Lynch silence in probe raises issue of added penalties
As the mystery surrounding the hit-and- run accident involving Buffalo Bills running back Marshawn Lynch’s vehicle moves into its third week, two questions still hover over the case:
• Was Lynch indeed behind the wheel that night?
• And could the driver, whoever he was, still be able to plead guilty to a traffic infraction and just pay a fine?
A plea deal still seems likely to result in no jail time for the driver of Lynch’s sport utility vehicle that struck an Ontario woman downtown at about 3:30 a. m. May 31, law enforcement sources said Monday.
But those sources suggested that any such deal now could include additional penalties. Those could include an “adjournment in contemplation of dismissal” that would require the driver to stay out of trouble for six months before the charge was dropped.
Meanwhile, one of the most respected players in Bills history is urging Lynch to “do the right thing” and tell police everything he knows about the hit-and-run accident. Authorities still have not determined who was driving the vehicle.
Joe DeLamielleure, a former Bills guard now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said Lynch can still repair the damage that his image has suffered since the traffic incident.
“Marshawn needs to do the right thing. . . . Face up to it like a man. Go and tell the truth,” DeLamielleure told The Buffalo News. “Whether he or someone else was driving, he needs to go to the police, tell them what happened. . . . Young men make mistakes, and he’s still at a point where Buffalo fans would forgive him if he tells the truth.
“. . . The longer this [investigation] drags on, the worse it is for him.”
So far, Lynch has refused to speak about what happened, either to the police or to the public. His attorney, Michael
P. Caffery, said he hopes to have the case resolved soon, but no new official action on the case was disclosed Monday.
The Bills insist they have cooperated fully by allowing three of Lynch’s teammates to meet with four Buffalo police investigators last week. Law enforcement officials, though, have been miffed that the Bills players and management have not been more forthcoming.
Several attorneys have said that if Lynch had come forward to tell authorities what happened within days of the May 31 incident, a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of a personal- injury accident likely would have been reduced to the driver’s pleading guilty to a noncriminal traffic violation. Sources have said that such a plea deal, in similar cases, usually leads to just a fine.
But could the two-week delay have jeopardized such a deal? And what kind of compromise could still be reached?
One local attorney who has defended such cases cited a possible plea to a more serious nontraffic violation, such as disorderly conduct.
With such a charge, a court could impose the “adjournment in contemplation of dismissal” that would leave the charges intact, usually for six months.
Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark hopes to resolve the case this week.
Monday, law enforcement officials disclosed that another SUV used by Lynch was impounded in March, and in that case, a member of Lynch’s family faces prosecution.
The relative, Leron Lynch Jr., 45, is set for a nonjury trial Aug. 28 in Hamburg Town Court. Court officials said he faces a count of driving while intoxicated and other charges. Leron Lynch was arrested at about 3:30 a. m. March 23 on Lake Shore Road, law enforcement officials said.
State Department of Motor Vehicles records indicate that the vehicle Leron Lynch was driving was a 2007 Cadillac Escalade owned by a Southtowns auto dealership. Law enforcers said that it was used by Marshawn Lynch before the March 23 incident.
While the family relationship between Marshawn and Leron Lynch could not be confirmed, authorities believe that Leron is Marshawn’s uncle.
dherbeck@buffnews.com and gwarner@buffnews.com
