DA: Bills' Lynch will plead guilty in hit and run
By CAROLYN THOMPSON – 56 minutes ago
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Buffalo Bills running back Marshawn Lynch will plead guilty next week in a hit-and-run accident involving his SUV, Erie County district attorney Frank Clark said Friday.
Clark declined to give details of the charge but said the tentative plea agreement assumes Lynch was driving his 2008 Porsche Cayenne when it hit a woman crossing a Buffalo intersection early May 31, leaving the victim with a bruised hip and in need of stitches.
There was one other person in the SUV at the time, Clark said. He would not say who it was.
Friday's announcement came as a grand jury was scheduled to begin hearing testimony in the case. Several Bills players and front-office employees were subpoenaed by investigators frustrated by Lynch's refusal to speak with them.
The prosecutor said he does not fault Lynch for exercising his right to stay silent, but acknowledged that his office and the Buffalo police could have used the nearly three weeks spent on the headline-grabbing case on more serious crimes.
"This, at its worst, is a vehicle and traffic misdemeanor. In the hierarchy of criminal conduct, this is certainly in the bottom third," Clark said.
Lynch was the Bills' first-round draft pick in 2007. His lawyer, Michael Caffery, did not immediately respond to Clark's announcement Friday. Earlier in the day, Caffery said he was working toward a resolution. A message left with Lynch's agent was not immediately returned.
A Bills spokesman did not immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hhA8H0CtKLA_AQ0OV0F-rDuPOoewD91E1L9G0
By CAROLYN THOMPSON – 56 minutes ago
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Buffalo Bills running back Marshawn Lynch will plead guilty next week in a hit-and-run accident involving his SUV, Erie County district attorney Frank Clark said Friday.
Clark declined to give details of the charge but said the tentative plea agreement assumes Lynch was driving his 2008 Porsche Cayenne when it hit a woman crossing a Buffalo intersection early May 31, leaving the victim with a bruised hip and in need of stitches.
There was one other person in the SUV at the time, Clark said. He would not say who it was.
Friday's announcement came as a grand jury was scheduled to begin hearing testimony in the case. Several Bills players and front-office employees were subpoenaed by investigators frustrated by Lynch's refusal to speak with them.
The prosecutor said he does not fault Lynch for exercising his right to stay silent, but acknowledged that his office and the Buffalo police could have used the nearly three weeks spent on the headline-grabbing case on more serious crimes.
"This, at its worst, is a vehicle and traffic misdemeanor. In the hierarchy of criminal conduct, this is certainly in the bottom third," Clark said.
Lynch was the Bills' first-round draft pick in 2007. His lawyer, Michael Caffery, did not immediately respond to Clark's announcement Friday. Earlier in the day, Caffery said he was working toward a resolution. A message left with Lynch's agent was not immediately returned.
A Bills spokesman did not immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hhA8H0CtKLA_AQ0OV0F-rDuPOoewD91E1L9G0
