By Charles Gazaway, Ward Jolles, Julia Huffman and Natalia Martinez
Published: May. 28, 2024 at 2:53 PM EDT|Updated: May. 29, 2024 at 6:14 PM EDT
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Just 12 days after he was arrested outside the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville for felony assault of a police officer, prosecutors have now agreed to drop all charges against PGA golfer Scottie Scheffler.
It was only last week that O’Connell was in court arguing that Scheffler should be treated like any other defendant. A lot changed since then, especially in light of the LMPD video that was released of the incident last week.
Police said Scheffler dragged Detective Brian Gillis with his PGA-assigned vehicle while Gillis was directing traffic from a fatal accident nearby. The only issue is Gillis didn’t turn on his body camera, and the video of the incident showed no dragging take place.
On Wednesday, Romines said Detective Gillis was not dragged.
“No he was not,” he said. “There are multiple eyewitnesses to the incident. The actual initial contact that I’ve spoken with, I have statements from, that the county spoke, the prosecutor’s office has spoken with that confirmed that he was not dragged. You believe they would have dismissed his case if he was dragged. No, they would not have, that did not happen.”
Prior to Scheffler’s arrest, the morning of May 17 began with tragedy when 69-year-old John Mills was hit and killed by a shuttle bus on Shelbyville Road. While the death of Mills is not part of the case, O’Connell says it did set in motion a sequence of events that ultimately ended with Scheffler’s arrest. Road closures were set in place after the crash, and LMPD officers were rerouted from their assigned duties to help with the investigation and direct traffic. Scheffler was not aware of what happened that morning, and was trying to get to Valhalla ahead of his tee time.
He says Scottie was directed as other players had when this occurred, but the tensions were high as seen on the body camera footage. Even still, Romines praised his client for his composure.
“Scottie Scheffler, you cannot find one person to say a bad word about him,” Romines said. “When he’s in a police car being falsely arrested, he is still a perfect gentleman. It is remarkable the restraint and character he evidenced not only during the incident, after the incident as he’s being taken downtown and in the press conference that day. We need more Scottie Scheffler’s in the world.”
In a new video circulating online, you can see Scheffler in the back of a cop car talking to an officer moments after his arrest. In the video, Scheffler mentions he was hit with a flashlight by the detective. Romines said while there are grounds to file a lawsuit, his client does not wish to pursue one.
“Lawsuits are paid by the taxpayers,” Romines said. “If he prevails in civil litigation against LMPD, who pays that? Taxpayers of Louisville. He doesn’t wish the taxpayers of Louisville to pay for him for whatever occurs...Being involved in litigation would be a distraction to the historic season he is having.”
Romines says Scheffler just wants to move on.
In an expected development Wednesday afternoon, O’Connell dropped all charges against Scheffler.
“Therefore, based upon the totality of the evidence, my office cannot move forward with the prosecution of the charges filed against Mr. Scheffler,” O’Connell said. “Mr. Scheffler’s characterization that this was all a big misunderstanding is corroborated by the evidence. The evidence we reviewed supports the conclusion that Detective Gillis was concerned for public safety at the scene when he initiated contact with Mr. Scheffler. However, Mr. Scheffler’s actions and the evidence surrounding their exchange during this misunderstanding do not satisfy the elements of any criminal offenses.”
O’Connell motioned to dismiss charges with prejudice, which means the charges cannot be reintroduced.
WAVE Troubleshooter Natalia Martinez also caught up with Scheffler’s attorney Steve Romines, who offered a fiery account of what happened.
“Steve, I have to ask you, though, the statements that Scottie made after the arrest don’t seem to fully align with what you’re saying right now. He admits that he got impatient and went too far.”
“No, here’s what happened,” Romines retorted. “He’s being interrogated after the most stressful situation of his life and an officer is actually asking him leading questions trying to get him to agree with them. That’s why you don’t talk to the police because they are going to try to put bad words in your mouth. And that’s exactly what he did. However, they are trying to get him to confess to something he didn’t do, and the video evidence shows he didn’t do it.”
“The more evidence that comes out the more it shows that you know,” Romines added. “Scottie was a victim here, and I think everybody sees something like this happen and realizes they’re one wrong turn or running into the wrong person away from going to jail themselves.”
“He didn’t have to speak, but again he asked to talk to the officer he wanted to explain to him what happened however they are trying to get him to confess to something that he didn’t do, and the video evidence shows he didn’t do it,” Romines said. “That’s why you don’t talk to the police. They are not trying to get to what happened. They are trying to get you to incriminate yourself and that’s what they’re trying to do to him and he didn’t incriminate himself, he continued to show the quality of his character by trying to defuse the situation.”
Meantime, LMPD has now offered its response to the dropped charges.
“We respect the County Attorney’s decision, and we respect the judicial process. LMPD will remain focused on our mission to serve the city of Louisville and mitigate violent crime. Videos and documents which were previously unreleased due to the judicial process will be made available, after appropriate redactions are made, via Louisville Metro Government’s online portal here: Submit an Open Records Request | LouisvilleKY.gov.”
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