There’s a rather head-scratching and downright bizarre story that emerged during the aftermath of Alabama’s 34-10 beatdown of Florida in The Swamp Saturday.
TideSports.com reported Monday night that the UF police department is investigating an assault that occurred outside of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium shortly after the conclusion of the game. The alleged victim of the assault? Former Tide player Reggie Myles. The alleged attacker? Current UF defensive tackle Dominique Easley.
According to Myles, he was attacked shortly after midnight from behind by a person he later identified as Easley. Myles, who began a four-year career with the Tide in the late nineties, claims that the attack was unprovoked, and left him with a scraped elbow and hip pain. The website reports Myles suffered no serious injuries, but was treated at a local hospital.
Easley allegedly fled the scene following the attack, but not before dropping his cell phone. Easley’s parents, who were apparently with their son when the “situation” occurred, asked Myles to return the phone; instead, Myles turned the phone over to police. Tapes from surveillance cameras in the area will also be pulled in order to help police in their investigation.
Easley has not been charged, nor has he been identified by police as Myles’ attacker. In an odd twist, however, Myles is actually the one facing charges at this point in time. After reporting the incident, Myles was charged with public intoxication and criminal mischief because he was belligerent and refused to comply with police orders to calm down as they attempted to sort out what had transpired.
“It was based on the way he was behaving when we were trying to sort everything out. It’s stemmed from him being attacked,” UPD Sgt. Steve Wilder said. “The battery, him being battered, is a separate case. The charges against him were entirely based on his disorderly behavior following that, and I understand he was extremely agitated. He’d just been hit from behind by an unknown assailant, and was scraped up pretty good. I understand him being upset. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get him to calm down.”
UF has yet to comment on the alleged assault.