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Canadiens' Nightclub Score: 1 Won't Be Prosecuted, 1 May

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 22, 2008

TAMPA -- Prosecutors will not file formal charges against a Montreal Canadiens player arrested last week in a flap with a police officer outside a South Tampa nightclub.

Veteran forward Tom Kostopoulos, who had been charged with misdemeanor resisting an officer outside Whiskey Park, wrote a letter of apology to the officer involved, Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi said Thursday.

Kostopoulos, 29, also "agreed to continue to perform the many hours of community service work that he does in his community," Bondi wrote in a news release.

A case against rookie defenseman Ryan O'Byrne, 23, is still pending, Bondi said.

O'Byrne is charged with felony grand theft, records show.

Tampa police arrested the players about 3 a.m. Feb. 11 after a team dinner that spilled over to the nightclub at 720 S. Howard Ave.

According to a police report, a woman in the nightclub noticed her purse missing and alerted security officers, who said they found O'Byrne outside holding the purse in one hand and the woman's cell phone in another.

O'Byrne told police it was his girlfriend's purse. When an officer "asked what her name was, he could not give a name," the report states.

The woman told police she didn't know O'Byrne, and he was arrested.

Kostopoulos was arrested while in a group of other players who crowded around the officers and police car, the report states.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com

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