Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 11, 1993 TAG: 9302110195
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NO CHARGES AGAINST EX-HILLTOPPER
Drug charges against University of Pittsburgh football players Jermaine Williams and Reuben Brown were dropped Wednesday because authorities couldn't prove they knew $7,500 worth of crack cocaine was stored in their apartment.Brown, 20, the former E.C. Glass High star out of Lynchburg, Va.; Williams, 21; and former player Derrick Hicks, 22, were arrested Jan. 23 after narcotics detectives found the cocaine and $1,600 in cash in their apartment.
Charges of criminal conspiracy, possession of crack cocaine and possession of crack with intent to deliver against Williams and Brown were dropped in a City Court hearing. Authorities said they will pursue their case against Hicks, who was kicked off Pitt's team in 1991 after a teammate's credit card was stolen. Police said they raided the apartment after neighbors complained about drug transactions in the area.
Pitt coach Johnny Majors suspended Brown and Williams after their arrests, but reinstated them Wednesday.
In other football:
A federal judge in Washington agreed to transfer a lawsuit blocking an across-the-board settlement of a five-year labor dispute between NFL players and owners to a Minnesota judge overseeing the accord.
But U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth warned that conflicts between preseason players who were plaintiffs in the suit and players still on active rosters pose a major hurdle that could hold up a final agreement.
Joseph A. Yablonski, an attorney representing some of the preseason players, immediately asked Lamberth to stay his order transferring the case. The judge told attorneys for team owners to reply to Yablonski's motion by today.
Yablonski charged that proposed settlement would cost some 1,700 preseason players cut from the 47-man active duty rosters from 1989 through 1992 more than $8 million. But attorneys for both the owners and the NFL Players Association said that unless the preseason players are part of the settlement, the entire agreement giving some veteran players free agency in exchange for future team salary caps would come apart.
Former Virginia Tech defensive back John Granby was among five players cut by the New England Patriots.
Former Virginia offensive lineman Ron Mattes was cut by the Indianapolis Colts.