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Marcel Louis-JacquesESPN
Buffalo Bills defense attorney Ed Oliver said his arrest in May “does not feel right” at the moment, and it still does not sit well with him after all related charges were dropped last month.
The second-year defensive approach was arrested in Montgomery County, Texas, on May 17 and charged with DWI and unlawful possession of a firearm after police pulled him on suspicion of misconduct. Oliver said, however, that the arresting officers took him, even after he passed a Breathalyzer test.
“I’m not sure how you get arrested with anything in your system,” Oliver said. “That’s one of the things [I’m talking about] when I say that life can hit you fast – even if you are innocent, you can still go to jail for nothing. You just have to do what you have to do. If they say you have to go to jail, do not resist, then go to jail.
“It’s not good, but it’s what it is.”
Oliver, 22, said he blew a .00% on his Breathalyzer test on May 17, but officials still believed he was restricted. He said he took an independent blood test after his arrest and knew he had nothing in his system, but he still had to wait for the legal process to play out.
But before he could take that independent test, he was taken to jail, given a jumpsuit with holes in it and locked up in a cell.
He described the feeling as surreal for someone who has gone out of his way to stay out of legal trouble all his life.
“I did not feel well. I felt like, ‘I should not do this,’ he said. ‘I have not worked my whole life and my whole life ran a straight line to put in a jumpsuit and go to jail nobody. “I felt disturbed.”
Oliver said he was ‘frustrated’ when the arrested officer ‘did not understand’ or ‘did not want to understand’ that he was tired – not under the influence of drugs that night. The experience also made him think about just how fleeting interactions with the police can be.
Eight days after his arrest, George Floyd died at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, while he was arrested on suspicion of using a $ 20 counterfeit bill. why he remained polite and respectful of the whole process.
“It really puts things in perspective, like, that could have been me,” he said. “If I not just ‘yes sir, no sir’ and just complied – all it took was for me to move the wrong way or do something the wrong way and that could have been me. It was hard, but after that, it still worked out and all.
“It just puts it in perspective like, you have to slow down and you have to look at your environment and things like that and try to keep yourself out of situations like that, because life is real and life is coming at you. I was on my way to the house, I did not expect to be arrested. You never know, you can do something and life could just touch you. “
Oliver said he was released from prison Sunday after being arrested late Saturday night. He then targeted his teammates on Monday.
The reactions were mixed.
“I just ran it to her, basically what happened,” he said. “Probably some of the guys were like, ‘I don’t know if that happened.’ I tried to tell her, I feel like no one believed me. I felt guilty until proven innocent, not innocent until proven guilty. I feel like everyone was, ‘Why get drunk and drive; you can’t be that doing it.’
“I feel like some guys believed me, some of the guys thought it could do more. I just told them the truth.”
The team issued a statement in support of Oliver once his charges were dropped July 22.
Oliver was the ninth overall pick of the 2019 NFL draft and was one of the Bills’ top defenders as a rookie, picking up 43 tackles and five sacks. He also plans to be one of the focal points of Buffalo’s defensive line in 2020.
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