Tallahassee police reportedly gave a starting Florida State Seminoles cornerback preferential treatment after he fled the scene of an accident, according to a published report.
The New York Times reported that cornerback P.J. Williams drove his car into the path of an oncoming vehicle at 2:37 a.m. on Oct. 5, totaling both vehicles.
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Williams and his two passengers reportedly fled the scene. One of the passengers was Ronald Darby, the Seminoles' other starting cornerback.
The other driver was a teenager returning home from his job at an Olive Garden, which could have been more than three hours after the restaurant had closed. An Internet search of the hours of operation for an Olive Garden in Tallahassee stated that they were 11 a.m. ET-11 p.m. ET on Saturdays.
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The Tallahassee police department responded to the accident and later contacted the Florida State University police department and the athletic department.
The Times' investigation revealed that Williams was driving on a suspended license. The incident initially was labeled a hit-and-run situation, but that charge was later deleted.
The Times added that police did not ask Williams why he initially fled or whether he had been drinking earlier that evening. Also, the police did not include in the report that the air bag of the vehicle belonging to Ian Keith, the other driver, had been deployed.
The university police, who had no jurisdiction, did not file a report despite sending two ranking officers - including the shift commander - to the scene. It was also reported that FSU officials dismissed the role of its officers in the episode as "too minor to require a report or to be entered into their own online police log, comparing it to an instance when campus officers responded to a baby opossum falling from a tree."
According to the Times, Tallahassee police charged another man who had been involved in an accident in the same area late last month. That accident reportedly was a collision at five miles per hour.
Tallahassee police already have been accused of treating lightly a rap case involving Winston in December of 2012. He has denied any wrongdoing, but faces a Dec. 1 student disciplinary hearing from the school.
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