Manhattan ? Kansas State running back Thomas Clayton was charged Tuesday with misdemeanor battery, stemming from a complaint that he almost hit a university parking services official with his car earlier this month.
“I wasn’t aware of that,” Clayton said, when informed that Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson filed the charges that morning. “It’ll have to be taken care of, obviously.”
Clayton, a junior from Alexandria, Va., was arrested Sept. 16 on a complaint of aggravated battery. Parking services officials said he nearly hit employee James A. Seymour while trying to avoid having his vehicle immobilized for parking violations.
He has not played since, but coach Bill Snyder said Monday that Clayton would play Saturday in the Wildcats’ Big 12 Conference opener at Oklahoma. Snyder has not said whether Clayton would start.
“I wasn’t charged before it was put in the paper, so it was slightly embarrassing,” Clayton said at Kansas State’s weekly news conference. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m upset, but things happened that I probably didn’t have planned for my future.”
Clayton left the scene of the incident and was arrested a short time later. He was released on $1,000 bond.
According to the police report, the 44-year-old Seymour was not injured.
“I obviously shouldn’t have left the scene, but the accusations of the aggravated battery, in my opinion, was inaccurate,” Clayton said, adding he was certain he did not hit anybody.
Wilkerson received the police report last week but didn’t review it immediately because of a heavy case load.
“There have been many rumors and some false information being circulated regarding this incident,” Wilkerson said in a statement. “We carefully reviewed the available evidence and made our decision in light of the Kansas statutes and the interpretive decisions of the Kansas appellate courts.”
Snyder said internal punishments had been handed out, and he was content to let the legal system run its course.
“The county attorney did what he had to do,” Snyder said. “I’m confident there was no intent on Thomas’s part time bring harm to anyone. He made a bad choice, a bad decision, and outside of that I don’t have anything in particular to say.”
