Ex-Eagles star LeSean McCoy ordered to pay $55K to Philly cop over 2016 Old City nightclub brawl
The former Eagles running back was ordered to pay a Philadelphia police officer after an arbitrator ruled that McCoy and another man had injured the cop during a brawl at an Old City nightclub in 2016.
Former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy has paid $55,000 to a Philadelphia police officer after an arbitrator ruled that McCoy and another man injured the cop during a brawl at an Old City nightclub in 2016.
The ruling, issued last month by arbitrator Annette M. Rizzo, also ordered that McCoy’s friend and college teammate, Tamarcus Porter, pay $55,000 to Roland Butler, who was off-duty and hanging out with another off-duty cop at Recess Lounge about 2:45 a.m. Feb. 7, 2016, when the officers encountered McCoy and his friends.
The two cops got into a verbal altercation with McCoy’s group, according to the arbitrator’s ruling. Authorities previously said the argument was over which group bought a bottle of champagne.
Butler was subsequently “taken to the ground and punched and kicked multiple times,” the ruling says, adding that he suffered a broken nose, lacerations to his face, broken ribs, a broken thumb, and contusions.
Video of the fracas, published at the time by TMZ, appeared to show McCoy throwing a punch toward the ground in the middle of the melee. No charges were filed. Then-District Attorney Seth Williams said at the time that there was “insufficient evidence” to pursue a case, and the Attorney General’s Office also declined to file charges.
The civil ruling said that the actions during the brawl by McCoy and Porter “served as [an] unreasonable response to the initial encounter" with Butler and fellow officer Darnell Jessie.
On Tuesday, Bill Davis, an attorney for Butler and Jessie, filed a motion in the case against McCoy and Porter, seeking to compel Porter to pay his $55,000. The arbitrator ruled that the money to be paid by Porter and McCoy was solely owed to Butler because Jessie, who was punched, could not identify his assailant.
One of the attorneys representing McCoy and Porter, Abraham C. Reich, declined to comment on the case except to say that McCoy “paid his portion, and it’s behind him, and we’re trying to keep it that way.”
McCoy, a Harrisburg native, played for the Eagles from 2009 to 2014 and is the franchise’s all-time leading rusher. He was traded to the Buffalo Bills in 2015, at which point he signed a five-year contract worth up to $40 million.