The State Attorney's Office has dropped charges against
University of Florida football player Antonio Morrison, who was arrested
early Sunday morning on charges of interfering with a police animal.
Darry Lloyd, spokesman for the State Attorney's
Office, said the charges were dropped, a move that was expected after
State Attorney Bill Cervone on Sunday indicated concern with the
sufficiency of evidence to constitute a crime.
Gainesville attorney Huntley Johnson, representing Morrison, agreed that evidence was lacking.
"I would say there was no evidence,” Johnson said. “The actions of the police were embarrassing."
Morrison
was arrested by the Alachua County Sheriff's Office outside the All
Star Sports Bar on Southwest 13th Street, a bar and grill that can stay
open until 4 a.m. as long as it stops serving alcohol at 2 a.m.
It's
unclear at this point whether the charges being dropped will impact
Florida coach Will Muschamp's decision to suspend Morrison for the first
two games of the season. Muschamp announced that Morrison would be
suspended for UF's first two games following the K-9 arrest on Sunday
morning.
Asked about Morrison's arrest Tuesday
morning on ESPN's First Take, Muschamp said: “Just disappointed.
You're a
father figure to all these young men. You got 85 guys on scholarship;
you got another 20-25 walk-ons, over 100 kids. You're responsible for
those kids. And it's your job to educate them and make sure they're
making good choices and decisions. They're not all going to make good
choices and decisions, unfortunate. they're not always going to have
great judgement. That doesn't make them a bad person.
"Antonio
Morrison is a great young man. He's been raised right. Anthony and
Valentine, his parents, are wonderful people. As a matter of fact, I was
on the phone with them last night. He just had some poor judgement in
that situation. Nothing good happens after midnight."
