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Charges Dropped Against UF's Joiner

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By ANDY STAPLES, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 5, 2007

BATON ROUGE, La. - The State Attorney's Office has dropped a felony burglary charge against University of Florida safety Tony Joiner, who was arrested Tuesday and accused of breaking into a towing company impound yard to retrieve his girlfriend's car. The decision paves the way for Joiner, Florida's most experienced defensive back, to play today against top-ranked LSU.

Spencer Mann, who investigated the case, said Stan Forron, the owner of the towing impound yard, insisted Joiner did his company no harm. In an interview Tuesday, Forron said Joiner paid the $76 fee, and Forron said that he had rarely seen people arrested for similar offenses in more than 20 years in the towing business.

'The victim is adamant he sustained no loss or damage and does not wish to pursue the charge,' Mann said at about 11:40 Friday morning. 'Based on that information, we cannot sustain a criminal charge.'

After the charge was dropped, Gators coach Urban Meyer decided to allow Joiner to travel with the team to Baton Rouge, La. In a statement Friday, Meyer - who already stripped Joiner of his captaincy - said Joiner 'will pay a heavy price for his behavior internally for the next four weeks.' The statement did not mention any kind of suspension.

Mann said he did not interview either of the employees who were present when Joiner was arrested, saying Forron was authorized to speak for the business. Watson's Towing employee Travis Watkins called Gainesville police twice early Tuesday morning claiming Joiner was attempting to take his girlfriend's car out of the lot. Mann added that his investigation found that Gainesville police conducted a proper investigation into the incident.

State attorney Bill Cervone said Joiner's case was handled faster than usual because of an inordinate amount of media interest - media interest Cervone said kept his staff from handling other, more serious cases. Just this week, Cervone said, his office had to prosecute a murder case, a sexual assault case and three robbery cases and begin investigations into two police officer-involved shootings.

'All that's going on, and nobody's calling me and my staff about those cases at 9 p.m.,' Cervone said. 'It was all about Tony Joiner.'

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