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Nov 9, 2009 6:20 pm US/Eastern
Lawrence Taylor Accused Of Leaving Accident Scene
HIALEAH (CBS4) ―
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Former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor was arrested for leaving the scene of an accident on Sunday.
Miami-Dade Corrections/CBS
NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor couldn't dance his way out of a ticket over the weekend after he reportedly left the scene of an accident in Hialeah.
Taylor, who played for the New York Giants and appeared on the eighth season of TV's "Dancing with the Stars," was involved in an accident with a Ford van Sunday around 6:35 p.m.while heading north on the Palmetto Expressway around the 103rd Street exit, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
FHP troopers responding to reports of the accident issued an alert to be on the lookout for a "white vehicle missing the right front tire." A short time later, Taylor was spotted at the next exit down by Hialeah police; he was reportedly standing outside his car talking on the phone. Police say he had driven the two blocks or so from the accident site on his front right side axle.
Taylor, 50, allegedly admitted to police he had been in an accident but told the officers he thought he had only hit a guard rail.
Taylor's wife Lynette is taking issue with the charges against her husband. She told
CBS4's Peter D'Oench, "What happened was Lawrence was driving from the airport and a car swerved into him. He swerved to avoid hitting that car and he struck the van. He thought he needed to get off the highway to a safer location in a lit area; he thought he was doing the right thing. He's fine, thank God and there was nothing serious."
"Lawrence was also concerned that someone might have been targeting him because he's a famous person and a former football player," Lynette added. "He wanted to get to an area that was safe and never meant for any problems to happen."
Taylor was arrested and booked into the county's jail before 10 a.m. He was released a short time later on $500 bond.
She said that her husband would fight the charges against him of leaving the scene of an accident with property damage.
At this point, her husband did not want to comment.
Taylor, a linebacker with the Giants from 1981 to 1993, is considered to be one of the greatest defensive players in the history of the game. His days on and off the field were sometimes checkered with drug use. In 1987, he admitted to and tested positive for cocaine use. He was suspended from football for 30 days the following year after failing a second drug test.
He was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame in 1999.
After retiring from the NFL, Taylor was hired as a color commentator for the short lived
Toughman show on the Fox network, football analyst for
TNT's Sunday Night Football and even appeared for a short time in the
WWF. He also turned his attention to acting, appearing in such films as
Any Given Sunday,
The Sopranos,
The Waterboy and the 2000 remake of
Shaft.
Taylor lives in Pembroke Pines.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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