Ralph Wilson and other Bills officials may be subpoenaed in accident case
Three players have already been directed to testify before county grand jury
Buffalo Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr., Chief Operating Officer Russ Brandon, three other Bills officials and three players all may be required to tell an Erie County grand jury what they know about the hit-and-run accident involving a vehicle owned by running back Marshawn Lynch.
Three players already have been issued subpoenas to appear before the grand jury next Friday — rookie wide receivers James Hardy and Steve Johnson and second-year offensive lineman Christian Gaddis, law enforcement sources said late Thursday.
Besides Wilson and Brandon, the other team administrators expected to be subpoenaed are Chris Clark, the team’s security director; Paul Lancaster, director of player programs; and Bob Schultz, who works with the team’s security force.
Clark already has been issued his subpoena, along with the three players, sources said.
Is Wilson, the Bills 89-year-old owner, really going to have to testify to a grand jury about the early morning May 31 accident involving Lynch’s vehicle in Buffalo’s Chippewa Entertainment District?
“Mr. Wilson and Brandon are expected to be subpoenaed, but the final decision will be in the hands of the district attorney,” one source close to the case said Thursday night.
Wilson might not have been on the original list of possible witnesses before the grand jury. But when four detectives from the Buffalo Police Department went to interview the three players Thursday, they saw the team’s owner talking with at least one of those players.
“So they believe he and other [team officials] may have some information about the situation,” the source said.
Other sources said investigators may be casting as wide a net as possible to pressure the Bills’ organization to reveal as much information as possible about the hit-and-run accident that injured a 27-year-old Ontario woman.
The four police investigators spent about an hour and a half at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Thursday afternoon interviewing the three players.
How did those detectives and officers — Allan A. Kasprzak, Edward M. Cotter, Thomas J. O’Brien and Sherry L. Kiszewski — characterize the attitudes of the players?
“Some cooperation, to little or no cooperation,” Buffalo police spokesman Michael
J. DeGeorge said in an evening news conference.
Detectives clearly were frustrated after they left the stadium Thursday afternoon.
“Nothing good,” one investigator yelled after leaving the scene.
Other legal sources, though, pointed out that issuing grand jury subpoenas to the players doesn’t necessarily mean they weren’t forthcoming in their interviews.
Instead, it just may mean that the investigators want the players to make statements under oath in a more official proceeding.
The investigators arrived at the stadium shortly before 2 p. m. after having arranged to speak with the players. They went in two vehicles — one a marked Buffalo police car — and entered the Bills’ training facility through the security entrance.
The investigators were not believed to be trying to talk with Lynch. His attorney, Michael P. Caffery, has advised his client not to speak with the district attorney’s staff or Buffalo police.
But they clearly wanted to speak with Hardy, Johnson and Gaddis, the three players who witnesses said had been on West Chippewa Street that night. At least two of those three players had been interviewed previously, but investigators wanted more information from them.
Investigators also wanted to speak with veteran safety Donte Whitner, who was believed to have been in contact with the group of players reportedly seen on West Chippewa.
“Donte Whitner was not available when the investigators arrived,” said a law enforcement source familiar with the case, “but I understand Mr. Whitner was able to provide them with responses to their inquiries.”
It’s not clear whether Whitner provided the investigators written or oral statements about what he knows. Sources said Thursday night that he is not expected to be subpoenaed.
The investigators also wanted to interview at least four Bills officials, but those administrators and their attorney tried to have those interviews rescheduled, because they had not been aware that the investigators wanted to speak with them.
“Investigators asked to talk to individuals in management, and they were essentially told to talk to the [team’s] corporate attorneys,” DeGeorge said.
Before they left the stadium at about 3:30 p. m., the investigators served Clark, the security director, with a subpoena.
The other team officials were expected to be served later.
Forcing players and team officials before a grand jury seems to be a serious matter for a case involving only a possible misdemeanor charge — leaving the scene of a personal-injury accident — that could be filed against Lynch, if he was driving.
Legal observers have stated that similar cases of leaving the scene of an accident, when no one is seriously injured, usually lead to a plea to a lesser traffic infraction, with the defendant often paying about a $250 fine.
But Erie County District Attorney Frank
J. Clark had said that he would resort to a grand jury if investigators could not get satisfactory answers from people who knew about the accident or Lynch’s actions at the time.
An attorney who serves as counsel to the Bills expressed his surprise at the subpoenas, especially for team management.
“It’s highly unusual for an investigation of this type of incident to rise to this level,” said Michael Schiavone, senior partner with the law firm Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria LLP. “I’m somewhat perplexed by the inclusion of management personnel into the investigation, but that’s obviously within the district attorney’s prerogative.”
Both the district attorney’s office and Bills management declined to comment on the proceedings late Thursday.
Frank Clark was out of the office Thursday and could not be reached to comment.
“We have no comment on this case while the investigation is proceeding,” said John J. DeFranks, first deputy district attorney.
Late Thursday, the Bills released a statement saying the team cooperated fully with authorities by arranging interviews with players who might have been involved and will continue to cooperate with the investigation.
The statement added: “It is the view of the Buffalo Bills organization that the investigation is not a team matter, but rather a personal matter.”
News Sports Reporters Mark Gaughan and Allen Wilson contributed to this report.
gwarner@buffnews.com and dherbeck@buffnews.com
