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Quote:Charges Reduced For FSU's Meeks
By DOUG CARLSON
Tampa Tribune
Published: Jul 30, 2004

TALLAHASSEE - Florida State senior offensive guard Bobby Meeks is expected to be on the field for the season opener at Miami on Sept. 6 despite his July 10 arrest.
Meeks, 23, accepted a plea agreement Thursday to reduce both felony charges - battery on a police officer and resisting arrest with violence - to misdemeanors. FSU coach Bobby Bowden, in turn, decided Meeks' action doesn't merit missing a game.

"If he does what he is supposed to do, I will permit him to play, which follows our university policy,'' Bowden said Thursday afternoon in a statement released by the school.

"The incident as reported in the media is out of character for him,'' Bowden said. ``He does not drink, and he has never been in trouble.`

The 6-foot-4, 290-pound Meeks cursed Tallahassee police officers and challenged one to a fight outside an off-campus nightclub in the early morning hours of July 10, according to his arrest report. Officers used pepper spray and a Taser stun gun to subdue and arrest him after he kicked one officer and tried to punch another in the face.

Meeks, who had no prior arrests, accepted an agreement that lowered the charges to simple battery and disorderly conduct. He agreed to 12 months' probation and 30 days' picking up roadside trash with the Leon County Sheriff's work detail and is expected to write letters of apology to the three police officers involved in his arrest.

Adjudication will be withheld in the case, provided Meeks completes terms of the probation.

FSU policy prohibits an athlete facing felony charges from competing in games, but leaves to Bowden's discretion what is considered suitable punishment if the charges are reduced, as was the case with Meeks.

The season opener against Miami is the first between the rivals since the Hurricanes joined the ACC.

The game takes on added significance this season. With no league championship game, ties in the final league standings will be decided first by a head-to- head tiebreaker. The loser Sept. 6 would need the winner to lose two of its final seven conference games to have a chance at the ACC championship and automatic BCS bowl berth.
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