The NFL’s Kareem Hunt investigation has Cleveland police very confused
Police in Cleveland have opened an internal investigation into the response to the February incident involving former Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt, the department announced Wednesday.
The department has determined following an internal review that a member of the Cleveland Division of Police provided a copy of the police report regarding the Feb. 10 assault at a downtown hotel called The Metropolitan at the 9 to a representative of the NFL back in February.
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But the “report did not go through the official public records request process,” department officials announced Wednesday in its public records center. As a result, the department is now overseeing an internal probe into the “overall response” to the incident in which Hunt, 23, was seen on video pushing and kicking a 19-year-old woman identified as Abigail Ottinger of Ohio.
The Kansas City Star reports that the delivery of that report wasn’t included on a list obtained by the newspaper showing requests for records pertaining to the incident via Ohio’s open records law. The list indicated no request by league officials until TMZ published the brutal footage Nov. 30.
Hunt was later sent home from the Chiefs’ practice facility after the video surfaced and was placed on the Commissioner Exempt list. The Chiefs then released him, and he remains unsigned after clearing waivers.
Team officials, meanwhile, never made a formal records request regarding the incident, according to public records reviewed by the Kansas City Star. Several news organizations, however, as well as someone named “Greg T” and another woman named Kelly Ottinger, did seek various records from police in the aftermath of the alleged assault.
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An individual named Jordan Carpenter, who indicated he was employed by the NFL, filed a request for unedited police reports, police records, 911 call, surveillance footage and other info connected to the “incident involving multiple individuals” at the hotel on Feb. 10, according to the Kansas City Star.
League officials said late Tuesday that they had “multiple verbal conversations” with cops in Cleveland and sought out video footage upon learning of the incident.
“In addition, NFL representatives also made requests for surveillance video to the hotel property,” Brian McCarthy, the league’s vice president of communications, told ESPN. “We also obtained and reviewed the material developed by the police, which included the written reports prepared by the officers who responded to the incident, and later the interviews that were recorded by body cams and the recordings of the 911 calls.”
Hunt has apologized for the February incident, telling ESPN on Sunday that he was “extremely embarrassed” by his actions seen on the video. Video footage of another alleged assault involving Hunt has since emerged in the aftermath of the original video.
