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Jury clears Bodden in airport incident

Browns cornerback vows to ride around next time at Hopkins

By Marla Ridenour
Beacon Journal sportswriter

Published on Thursday, Feb 07, 2008

CLEVELAND: Browns cornerback Leigh Bodden could have agreed to a diversion program and accepted probation on charges stemming from his Sept. 5 arrest at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

But Bodden didn't believe that he had done anything wrong when picking up his girlfriend and their two children on the Wednesday before the season opener. He didn't want to be lumped with NFL bad apples such as Adam ''Pacman'' Jones and Chris Henry.

So before the conclusion of his three-day jury trial in Cleveland Municipal Court, Bodden was convinced the fight was worth it.

That decision was affirmed Wednesday when a jury of four men and four women found Bodden not guilty on counts of misdemeanor aggravated disorderly conduct and failure to display a driver's license.

Judge Anita Laster Mays also declared Bodden not guilty of two traffic violations. She dismissed a charge of resisting arrest Tuesday.

''One thing I want to advise you of in the future — just ride around,'' Mays told Bodden.

That had been a main point in Prosecutor Victor Perez's closing arguments, that Bodden could have avoided a confrontation with police officer Dave Dvorak by making another loop outside the baggage claim area when he saw that his girlfriend and the children were not on the sidewalk.

''I took that point, and I do drive around sometimes, very slowly like everybody else,'' Bodden said. ''That won't be a problem.''

One juror waved, presumably to Bodden, as the group left the courtroom.

''I'm glad to get all this resolved. A lot of people had their own opinions of what happened,'' Bodden said.

''Over the course of three days, it showed my story — I didn't break any laws and there was no need to be arrested for what I did.

''I wanted to show you can't treat people like that.''

Asked why he wanted a jury trial, Bodden said, ''The officer took it to the extreme to arrest me for I don't know what. I was going to take diversion and probation so I could just do away with this and not deal with it. But people were advising me that since you're telling the truth, just go ahead and tell it in court. Even though it was a hassle to do all this, it feels good at the outcome, to prove to everyone who had a belief I was guilty of these things. Just to prove I'm not that type of person and to set the record straight.''

Besides attorney fees, Bodden paid for plane tickets and hotel rooms for witnesses from Arizona and California.

Had he been convicted, Bodden could have faced discipline from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Bodden took a chance with the court case to separate himself from other players whose names crossed police blotters in recent months.

''That was around the time that Pacman and Chris Henry were in trouble,'' Bodden said. ''To have that come out, people's perception probably was 'Another athlete who thinks he's above the law.' That's another reason why I went through all this, to prove that wasn't the case.''

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her Browns blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/browns/.

CLEVELAND: Browns cornerback Leigh Bodden could have agreed to a diversion program and accepted probation on charges stemming from his Sept. 5 arrest at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

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