D.A. On LeSean McCoy Decision: 'Allowed To Use Reasonable Force To Repel'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- On Monday, after over two months of investigating, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams finally announced LeSean McCoy will not face charges for his involvement in a bar fight on February 7th.
Williams joined Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Wednesday to defend his controversial decision. He was asked if McCoy threw a punch, which appeared evident in a video which surfaced weeks ago.
"[McCoy] said he saw his friend on the ground and thought his friend was being choked," Williams explained. "We later get photographs of his friend and there were abrasions to the back of his neck, he had a laceration over his heads, consistent to what he said he saw.
Listen: Seth Williams on the 94WIP Morning Show
"You are allowed to use reasonable force to repel someone," Williams continued. "You can't go on the offense."
"There are severe injuries and that's terrible. I would have to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the level of force used by LeSean McCoy was either excessive or at first, it was not in the defense of others. And we had insufficient evidence to come forward with that."
Williams detailed what he did learn in his thorough investigation.
"One of the off-duty police officers put his hand around the collar around one of the NFL players' friends neck and said at that point, 'You know what's about to go down,'" Williams said. "After that, there is no real understanding of why they went down...but they end up on the floor with the police officer on top of the NFL players' friend. At that point a melee breaks out in the bar with multiple people, in multiple locations, doing all types of stuff.
"We end up interviewing 27 people, a total of 44 interviews...the law allows, Angelo, for you to defend yourself. But in a bar fight, we need to determine who initiated the assaulted behavior because anything after that is self-defense. There is no consensus on who threw the first punch."
Fraternal order of police president, John McNesby, was extremely critical of Williams' decision calling him a "season-ticket hunting District Attorney" in a statement released on Monday.
"My friend Mr. McNesby is a great advocate for his union," Williams responded. "Why would I want Buffalo Bills season tickets? Come on, let's be real. At that point, Mr. McCoy goes to where his friend is and gave a proverb. He came to his office with his attorney to tell us his position."
The timing of Williams' decision, which came on the day of Villanova's National Championship game and the Phillies' season opener, also was curious to some.
"We ended the investigation last week," Williams said. "I wanted to originally do the press conference on Friday. Then I was advised by people, 'No let's not do it on Friday because people will think this is something you are just trying to sweep under the rug.' And they said, that if I do it on Friday, it's April the 1st. People will think this is some sort of April Fools' -- they will have Seth Williams on the front page with April Fools' over his head."
Major Jim Kenney, who originally said McCoy needs to "pay a price," supported Williams' decision.
"I don't really know what happened," Kenney told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Wednesday. "I don't know what took place between the people in the melee. I'm not in the position to second guess his motive."
