Gators DT Dominique Easley won’t be charged

By Adam Silverstein
November 3, 2011

Florida Gators sophomore defensive tackle Dominique Easley will not be charged with any wrongdoing by the state of Florida after it was alleged he committed misdemeanor battery, the State Attorney’s Office said in a statement released Thursday.

Easley was accused by former Alabama cornerback Reggie Myles of tackling him outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in the early morning of Oct. 2 following Florida’s loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide. Myles took Easley’s cell phone from the scene and gave a sworn complaint to an officer.

Complaints against both men were submitted by the University Police Department to State Attorney Bill Cervone last week with Myles being cited for alleged criminal mischief, larceny and disorderly intoxication.

Cervone released the following statement in regards to his decision on the matter:

Having reviewed the reports provided by the University Police Department regarding Dominique Easley and Reginald Myles as they relate to events that occurred on October 2, 2011, and the allegations against each of them, I have reached the following conclusions regarding those events.

First, virtually everyone involved has provided contradictory information in some regard and some of those persons were apparently impaired from drinking to the point where their memory is not reliable in any event. The only exception to this is Easley, and that may be only because he exercised his constitutional right to remain silent and has said nothing. He cannot be compelled to do otherwise. Additionally, it is apparent that at least some of those involved have motives beyond what happened that raise questions of credibility.

Second, almost everyone involved has behaved badly in some way, including Easley, Myles and several of the witnesses, none of whom can be characterized as neutral or impartial. In some ways, that bad behavior might be provably criminal against Easley, Myles, or others, but just because it might be doesn’t mean that it should be when the cost and likely result of doing so would not warrant that.

There is a preference in the law that those who come before the courts seeking the redress of grievances should do so with clean hands. In my view, that includes in the criminal as well as the civil courts even though it is the State and not an individual that is the aggrieved party in a criminal case. There are no clean hands in this situation.

There is also no harm done, despite protestations to the contrary, that outweighs these factors. Any harm to either party is in essence canceled out by the harm to the other party. To use an appropriate analogy, I am therefore calling off setting penalties and declining to file any criminal charges against either Easley, Myles, or anyone else.

Easley has not yet nor is expected to miss any game action.

6 Comments

  1. CeeThree says:

    sweet

  2. RazzleG8r says:

    Major case of he said, she said.

  3. Joe says:

    Would have been even better if they would have dropped all charges against Easley but still given Myles a drunk and disorderly.

  4. npgator says:

    A drunk Myles hanging around the Gator locker room after a loss to talk trash to our players! I hope now that Easley nailed him good.

  5. NYC Gator says:

    Easley was smart to keep his mouth shut and let that drunk moron destroy his own credibility.

  6. triplegator says:

    Shorter version: everyone involved acted like an a**hole, and we’re not going to waste any more time on this.

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