Football AP  

Benson to fight charges of intoxication, resisting arrest

By ANDREW SELIGMAN
AP Sports Writer

Austin Police Dept/AP Photo

In this booking mug released by the Austin Police Dept., Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson is shown after he was arrested Saturday, May 3, 2008 in Austin, Texas. Benson allegedly failed a sobriety test while operating a 30-foot boat, then resisting arrest before being hit with pepper spray and dragged ashore by officers. Benson faces charges of boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest after the incident Saturday night on Lake Travis, Travis County Sheriff's Department spokesman Roger Wade said.

CHICAGO --

"He denies that he was intoxicated," attorney Brian Carney said Monday. "He denies that he resisted arrest."

Benson is scheduled to appear in Travis County Court on May 19 to face charges stemming from an incident Saturday night.

Benson failed a sobriety test while operating a 30-foot boat on Lake Travis near Austin and resisted arrest before being hit with pepper spray, Travis County Sheriff's Department spokesman Roger Wade said Sunday.

He was released from jail early Sunday on a $14,500 bond. The charges are class B misdemeanors, each punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Benson's version of what happened is drastically different from the police's description.

"There was no resistance on my part," Benson told the Chicago Tribune. "Was I drunk? No."

Police say Benson was operating the boat with 15 passengers when a Lower Colorado River Authority officer stopped him for a random safety inspection. He failed a field sobriety test on the officer's boat and was uncooperative when the officer tried to take him ashore, the authority said.

Benson argued whether he would go to land for a follow-up field sobriety test and refused to put on a life jacket, and the officer had to use pepper spray to subdue him, the authority said. He refused to leave the officer's boat and had to be dragged to a car to be taken to the Travis County jail, the authority said.

Carney acknowledged his client owned the boat, but he questioned whether Benson was behind the wheel and wondered why officers felt threatened.

"Is he going to jump in the lake and swim away?" Carney said. "You just swim into the night? You start the boat and take him over there."

Carney said Benson was "completely compliant" and even said "thank you very much" after he completed the sobriety test. He said Benson then told them he wanted to go back to his boat.

Carney added Benson did nothing "aggressive" until after he was pepper sprayed, when he started screaming for his mother and the boat. He said officers threw his client to the ground and poured water on him to wash away the spray, causing Benson to choke.

"They might as well have been waterboarding him," Carney said.

The Bears declined comment on Monday.

A day earlier, coach Lovie Smith said he was "disappointed" by the news.