A woman who was a passenger the night Bears’ running back Cedric Benson was charged with boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest is claiming that Benson was mistreated by police.
“I called my dad and told him, ‘Call 911, my black friend is getting beaten up by police on Lake Travis,’ ” Elizabeth Cartwright told the Chicago Tribune.
“It’s more what I heard than what I saw,” said Cartwright, 22, who said she’s a friend of Benson’s from the University of Texas.
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Cartwright said she and her fiance had been boating with Benson about six times this spring, and each time a Lower Colorado River Authority boat pulled them over for a safety check. Saturday, she said, after Benson’s boat passed examination he was taken to a LCRA boat for a sobriety test.
“We were all like, ‘Why?’ ” said Cartwright, adding that Benson had had two drinks. “I know Cedric and I don’t think he was drunk.”
A few minutes later, Cartwright said, she heard Benson scream after an officer pepper-sprayed him in the eye.
An affidavit the LCRA filed described Benson as cocky, smelling strongly of alcohol and needing to be removed forcibly from the boat and eventually falling to the ground. Benson claimed police kicked his feet out from under him, causing him to fall awkwardly.
Something doesn’t smell right here – for either Benson’s party and the police. It’s hard to believe that the police go around pepper spraying people for the hell of it, but there doesn’t seem to be a clear cut reason why they pulled Benson over in the first place. Then again, I don’t know the boating laws in Texas, either.
