The Dallas Cowboys released wide receiver/kick returner Lucky Whitehead yesterday after he was arrested in Virginia for shoplifting - an accusation which he adamantly denied.
Turns out, Whitehead was right.
The Prince William County Police Department in Virginia issued a statement today in which they said Whitehead was misidentified as the culprit.
Upon reviewing the June 22, 2017 arrest of an individual named "Rodney Darnell Whitehead, Jr.", the police department is confident that the man charged with petit larceny, and who is subsequently being sought on an active warrant for failure to appear in court, is not Lucky Whitehead of the Dallas Cowboys. The man charged on the morning of June 22 was not in possession of identification at the time of the encounter; however, did verbally provide identifying information to officers, which included a name, date of birth, and social security number matching that of Rodney Darnell Whitehead, Jr. Officers then checked this information through the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) database. The DMV photo on file was then used to compare to the man who was in custody. Officers acted in good faith that, at the time, the man in custody was the same man matching the information provided. At this point, the police department is also confident in confirming that Mr. Whitehead's identity was falsely provided to police during the investigation.
Whitehead even told Scout.com's Mike Fisher that he wasn't even in the state of Virginia at the time of the incident.
"I don't know [who] got arrested in Virginia," Whitehead says. "But it wasn't me. I never once had an altercation with the cops. And come to find out, this happened, they say, at 1:34 a.m. at a Wawa in Woodbridge, Virginia (on a day) that I was in Dallas until 11:20 a.m."
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However, Dallas cited a "pattern of behavior" in their decision to cut Whitehead, who was already on the outside of the roster bubble after the Cowboys drafted wide receiver Ryan Switzer. Whitehead has caught just nine passes in his NFL career but served as the team's return man.
Several Cowboys players have been involved in off-field incidents this offseason. Nolan Carroll was arrested on a DWI charge, defensive lineman David Irving was suspended four games for PED use and Ezekiel Elliott was involved in a bar fight and remains the subject of an ongoing NFL investigation into allegations of domestic violence.
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