Broward County police gave special treatment to a Miami Dolphins football player after he beat his pregnant fiance in 2010. (Photo by Nathan Rupert via Creative Commons)

Broward County police gave special treatment to a Miami Dolphins football player after he beat his pregnant fiance in 2010. (Photo by Nathan Rupert via Creative Commons.)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

In what is becoming a familiar story, The New York Times reported this week that local police in Florida gave preferential treatment to a football player. This time, the incident involves a football player with the N.F.L.

According to the Times, in May 2010, Kristen Lennon — who was engaged to Miami Dolphins defensive end Phillip Merling at the time — called local police after he allegedly beat her while she was two months pregnant. The newspaper reported: “[W]hen deputies from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office arrived at about 1:30 a.m. on May 27, 2010, they found Ms. Lennon with redness and swelling on her face and a cut on her lip.”

However, following the alleged abuse, Merling was not fully reprimanded under the law or penalized by the Dolphins. The newspaper also reports that the football player received special treatment following the call to police.

The Times reports:

Minutes after Mr. Merling was taken into custody, Stuart Weinstein, the Dolphins’ longtime security director, was working his contacts in the Sheriff’s Office, trying to confirm the arrest and get information on Mr. Merling’s status. At one point, Mr. Weinstein asked a commander who worked side jobs for the Dolphins to notify him when Mr. Merling’s bond was posted. The commander said he would, according to an internal affairs investigation.

Mr. Merling was booked on charges of aggravated domestic battery on a pregnant woman. Almost all inmates are required to leave the jail through the public front door and arrange their own transportation home, but Mr. Merling was granted an unusual privilege: He was escorted out a rear exit by a deputy, evading reporters. The commander, who was off duty and in uniform, drove Mr. Merling in an unmarked car to the Dolphins’ training complex 20 minutes away.

After Mr. Merling met with team officials, the commander drove him home to get his belongings — even though a judge had ordered Mr. Merling to “stay away” and avoid any potential contact with Ms. Lennon.

N.F.L. teams, which have their own robust security operations, often form close relationships with local law enforcement agencies, say people familiar with the procedures. Teams routinely employ off-duty officers to be uniformed escorts or help with security, paying them, providing perks and covering costs for them to travel to away games. When allegations of crimes such as domestic violence arise, the bond between officers and team security officials can favor the player while leaving the accuser feeling isolated.

After the 2010 assault, Merling’s fiancé left South Florida and returned to her family in South Carolina.

Lennon, who was eight months pregnant at the time, did not return to Florida to testify against Merling, so prosecutors dropped the case against him.

The N.F.L. also did not take action. Merling went on to play for the Dolphins for four more seasons.

Now, years later, Lennon is now speaking out about what happened.

Besides interviews with Lennon, the Times also conducted a review of court and police documents regarding Merling’s history. The Times reporters found a “pattern of continuing harassment by Mr. Merling — while he continued to play in the N.F.L.”

Furthermore, the Times reports that this case, which took place years before the Ray Rice controversy, “served as an example of how N.F.L. players can receive lenient treatment not only from local law enforcement agencies but also from a league that has taken an inconsistent approach to domestic violence — despite a pledge in 2007 to strictly enforce its personal conduct policy.”

According to the Times, problems are ongoing between Lennon and Merling:

Ms. Lennon said the harassment continued into this year, including threatening text messages and angry outbursts that left dents in her car and front door.

In an email, an N.F.L. spokesman, Brian McCarthy, said: “We would not be aware of allegations that may have been made and determined by the police to be unfounded or which did not result in any formal police action unless the player or alleged victim notified us. Typically, the police do not notify the N.F.L. independently.”

… In July 2011, neighbors called the police at 4 a.m. when they heard commotion at an apartment she was in. When officers arrived, Ms. Lennon told them that Mr. Merling had been banging on the door before he put numerous dents in her car.

That allegation and others were documented in police records and a family court file as thick as a dictionary, raising questions about whether the N.F.L., with a commitment to a strict personal conduct code, had monitored Mr. Merling and was aware of the problems.

Lennon told the Times that following her call to police in 2010, Merling’s family made calls to her asking her not to continue pursuing a criminal case because it could ruin Merling’s football career. “Lennon said she ultimately let the case go because she was late in her pregnancy, could not travel and was not up to the pressures of testifying,” the Times reports.

And this story follows reporting from just a few days earlier from the New York Times that another Florida State University football player was given special treatment from Tallahassee police.

The Times recently reported that starting cornerback P.J. Williams, while driving with a suspended license, “had been given a break by the Tallahassee police, who initially labeled the accident a hit and run, a criminal act, but later decided to issue Mr. Williams only two traffic tickets … afterward, the case did not show up in the city’s public online database of police calls — a technical error, the police said.”