| | GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Green Bay Packers wide receiver Antonio
Freeman was sentenced Tuesday to a year on probation after pleading "no contest" to lying to police about a traffic accident.
| |  | | Freeman |
Freeman was also fined $1,000, ordered to pay $315 in court
costs and do 50 hours of community service. He had faced a maximum
punishment of nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine on a
misdemeanor charge of obstructing police.
Brown County Circuit Judge William Griesbach also ordered the Packers wide receiver to pay the medical bills of medical bills of a woman who suffered a head injury in the
accident last December. The costs of her medical bills have not
been determined, District Attorney John Zakowski said.
Freeman made no statement to the judge before he was sentenced, but told reporters after the hearing that he took responsibility for the accident.
"I regret dearly the accident that occurred back in December and I accept and will cooperate with the consequences that have been given to me," Freeman said.
Freeman and wide receiver Charles Jordan were in separate cars Dec. 22, 1999, when Freeman's vehicle went over a curb and hit a light pole in the driveway of the Allouez restaurant, the Brown County Sheriff's Department said.
Freeman told officers he was a passenger in the other vehicle, authorities said. Brown County sheriff's deputies arrested Jordan on a charge of causing injury by operating a vehicle while
intoxicated.
A witness later called authorities and told them Freeman had been in the vehicle that crashed, authorities said. Freemen then
admitted he was driving the vehicle and that Jordan was a passenger in the other car, authorities said.
Jordan has pleaded innocent to the obstruction charge and is due back in court March 9. He also faces a one-year revocation of driving privileges for refusing to submit to a blood sample after
the accident, authorities said.
Freeman's passenger, Heather Molloy, 22, of Great Falls, Mont., suffered a head injury.
Packers general manager Ron Wolf was involved in meetings regarding the upcoming NFL draft and was not immediately available for comment, Packers spokesman Lee Remmel said. Greg Aiello, a spokesman for the NFL in New York, declined to comment on the case.
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