[CBFF] [Fwd: Benson on drunk boating charges: 'I wasn't drunk']

[Tom Shannon]

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/931690,CST-NWS-cedric05.article


  Troubled waters


      TEXAS | Bears running back pepper-sprayed after allegedly
      resisting police

May 4, 2008
Recommend (4) 
<http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/931690,CST-NWS-cedric05.article#none> 


BY BRAD BIGGS <mailto:bbiggs at suntimes.com> AND MAUREEN O'DONNELL 
<mailto:modonnell at suntimes.com> Staff Reporters

Bears running back Cedric Benson was pepper-sprayed and charged with 
drunken boating and resisting arrest in Texas -- but he denies the 
charges, saying police roughed him up for no reason.

A former Texas Longhorn, Benson was arrested Saturday night after he 
turned "combative" and "argumentative" during a safety check on his boat 
on Lake Travis, said Robbie Searcy of the Lower Colorado River 
Authority, which patrols the lake about 20 miles from Austin in Texas' 
pricey Hill Country.

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Cedric Benson was booked (right) on charges alleging he was boating 
while intoxicated and for resisting arrest. Benson told the Sun-Times "I 
was not intoxicated" and he did not resist arrest.
(Tom Curze/Sun-Times/Courtesy)


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Benson refused a breath test but failed a sobriety test designed for 
boaters, according to the LCRA. The officer wanted to bring him ashore 
for more tests, but Benson refused.

But Benson told the Chicago Sun-Times he was not drunk and did not 
resist arrest.

"I was not intoxicated. There was alcohol on the boat, and others were 
enjoying themselves, but I wasn't drunk," he said.

But according to the LCRA, an officer asked Benson, owner-operator of 
the boat, to do a "float" sobriety test. Detainees may be asked to 
follow an object with their eyes, do the alphabet and count down with 
their fingers. An officer said Benson failed. Authorities wanted to 
bring Benson ashore for more tests, the LCRA said.

Benson refused to put on a life jacket -- a requirement on LCRA boats -- 
and "presented himself as a threat to the officer and argued about 
whether or not he would be taken to land," authorities said.

The officer arrested Benson, who kept arguing and "continued to present 
himself as a threat," the LCRA said. The officer then pepper-sprayed him.

Benson tells a much different story: "Even after they pepper-sprayed me, 
I have no idea why they did that. I was cooperative. I asked them 
several times why they did that, and they didn't give me an answer."

Once the boat docked, Benson refused to leave the LCRA boat, authorities 
said. An LCRA officer and Travis County sheriff's deputies were 
"basically carrying/dragging him" to a car for transport to jail, the 
release said.

Again Benson gave a different account: "They kicked my feet out from 
under me and slammed my face down. They had a hose and were running it 
over my face. They were choking me and stuff, not with their hands but 
with the hose in my face. I couldn't breathe. I don't know if they did 
that because of the pepper spray, but I didn't ask them to put the hose 
in my face."

Benson said he declined a breath test once in custody on the advice of 
his lawyer, Brian Carney.

Benson was held at Travis County Jail from about 11:30 p.m. Saturday to 
3:30 a.m. Sunday. He was released on $14,500 bond.

His future with the team has been uncertain since he fractured his left 
leg in November, requiring a plate and screws to be inserted to 
stabilize the leg and ankle. The Bears addressed the position by 
drafting Tulane's Matt Forte in the second round last month.

"Very disappointed,'' coach Lovie Smith said about Benson on Sunday at 
Halas Hall. "You try to wait and get as much information before you make 
a lot of comments about it, and that's what I am going to do. We're 
always disappointed when we have someone that we're talking about being 
in trouble with the law.''

The Bears got only 1,593 yards and 10 touchdowns in three seasons to 
show for the $13.8 million invested in Benson.

Benson is charged with boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest, 
misdemeanors punishable by up to six months in jail.


-- 
Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before.
  - Edith Wharton