For all the alarming stuff in the police report regarding Sheldon Richardson’s July arrest, it appears he’ll only face misdemeanors and traffic charges.
Via Brian Costello of the New York Post, the local prosecutor said he can’t bring child endangerment or marijuana charges against Richardson even though the report said there was a 12-year-old and the fresh odor of marijuana in a car that was clocked as fast as 143 mph.
“Our role is to take a look at the evidence that we know we have and say, given that, are we going to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed this felony?” St. Charles (Mo.) County prosecutor Tim Lohmar said. “The plain and simple answer to you is when we had all the facts in front of us we thought we’re going to have a tough time proving this beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Lohmar said he wasn’t sure he could get a conviction on a felony count of endangering the welfare of the child for several reasons, including the possibility that the family of the child (who has not been identified) might not cooperate.
Likewise, he said the lack of evidence kept him from pursuing drug charges, though that doesn’t mean he thinks Richardson is innocent.
“There were no drugs found in the car, but anybody who takes a look at the situation knows what’s going on there,” Lohmar said. “The odor, according to the officer, was such that it was a fresh odor. The weed had just burned. I think you can reasonably assume that had been taken place while they were driving and somewhere between that and the time they were pulled over whatever was in the car was thrown from the car. We don’t know that, obviously.”
Since Richardson didn’t make it easy on cops by admitting he had just smoked all the weed like Le’Veon Bell did, there’s no basis for the charges.
That won’t necessarily keep the league from acting on it, as they’ve made it clear they’ll investigate things on their own and not be bound by legal schedules under the new personal conduct policy. Richardson is already facing a four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.