Manningham not charged with felony

Fred Girard / The Detroit News

A dark cloud was lifted from over the head of Michigan wide receiver Mario Manningham today when it was announced he would not be charged with a felony for possession of Vicodin pills not specifically prescribed for him.

Manningham, 21, the Wolverines' leading pass catcher, could have been charged with a two-year felony because a few tablets prescribed to a teammate were found on him during a traffic stop in Monroe County last April 25.

Prosecutor William Nichols announced today he has decided no warrant against Manningham will be issued. Nichols did authorize misdemeanor charges for a small amount of marijuana found on two other people in the car, Johnny Sears, then a cornerback for U-M, and Deion White, 17, who apparently has no connection to the program.

"While Manningham may have used poor judgment in how he obtained the pills -- from a teammate, rather than asking his doctor to refill the prescription -- his actions certainly don't rise to the level of a criminal offense," Nichols said today. "I don't think the intent of the statute was to criminally charge people under circumstances like these."

"Mario Manningham did nothing wrong or illegal," said Detroit attorney Steve Fishman, who was familiar with the case from the beginning. "If he had been charged, I could have won that case in my sleep."

Manningham declined to be interviewed, but family members said the original arrest never should have taken place.

"This was a case of driving while black," said Manningham's grandfather, Gerald W. Simpson of Warren, Ohio. "Three black kids in a car and some overzealous officers. Mario's a good kid, raised right, never in any trouble."

The original stop of the three young men, and the lengthy delay that forced Nichols to make his decision in the middle of the Wolverines' football season instead of within a few weeks, as is normal, are the responsibility of OMNI -- the Office of Monroe Narcotics Investigations.

OMNI spokesman Lt. Garth Burnside Friday said, "Everyone's entitled to his own opinion, (but) the traffic stop was for legitimate reasons. The search was made for legitimate reasons, and the narcotics were seized for legitimate reasons."

Based on court and police records and interviews, here's what happened:

The three young men were in a four-door, blue 1990 Cadillac, registered to Manningham's father, southbound on U.S. 23, an artery that shoots straight south from Ann Arbor to his home state of Ohio. It is also, police say, a route traveled frequently by drug couriers.

In southern Monroe County, not far from the state line, an unmarked car pulled up behind the Cadillac. In it were at least two agents from OMNI, a coalition of city police, county sheriff's deputies and state police troopers aimed at interdicting drug trafficking. The agents, returning from an assignment in another county, just happened on the Cadillac.

Because the Cadillac had Mardi Gras beads dangling from the rearview mirror and may have been going 10 mph over the speed limit (the unmarked car wasn't equipped with radar), and one occupant wasn't wearing a seatbelt, the agents radioed ahead to the Monroe County Sheriff's Department to send a marked vehicle to make a stop.

For reasons that are unclear, the sheriff's deputy searched the three young men and the car. Sears and White had a small amount of marijuana secreted in their clothing, less than the amount found in one joint.

The deputy found a couple 500-milligram tablets of Vicodin, a prescription pain killer and a controlled substance, in Manningham's pockets and a couple more in his suitcase in the trunk.

The three young men were arrested and transported to a nearby State Police post, where a decision was made to strip-search Manningham and Sears while White was handcuffed to a stair railing.

Manningham was read his Miranda rights and, being "totally cooperative," according to records, was questioned about the pills. He said that after undergoing surgery in January, he had been prescribed Vicodin, but he had ran out and borrowed a few from a teammate for his upcoming car trip.

Then began the delays in a case that was a tiny blip on OMNI's radar but had serious ramifications for Manningham and U-M's football team.

First OMNI had to get the marijuana and pills to the State Police lab for testing. That was done timely, and the expected results came back May 4 and May 7.

But there were a few other pills, unidentifiable, found in the car's center console, and OMNI was to send them to a different lab -- one capable of testing for steroids. But in the press of other matters, and as U-M's practice season drew closer, the pills sat in an OMNI desk drawer for six weeks.

By the time the pills finally were tested and returned -- they contained no controlled substances -- and OMNI got the case file over to Prosecutor Nichols, it was Aug. 24, eight days before U-M's ill-fated home opener against Appalachian State.

Nichols studied the case carefully, consulting with other prosecutors, he said in an interview, because technically what Manningham did was a felony, and his teammate may have committed one as well.

One critical piece of evidence was a letter from a U-M team physician, who verified that Manningham had surgery on Jan. 8, had been prescribed 750-millligram Vicodin pills, and that had the doctor known he was out, he was have written another prescription.

Before Nichols could announce his decision, however, another lengthy delay occurred. OMNI had never gotten a statement from the sheriff's deputy who made the stop, searched the young men, found the drugs and arrested them. It took the deputy until Oct. 12 to comply, finally allowing Nichols to make today's decision public.

Sears has left U-M, and attempts to reach him or his family in California were unsuccessful. Neither could White be reached. The misdemeanor marijuana charges brought against them usually result in a probationary period, including random drug tests and counseling, after which the record is wiped clean. Nichols said the court will send a letter to their last known addresses advising them of the charge and instructing them to report for arraignment.

"Bill Nichols was always a very fair prosecutor," attorney Fishman said. "I'm happy to see that has not changed. He did the right thing."