Maurice Washington appears to be skirting at least some of his legal troubles. He and three other Nebraska football players have still not been charged with marijuana possession-related crimes despite being cited earlier this summer. Now there are some reports surfacing that seem to indicate none of the four ever will.
Maurice Washington, Myles Farmer, and Jeramiah Stovall were cited in various situations earlier this year. According to the Lancaster County Attorney's office, they are just some of the people who have been cited with suspicion of possession of marijuana or drug paraphernalia that the office has not charged yet.
The County Attorney is not saying charges haven't come because they believe the Nebraska football players are innocent after all.
The office is claiming they are frozen in place because of a recent statute that was passed by the Nebraska legislature this spring.
LB657
The law in question, LB657 was aimed at making sure that farmers and others could use products derived from hemp. In order to do this, the law made cannabis with a THC level under 0.3 percent legal. In theory, this level of THC is so low that no one would want to try and ingest or smoke it because it would not bring any sort of "high."
To be clear, none of the Nebraska football players are believed to have been in possession of hemp rather than garden variety marijuana.
The County Attorney's office is citing the cost and time of testing for the low level of THC. The office claims that even if they are reasonably sure that the drugs or paraphernalia they've recovered would pass the test, they cannot submit it as evidence until those tests do indeed take place.
LB657 has been a kind of lightning rod of controversy since it was passed.
It's unclear at this point if the County Attorney will eventually move forward with testing and charging, or will drop the cases against the Nebraska football players and others, altogether. It's also not clear if Scott Frost and company will discipline Washington and the others even if they aren't technically charged with a crime.
Wandale Robinson is a different story
The fourth Nebraska football player who was cited but hasn't been charged is Wandale Robinson and his case is slightly different. Robinson was cited by UNL police but the Lancaster County attorney told the Lincoln Journal Star charges won't be filed.
The office says they are looking at dropping the case because it felt "there was insufficient evidence.” When Robinson was first cited, it was because a resource officer reported the smell of marijuana in the Nebraska football player's room. When they did a search of Robinson's car, they found less than an ounce of the drug.