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Authorities dropping charges against Scottie Scheffler over PGA Championship arrest

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6 months ago

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Authorities dropping charges against Scottie Scheffler over PGA Championship arrest

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A Kentucky prosecutor has dropped all of the criminal charges that had been filed against world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler, resolving the case less than two weeks after his shocking arrest.

In a brief court appearance Wednesday, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell told a judge that his office had reviewed all of the evidence in the case and found that Scheffler’s actions “do not satisfy the elements of any criminal offenses.”

“Based upon the totality of the evidence, my office cannot move forward in the prosecution of the charges filed against Mr. Scheffler,” O’Connell said. “Mr. Scheffler’s characterization that this was ‘a big misunderstanding’ is corroborated by the evidence.”

Scheffler, 27, was facing four criminal charges − including second degree assault on a police officer, which is a felony − after police said he disregarded an officer’s command and dragged him with his car while attempting to enter Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville on May 17 ahead of his second-round tee time in the PGA Championship.

Scheffler, who was put in handcuffs and taken to jail, chalked the incident up to a misunderstanding amid a heightened police presence in the area, where one person had died in a traffic collision earlier that morning.

The decision to dismiss Scheffler’s charges came less than a week before his scheduled arraignment, which had been pushed to June 3 at the request of his lawyer, Steve Romines. The golfer did not personally appear in court Wednesday.

O’Connell and his office would have likely faced an uphill battle in securing a conviction against Scheffler, particularly after the information disclosed by police last week. The Louisville Metropolitan Police Department said in a news conference that the officer involved in the incident, Bryan Gillis, did not have his body-worn camera turned on at the time and had been punished for violating the department’s policy. Other publicly-released footage of the incident did not show Scheffler’s car dragging Gillis as described in the initial incident report.

Scheffler was charged with second degree assault on a police officer, which is a felony, as well as three misdemeanors: Criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding signals from an officer directing traffic.

After being booked and having his mug shot taken, Scheffler was released on bail and was able to make his morning tee time for the second round of the PGA Championship. He finished in a tie for eighth place, eight strokes behind winner Xander Schauffele.

Despite the hectic weekend in Louisville, Scheffler played in last week’s PGA Tour event, the Charles Schwab Challenge, which was held at Colonial Country Club near his home in Dallas. The reigning Masters champion opted out of this weekend’s RBC Canadian Open but has committed to play in The Memorial, which is scheduled to begin June 6 in Dublin, Ohio.

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