Marshawn Lynch expected to admit guilt in hit-run accident
By Dan Herbeck, Gene Warner and Matt Gryta
Updated: 06/21/08 9:35 AM
Bills running back Marshawn Lynch was driving his SUV when it struck and injured an Ontario woman at Chippewa Street and Delaware Avenue early on the morning of May 31, authorities suggested Friday.
Lynch is expected to admit his guilt next week to a charge less serious than leaving the scene of a personal- injury accident. He is not expected to face jail time.
And the Bills player riding with him at the time, rookie wide receiver Steve Johnson, is cooperating in the probe.
That’s where the Lynch case is headed now, several law enforcement officials confirmed, after Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark announced that his office has reached an agreement with Lynch and his attorney to resolve the case.
“This whole agreement is predicated on the fact that he was driving the car,” he said. “Has he admitted it? No.”
Clark and other sources refused to disclose what charge Lynch will face and whether it will be a lesser misdemeanor or a noncriminal violation. Lynch is expected to appear in Traffic Court between Wednesday and Friday.
Clark’s announcement prompted the Buffalo attorney for the victim in the case, Kimberley Shpeley, 27, to say he was “pleased” to hear that a plea agreement is in the works.
Timothy G. O’Connell also released some surprising new information on Shpeley’s account of the accident.
According to O’Connell, Shpeley has told him that, shortly after striking her and knocking her to the pavement, the Porsche SUV “slowed down, and then came to a complete stop.”
“After stopping for several seconds, the vehicle sped off at a high rate of speed. I think you could say the driver stepped on the gas,” O’Connell said. “What I surmise from that is that the driver slowed down and stopped, saw this injured woman lying there and took off.”
O’Connell said he received the same version of the story from Shpeley, a 27-year-old woman who works in the automobile industry, and two friends who were with her that night. He declined to release the names of the two friends.
After the accident, one of Shpeley’s friends called out, trying to get the driver’s attention, but the driver left the scene, O’- Connell said.
Advised of O’Connell’s comments, Clark said Shpeley’s version does not square with what he has heard from other witnesses.
“From what we’ve been told, the SUV never slowed down. It just took off,” he said.
O’Connell said Shpeley is still being examined by doctors and has not yet decided whether she will file a lawsuit against Lynch over her injuries.
Sources close to the case who have been supportive of the football player said Lynch may have hit Shpeley because his attention was diverted by another woman who was singing and dancing as both she and Shpeley were crossing the street.
“The driver never slowed down because the driver never knew he hit [Shpeley],” said one source.
While Lynch, 22, has not spoken directly to police about the incident, The Buffalo News learned Friday that he did talk to a Bills official — by text message — on the day it happened.
“More than 10” text messages were exchanged between Lynch and Chris Clark, the Bills director of security, hours after the 3:30 a. m. hit-and-run accident, law enforcement officials said.
Authorities said Buffalo police and Frank Clark’s office obtained a court order to look at the text messages earlier this week.
“I am aware of the text messages, and from my understanding, there is nothing improper about any of them,” said Paul J. Cambria, an attorney who represents Chris Clark and other Bills officials. “My understanding is there was nothing derogatory said in any of the messages by Marshawn or Chris Clark.”
Law enforcement officials said the text-messaging between Chris Clark and the running back began at least six hours after the accident. The officials said Buffalo police were upset to learn that, while refusing to talk to police, Lynch was talking to a team official about his situation.
Authorities said some of the text messages dealt with Lynch’s need to speak with an attorney and the Bills security chief advising him on his legal right to refuse to speak to anyone about the incident. Chris Clark is a former top official of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office.
An agreement on the case came together Friday, allowing Frank Clark to cancel grand jury appearances that had been scheduled for three Bills players and at least three team officials.
Frank Clark called it “kind of a three-way negotiation,” among his office, Lynch’s attorney Michael P. Caffery and attorneys for the Bills.
“I think everybody came to the realization that confronting the matter directly and resolving it as quickly as possible was in everybody’s best interests,” Clark said.
Caffery agreed.
“Marshawn and I are certainly happy that the matter will finally come to an end next week,” the defense attorney said.
Did Clark think the subpoenas issued to Bills players and officials and the resulting efforts of Bills attorneys helped solve the case?
“I think it brought things into clearer focus after that happened,” he replied.
Clark would say only that one other person was believed to be in the vehicle with Lynch. Other sources have confirmed that person was Johnson, the rookie,
“If I knew there were two people in the car and I knew who the other person was, there is no way I would resolve this without talking to [that person],” Frank Clark said. “I am satisfied all the witnesses that we have spoken to have been truthful to us.”
The next step is for Lynch to appear in court and admit his guilt to whatever charge the parties agree to.
But as Frank Clark told reporters, “Nothing’s really done until it’s done.”
The other looming question is whether the National Football League will take any action against Lynch.
“We will look into it, and we will see what the facts are,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told The News late Friday.
Aiello referred a reporter to the league’s personal conduct policy. That policy lists circumstances that can lead to discipline, including conduct that creates danger to the safety and well-being of someone else.
“Discipline may take the form of fines, suspension or banishment from the League and may include a probationary period and conditions that must be satisfied prior to or following reinstatement,” the policy states.
