Cleveland, OH (92.3 The Fan) – A misdemeanor marijuana possession charge against Browns receiver Antonio Callaway stemming from a traffic stop last August was dismissed his lawyer Kevin Spellacy told 92.3 The Fan Thursday.
Callaway was pulled over in the early morning hours of Aug. 5, 2018 on Howe Rd. by Strongsville police for failing to yield to oncoming traffic. A search of Callaway’s vehicle by officers revealed a small amount of marijuana under the driver’s seat.
Callaway claimed his car had just been shipped to him from Florida and the marijuana was not his and prosecutors later agreed.
“It wasn’t a plea bargain where we plead to something,” Spellacy, who furnished prosecutors with paperwork confirming that the car had been shipped to Callaway from Florida days before the traffic stop, said. “They dismissed that.
“If you look at the body cam footage, the officers even said obviously he wasn’t smoking it.”
News of the traffic stop became one of the storylines on HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’ which featured the Browns this past season.
Callaway, who was also cited for driving with a suspended license, plead guilty to an amended charge of driving without a valid operator’s license as well as to a speeding citation issued in October 2018 where he was clocked driving 58 in a 35 zone.
A paperwork error as a result of a previous traffic citation in Florida, which Callaway resolved in time for training camp, led officers to believe Callaway had a suspended license at the time of the August traffic stop according to Spellacy.
“The right paperwork didn’t make it to the right department of the department of motor vehicles,” Spellacy said. “He thought he had a valid license. He had been told he had a valid license, that’s why he had his car shipped up and was driving because he thought he was allowed to.”
Court records show that Callaway paid a total of $911.00 in fines and court costs for the violations. He was also sentenced to one year of monitored probation for the license violation.
Callaway was placed in the NFL’s substance abuse program after submitting a diluted sample during a drug test at the NFL Combine last year in Indianapolis.
Callaway could still face discipline from the league.
“The matter remains under review,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told 92.3 The Fan Thursday.
According to the NFL’s policy and program on substances of abuse, players in stage one of the program who have a violation are subject to a fine equaling three-seventeenths of their base salary and entrance into stage two of the program.
Callaway, selected in the fourth round of the 2018 NFL Draft, started 11 of 16 games as a rookie for the Browns that saw him catch 43 passes for 586 yards and a team-high five touchdowns.
