Another FSU football player seems to have been able to dodge the law with the help of the Tallahassee Police Department. Cornerback PJ Williams was the driver of a car that was involved in an accident on Oct 5th at 2:37am. Oddly enough, Williams immediately left the scene of the accident, but police said he returned shortly after on his own recourse. The driver of the other vehicle is Ian Keith.
In the early morning hours of Oct. 5, as this college town was celebrating another big football victory by Florida State University, a starting cornerback on the team drove his car into the path of an oncoming vehicle driven by a teenager returning home from a job at the Olive Garden.
Both cars were totaled. But rather than remain at the scene as the law requires, the football player, P. J. Williams, left his wrecked vehicle in the street and fled into the darkness along with his two passengers, including Ronald Darby, the team’s other starting cornerback.
Mr. Williams eventually returned to the scene. But Tallahassee officers did not test him for alcohol. Nor did their report indicate whether they asked if he had been drinking or why he had fled, logical questions since the accident occurred at 2:37 a.m. The report also minimized the impact of the crash on the driver of the other car, Ian Keith, by failing to indicate that his airbag deployed — an important detail because Mr. Keith said in an interview that the airbag had cut and bruised his hands.
In their report of the crash, the Tallahassee officers justified not charging Mr. Williams because he returned “approximately” 20 minutes later without being contacted by the police. That stands in sharp contrast to how the police treated another driver who left the scene and drove home after a minor, low-speed accident in the same area late last month. That driver and his mother contacted the police about a half-hour later to report the accident.
Oddly enough, a nearby Exxon gas station had been robbed, and surveillance video from the station cameras show the FSU players fleeing the scene of the crime.
Mr. Keith said one of the officers asked him about the Exxon’s broken front door, and he replied that he had not noticed it. He said he believed that when the break-in was discovered — at 3:06 a.m., according to the police report — the football players had not yet returned, indicating they could have been gone for at least half an hour.
A university spokesman said that when the Tallahassee police called Florida State asking for help, about an hour after the accident, the players had already returned. During the evening other football players, hearing of the accident, also showed up, though how many is not known.
At one point, Mr. Keith said, a football player — he did not know which one — apologized to him for fleeing and explained that they “had a lot on the line.” The player was “sort of rambling” until a female friend told him to stop talking, Mr. Keith said.
“She said to him, ‘Be quiet, you sound like you’ve been drinking,’ ” Mr. 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.”
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.”
Tallahassee police officers are allowed to use their own discretion in cases such as this, but evidence suggests that no other case with similarities to Williams’ ever had the same results. In fact, Williams’ driver’s license was suspended at the time of the incident. Records show that he paid the fines related to his license being suspended, which amounted to $296. However, the fines related to the accident, which total $392, remain unpaid to date. His license is suspended again.
[h/t NY Times]