Scottie Scheffler is currently facing multiple charges, including a felony, that stem from a bizarre arrest prior to Friday’s second round of the PGA Championship in Louisville. That may not be the case for much longer.
All of the charges against Scheffler are reportedly set to be dropped in the coming days.
It sounds like the Louisville Metro Police Department realized that this bizarre saga was a big mistake. Kevin Van Valkenburg, the Editorial Director at No Laying Up, says that it is only a matter of time before Jefferson County prosecutors let Scheffler off of the hook.
The No. 1 golfer in the world was booked and charged with 2nd degree assault of a police officer (a felony), 3rd degree criminal mischief, reckless driving, and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic. He allegedly disobeyed direct orders from Detective Bryan Gillis.
Detective Gillis was directing traffic into Gate 1 of the Valhalla Golf Course due to the road being closed in both directions from an earlier fatal collision. Listed subject was driving eastbound to gain access to the course. Subject pulled into the westbound lanes, where outbound traffic was flowing and to avoid backed up traffic.
Detective Gillis was in the middle of the westbound lanes, in full LMPD uniform and a hi-visibility yellow reflective rain jacket. Detective Gillis stopped subject and attempted to give instructions. Subject refused to comply and accelerated forward, dragging Detective Gillis to the ground. Detective Gillis suffered pain, swelling, and abrasions to his left wrist and knee. He was transported to the hospital for further medical treatment by emergency medical personnel.
— Louisville Metro Police report
Scheffler has a very different account of what happened and claims that he did not know Detective Gillis was a police officer. Unfortunately, we will never know the full truth.
Detective Gillis supposedly was not wearing an active body camera during the incident. Any body camera footage of what took place on Friday morning either does not exist or mysteriously disappeared.
That might be why Jefferson County is so quick to drop these charges. Detective Gillis might have been in direct violation of Louisville Metro Police Department policy, which states:
The BWC will be used to record all calls for service and law enforcement activities/encounters (e.g. arrests, citations, stops, pursuits, Code 3 operations/responses, searches, seizures, interviews, identifications, use of force incidents, collisions, transports, warrants, official conversations on departmental smartphones, etc.). Members are mandated to adhere to the following procedures in order to capture law enforcement-related activity.”
— Section 4.31.6 of LMPD’s body-worn camera proceedures
Guidelines also state that all officers will “immediately activate their BWC in recording mode prior to engaging in all law enforcement activities or encounters.”
It’s unclear as to whether Gillis was in violation of LMPD policy by failing to record the altercation with Scottie Scheffler. Based on the words of Section 4.31.6, it would appear so.
Either way, Jefferson County will reportedly drop the charges soon.