CLEVELAND -- Cleveland Browns defensive back Corey Fuller
offered a police officer $5,000 to let him go after he was arrested
early Sunday for blocking traffic downtown, according to a police
report.
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Fuller shrugged off the report at the Browns' training camp
Monday, saying, "Come on, get real. What was I going to do, write
him a check? I don't carry that kind of money."
Fuller was charged with impeding the flow of traffic and
obstructing official business following a preseason game against
Green Bay. Fuller reportedly stopped his car at a crowded
intersection having missed the entrance to the Flats, a downtown
entertainment district.
Fuller asked police to let him cross the intersection and
refused to move his car when asked to do so, the police report
says. Police gave Fuller several chances to move his car and then
arrested him, the report says.
After Fuller's arrest, he twice offered to pay the officers
$5,000 if they would release him, arresting officer Ricardo Bayness
wrote in the report.
Police spokesman Lt. Sharon MacKay said the city prosecutor has
referred that report back to the police for additional
investigation, and that the police department's intelligence unit
is looking into it.
The intelligence unit deals with terrorism and public corruption
cases, MacKay said.
"They will conduct the investigation and they will present
their findings to the prosecutor," she said. It will then be up to
the prosecutor to determine whether any additional charges are
warranted.
In another development Monday, police Cmdr. Charles McNeeley was
suspended for one day for his involvement in the Fuller arrest.
Police Chief Martin Flask and MacKay refused to say why.
McNeeley, who has a part-time job working security for Browns
games, escorted two Browns executives to the scene of Fuller's
arrest, the police report says.
The traffic violation that Fuller stands charged with is a
misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $100. Obstructing official
business is a second-degree misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty
of $750 and 90 days in jail, MacKay said.
Fuller told reporters, "All I was trying to do was to get to
the part of the Flats where my family was at. They (police) was
sending me a different way than I usually go. I had never been that
way."
Fuller led the Browns with three interceptions and 13 passes
defended last season.
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