The New York Times reported
that P. J. Williams was only given traffic tickets after fleeing the scene of a
major car crash along with teammate Ronald Darby on the morning of Oct. 5. Cops
also failed to perform a breathalyzer on the star cornerback, and campus police
appeared at the crash scene.
BY JAIME URIBARRI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
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 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 defensive MVP of Florida State’s national title game win over
Auburn earlier this year, 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.
Early Friday evening, FSU released
a statement experessing its "profound disappointment" in the article.
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 license
suspended again. The reason? Failing to pay the $392 in fines related to the
crash.
