Police Drop Charges Against Whitehead, Say They Had The Wrong Guy
DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - The Lucky Whitehead saga just took another turn.
The charges against the wide receiver have been dropped, 105.3 The Fan's Mike Fisher reported on Tuesday.
Prince William County Police later confirmed the report by saying that they had the wrong guy.
"The man charged on the morning of June 22 was not in possession of identification at the time of the encounter; however, did verbally provide identifying information to officers, which included a name, date of birth, and social security number matching that of Rodney Darnell Whitehead, Jr.
Officers then checked this information through the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles database. The DMV photo on file was then used to compare to the man who was in custody.
Officers acted in good faith that, at the time, the man in custody was the same man matching the information provided. At this point, the police department is also confident in confirming that Mr. White head's identify was falsely provided to police during the investigation.
The police department is currently seeking the identity of the man involved in the incident. Since the identifying information provided by the arrestee during the investigation was apparently false, the police department is working with the Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney's Office to clear Mr. Whitehead from this investigation. The police department regrets the impact these events had on Mr. Whitehead and his family."
The Dallas Cowboys cut Whitehead on Monday after learning that he had supposedly missed a court date, stemming from a petty theft charge attached to his name.
When speaking at his daily press conference in Oxnard, Jason Garrett gave the same answer over and over again to questions related to Whitehead.
"Yesterday, we made a decision we deemed to be in the best interest of the Dallas Cowboys. We're going to stand by that decision and move on."
After the tenth question or so, Garrett did add that the best thing for Lucky "is a clean slate."
Whitehead told Fish on Monday night that he had no idea about the alleged theft charge and that he wasn't the person involved in the incident.
"Yup, the Cowboys just cut me. And from a false arrest! Wow!"
Prior to being cut, Whitehead told Fisher he didn't know "who got arrested in Virginia, but it wasn't me."
Fisher later spoke with Whitehead's agent, Ricco Hughes, who told him, "Several teams have inquired (about Whitehead), but obviously it's up to the waiver process." Hughes added, "We are not interested in returning to the Cowboys, or what they have to say."
