Minnesota Vikings receiver Jerome Simpson and his attorneys met with league today to appeal a 3-game suspension the NFL planned as a result of a drunk driving arrest from late last year.
Simpson was taken into custody after his Charger broke down in the middle of the highway and the officer who stopped said he appeared intoxicated. He refused a field sobriety test and was arrested. Simpson plead down to careless driving and refusing to submit to a chemical test. The DUI charge was dropped. His lawyers argued that the NFL should not penalize him as a second-time substance abuse policy offender because he was not convicted of drunk driving.
David Valentini, his Minneapolis criminal defense lawyer, appeared before hearing officer Harold Henderson. He maintains the NFL should not punish Simpson because his client ultimately was convicted of misdemeanor charges of careless driving and refusing to submit to a chemical test.
“We made our case and believe Jerome should not be suspended under the totality of the evidence,” Valentini said. “Our argument was that if he had taken the test he would have passed it.”
Simpson’s first violation of the substance abuse policy came in 2012 when he got caught mailing two pounds of weed to his home.
The Vikings have declined to comment.