TAMPA, Fla. -- The attorney for Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive lineman Dominique Robertson filed a formal complaint Thursday against the Riverside County Sheriff's Department in Riverside, California, claiming that his client was denied access to water, his attorney and medication when detained for questioning last week following a shooting incident.
Zulu Ali, the attorney, called it a "violation of the most basic rights."
"We were terribly concerned about Mr. Robertson's welfare and the blatant disregard for his rights, health, and safety," Ali said in a statement provided to ESPN. "Not allowing his attorney access to check on his welfare, and denying him water, medication, and access to medical attention was abuse on the part of the Sheriff's department."
Robertson suffered gunshot wounds to his back, buttocks and leg in the early-morning hours of June 30. After being hospitalized and treated for injuries, he was released at 6 p.m. Friday and taken to Jurupa Valley Sheriff's station, where he was questioned for 5½ to 6 hours.
Ali maintains that there was no known motive for the shooting. He said he doesn't believe Robertson was the intended target and was merely an "innocent bystander."
Despite that, he said, Robertson thinks he was treated as the suspect of a crime, and that when he invoked his rights, those requests were ignored.
"His family was not allowed to speak to him and were threatened with arrest when they sought to get information from the detaining deputies," Ali said. "Mr. Robertson was willing to cooperate with any investigation but was concerned with the detention and treatment of his family and requested an attorney before leaving the hospital and was promised that he would have access to counsel once they arrived at the Sheriff's station."
Ali said police confiscated Robertson's water and his inhaler, which he uses for his asthma, and still haven't returned the inhaler.
When asked last week about the agency's policy on denying medications and water to those being questioned, Riverside County Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Armando Munoz said, "Every situation is different. ... We can't get into hypotheticals because we're not even confirming that we spoke to Mr. Robertson."
It was not Robertson's first run-in with law enforcement. He is currently serving a 24-month probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor obstruction of a law enforcement officer and misdemeanor simple assault stemming from an incident in Carrollton, Georgia, last year, according to the Carroll County Clerk's Office. Robertson had originally been facing a felony count of obstruction and misdemeanor accounts of assault and battery stemming from a January 2015 incident.
Ali said he believes Robertson will make a full recovery from the gunshot wounds. He is currently resting and "trying his best to move forward" from the incident, Ali said.
Robertson is expected to be in Tampa along with the other Bucs rookies for the start of training camp July 25.