The Minneapolis Police Department is investigating whether two officers neglected to issue a ticket for suspected drunken driving to a Minnesota Timberwolves player who crashed into a parked car in March.
In 911 transcripts obtained by the Star Tribune, several callers at the accident scene described forward Eddie Griffin as being drunk, and a dispatcher informed the officers that the driver of the vehicle "possibly was intoxicated."
The police report from early that morning doesn't indicate whether officers Daniel Anderson and Matthew Lindquist knew Griffin was intoxicated, and it also doesn't indicate whether they gave him a blood-alcohol or a field sobriety test.
The officers also may have violated department policy when they later that morning gave Griffin a ride to his St. Paul home. Anderson and Lindquist remain on duty during the internal investigation.
The police report said Griffin, 24, hit the car near the intersection of University and 6th Avenues SE. about 2:30 a.m. because he wasn't paying attention to the road.
Griffin also walked into a convenience store near the accident scene, and one employee said that Griffin was telling him and several co-workers repeatedly that he was drunk and couldn't go to jail.
Bob Goedderz, Timberwolves director of security, said that he was unfamiliar with either officer and that neither had done security work for the club. "I don't know them," he said. "They have never worked for the team or for Target Center."
Interim Chief Tim Dolan said investigators will determine whether the officers didn't adhere to "ethical and impartial policing" and whether they violated transporting policies. Officers must notify a supervisor or watch commander if they leave the city. Otherwise, it's an officer's discretion as to whether to take someone home within the city.
Officers receive training to recognize whether a person is intoxicated, and they have many ways to test whether a person is over the legal limit, Dolan said. Officer discretion has to be based on impartiality, he said.
"We don't do favors for somebody that we wouldn't do for somebody else," he said.
Griffin's SUV impounded
After a routine check, Griffin was cited for no driver's license and inattentive driving, the police report said. His sport-utility vehicle was then towed to the impound lot.
Griffin, Anderson and Lindquist couldn't be reached for comment. Griffin's agent, Rand Sacks, said they didn't want to talk about the incident at this time.
Anderson and Lindquist both started with the department in October 2001. Anderson, who works in the Fourth Precinct on the North Side, had a complaint for ethics and conduct sustained last year and was suspended with pay for 40 hours. The details of that complaint were not included in his personnel file.
Lindquist, who works in the Second Precinct in Northeast Minneapolis, has no reports of disciplinary action in his file.
Maureen Coyle, senior director of basketball communications for the NBA, said that in criminal matters, the league waits to impose fines or suspensions until a player either pleads guilty or is convicted, which apparently won't apply in this case. The NBA anti-drug program does not include alcohol among prohibited substances.
Past run-ins with law
Griffin, a 6-foot-9 forward, joined the Timberwolves before October 2004 after his first two NBA stops, in Houston and New Jersey, ended in run-ins with the law. He has been treated for alcohol abuse.
Griffin served 15 days in jail in Houston last summer for a probation violation involving a previous gun charge. He has two seasons left, worth about $5.6 million, on a three-year, $8.1 million contract he signed with the Wolves last summer.
Griffin's 2005-06 performance was disappointing: He averaged 4.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game while shooting 35.1 percent.
The Wolves had played the night before Griffin crashed into Jamal Hassuneh's car. At least eight people called 911, including Hassuneh's brother Abed, who owns Santana Foods, the convenience store that Griffin entered after the accident.
One person who reported the accident to 911 called back a few minutes later to tell dispatch that officers weren't needed at the scene. But several others who called afterward said officers should respond. Officers arrived nearly a half-hour later.
During Abed Hassuneh's call, he told dispatchers "you have a drunk guy here that destroyed my brother's car. He could have killed somebody, you know."
Jeremy Wessing, working at Santana Foods that night, said Griffin persuaded a person to cancel the call they made to 911. Before the officers arrived, he said Abed Hassuneh tried to calm Griffin and made sure he wasn't hurt.
When officers arrived, Griffin told them somebody else must have hit the parked car and ran off, Wessing said. They didn't believe him, he said.
Wessing recognized Griffin when he came into the store. In previous weeks, he had also seen Griffin at GameWorks in downtown Minneapolis, where Wessing had worked.
Griffin kept telling employees that he was drunk, he didn't have his license and couldn't go to jail, Wessing said.
Griffin wouldn't stop saying it, he said. "He must have said, 'I'm drunk' 40 times," Wessing said.
Griffin stumbled a couple of times and had a strong smell of alcohol on his breath, Wessing said. Griffin offered to buy Jamal Hassuneh a new car and "promised on his mother" that he would have it delivered the next day, Wessing said.
No real worries
A day after the accident, Griffin told the Star Tribune that the officers "weren't really worried about it. They just took me home."
The officers were at the scene for about an hour, but Wessing said he never saw them give Griffin a field sobriety test. Mark Yates, who lives by the store, said he came out after the accident and saw Hassuneh's car pushed into a tree.
There was no doubt Griffin was drunk, said Yates, a former Columbia Heights firefighter.
He said he would be upset if Griffin received preferential treatment. "It would be disgraceful," he said. "The cops should have known he was drunk."
