene of the accident. Keith said the player was “sort of rambling” and a friend told him to stop talking.
“She said to him, ‘Be quiet, you sound like you’ve been drinking,’ ” Keith said. “I remember that very clearly because it surprised me that she would say it. But the way he was speaking, I definitely had suspicions about drinking.”
Officer Derek Hawthorne filled out a form “labeling the incident a ‘hit and run,’” but later issued Williams with two traffic tickets.
Per the Times:
In the crash report, Officer Hawthorne indicated there was no suspected alcohol or drug use, and he issued Mr. Williams traffic tickets for an improper left turn and for “unknowingly” driving with a suspended license. On the form for the impounded Buick, the officer used a pen to cross out earlier notations indicating the car would be held as evidence, writing: “No hold, no processing.”
When consulting court records, the Times found that Williams paid $296 in unpaid fines on Oct. 7, two days after the incident, in order to get his license reinstated. However, the $392 in fines from the Oct. 5 incident “remained unpaid, and overdue, as of this week.” Because of this, Williams’ “license was suspended again.”
TPD provided the Times with seven other cases where “someone hit a car and left the scene but were not charged with hit and run.” The Times said that none of those other cases were “comparable in severity or circumstances” to the crash involving Williams.
This report comes a little more than a month after another Times report that detailed a pattern of leniency when Tallahassee police responds to incidents involving Florida State football players.
Predictably, Florida State fans did not react well to the report and began marking it as spam. This prompted a warning to show up when users attempted to access the story via Twitter.
Florida State fans keep flagging our story on P.J. Williams' hit-and-run as a phishing link. http://t.co/hJDd2lxIDQ pic.twitter.com/zGaGl8OPYb
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) November 14, 2014
The undefeated Seminoles, now ranked No. 3 in the country, play Miami on Saturday night.
For more Florida State news, visit Warchant.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
