Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson arrested on drunken driving charge
By Patrick George | Saturday, June 7, 2008, 08:47 AM
Chicago Bears and former University of Texas running back Cedric Benson was arrested and charged with drunken driving in downtown Austin, police said.
Austin police spokeswoman Veneza Aguinaga said Benson was driving his BMW at 5th and Colorado Streets between 3 and 4 a.m. when he was pulled over for a running a red light.
After an officer had him perform a series of sobriety tests, Benson was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, Aguinaga said. After his arrest, he refused a breathalyzer and blood test.
Benson was taken to the Travis County Jail. He was released around 9 a.m. this morning on bond, jail officials said.
He was in Austin for his mother?s birthday this weekend, his attorney Sam Bassett said.
In an e-mail, Bassett said Benson was having a late dinner with his girlfriend, and that he had two or three drinks over the course of several hours. Bassett said Benson doesn?t believe he was intoxicated or impaired, and feels he passed the sobriety tests.
?[Benson] says that he did not run a red light and, though it is possible a pedestrian may have been improperly in the roadway when he went through an intersection, he does not remember coming close to anyone,? Bassett said.
Bassett said Benson takes the charge seriously and is sorry he was out so late during training camp. He continues to remain dedicated to his team and the upcoming season, Bassett said.
?There was alcohol involved, that?s all we know,? Bears general manager Jerry Angelo told the Chicago Tribune today. ?We are certainly going to take this seriously. Disappointment is too often-used word when talking about Cedric. The No. 1 lesson of every player is protect your job.?
The arrest comes a month after Benson was arrested on Lake Travis on charges of boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest, both class B misdemeanors. Those cases are still pending.
?I don?t know enough to comment on the latest case,? Bassett said. ?It?s obviously not good to be arrested so soon after [the boating incident].?
Benson was a first-round Bears draft pick in 2005 and started 11 games last season for the team. At the University of Texas, he was a four-year starter and ranks as the school?s second all-time rusher with 5,540 yards.
According to an arrest affidavit filed by the Lower Colorado River Authority officer who arrested him on May 3, Benson was combative, insulting, cocky and used profanity; the affidavit said Benson also was at times polite and cooperative.
He was pepper sprayed and had to be carried from shore to a vehicle for transportation to the Travis County Jail that night, the affidavit said.
Benson - according to LCRA officer Leonard Snyder?s affidavit - was the person operating a 30-foot motor boat with 12 to 15 occupants in Devil?s Cove Saturday when Snyder decided to conduct a water safety inspection, a random inspection that lake authorities can conduct to determine anything from whether there are enough life jackets on board to monitoring the sobriety of a water craft operator.
According to the affidavit, Snyder noticed that Benson showed signs of intoxication, including the strong odor of alcohol and bloodshot eyes. Snyder reported that Benson failed a vision test, had slurred speech, did not complete the finger count test - in which he was asked to touch his fingers to his thumb and count - and could not recite the alphabet.
When told he would need to put on a life jacket and go ashore to complete more land-based tests, Benson ?refused and at one point stood up from the position where I had him seated and suggested I could not tell him what to do,? Snyder said in the affidavit. Snyder told Benson that he was under arrest and needed to kneel down on the bow of his patrol boat, the affidavit said.
?I touched his body in an attempt to direct him and he presented himself in a very hostile way,? Snyder wrote.
?Benson is a very muscular person and easily capable of overpowering me,? Snyder wrote in the affidavit. ?As I had exhausted all attempts to gain control of Benson (and) had been met with resistance and what I perceived as a threat, I administered pepper spray to regain control.?
Once they arrived at a nearby marina, Benson refused to get out of the officer?s boat and had to be removed and carried to a vehicle that took him to the Travis County Jail, the affidavit said.
