Cincinnati Bengals running back Cedric Benson was arrested Tuesday in Austin, Texas, and charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly punching a bar employee in the face nearly one month ago.
Benson was booked into the Travis County jail, but he later posted $5,000 bail and was released. The charge of assault with injury carries a maximum potential penalty of up to $4,000 in fines and up to one year in jail.
According to the Austin police arrest affidavit, Benson was at Annie's West bar in the Sixth Street entertainment district May 30 when he and another patron got into an altercation that left the running back spitting blood from a cut lip. After staff intervened, witnesses told police that Benson shoved a bar worker and was verbally abusive. After being asked to leave, Benson was escorted to the door.
"As they took him outside, he continued to push and shove," senior police officer Veneza Aguinaga said.
Bartender Bryan White told police that once outside, Benson complained to people passing by that "all these white boys are ganging up on me and kicking me out." White said he told Benson that he wouldn't take time out of his night just to kick him out, then the running back punched him in the face.
Benson's Austin-based attorney, Sam Bassett, said Tuesday that his client "has always been willing to cooperate with the Austin Police Department to tell his version of what happened so long as he could have a lawyer present. The Austin Police Department decided to go forward with obtaining a warrant without obtaining Mr. Benson's side of the story."
Benson later hired Atlanta-based attorney David Cornwell, who released a three-paragraph statement explaining his client's side of the story.
According to Cornwell's statement, a man was upset that Benson was posing for pictures with some female fans, then punched the running back. Benson was leaving the bar after the altercation when he was "approached by another man aggressively." Benson believed this man, who was a bar employee, was a friend of the person who punched him, so he "attempted to protect himself and continued out of the club."
Benson called police, who interviewed him, and he then left the area.
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"Though we adamantly dispute that Cedric committed a crime, Cedric will continue to cooperate with law enforcement, the Bengals and the NFL in their investigation of these events," Cornwell said in the statement.
Aguinaga said police interviewed witnesses and reviewed video surveillance cameras that caught the incident. Detectives invited Benson to speak with them last week, but he didn't show up for a scheduled meeting, according to Aguinaga.
Cornwell said in his statement that Benson was in Cincinnati when later contacted by Austin police, but he "agreed to be interviewed upon his return to Texas and provided his return date." However, the detective didn't contact Benson upon the running back's return.
Police obtained a warrant for Benson's arrest, and he was taken into custody without incident at a private home shortly before 8 a.m. Tuesday. Aguinaga said she didn't know if it was Benson's home.
The arrest comes at a bad time for Benson, whose representatives approached the Bengals about a contract extension, the Dayton Daily News reported last week. NFL Network insider Jason La Canfora said the sides have held "initial discussions," and Bengals play-by-play announcer Brad Johansen tweeted that an extension of three years and $16 million to $20 million for Benson, who's entering the last year of a two-year deal, "may be real close."
"The team is aware of the incident," the Bengals said in a statement. "However, as with most situations of this nature, it would be inappropriate for the team to comment until the matter is resolved through normal legal channels."
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The arrest is just the latest brush with the law for Benson, and it could draw a suspension from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
"We are looking into it," said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, who said the league wouldn't have further comment.
In 2008, Benson was arrested twice in a month on alcohol charges that were later dropped. While in college at the University of Texas, he was suspended for a game and pleaded no contest to a charge of criminal trespassing for forcing his way into an apartment to find a television that he said was stolen from him.
Drafted in the first round by the Chicago Bears in 2005, Benson's legal troubles prompted the team to cut him in 2008. He signed with the Bengals as a free agent and led the team with a career-high 1,251 rushing yards and six touchdowns in 2009.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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