DOVER, Del.- Driving in the left lane when he was not supposed to was the initial reason given to driver Tim Jones who was taking the team from Georgia to Richmond, Virginia. Then the team would be transferred to another bus the rest of the trip.
"The reason why I’m stopping you is for a left lane violation," the responding deputy said. "You can’t ride in that left lane."
As the deputy is looking at Jones’s drivers’ license and gathering information, marijuana comes up.
"There’s a bunch of dang school girls on the bus," the responding deputy said. "There’s probably some weed maybe. He’s a little talkative."
At the graduate commencement ceremony on DSU’s campus today, President Dr. Tony Allen defended how the team handled themselves in that situation in which he believes they were racially profiled.
"Accused of drug possession and searched for no good reason," Dr. Allen said. "They exhibited wherewithal, patience, equanimity, and calm in the face of irrational, illformed, and ignominious prejudice."
The body camera video shows a K9 alerting of something in one of the bags which led to all luggage underneath the bus to be searched.
In a statement, Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman says in part:
“The probable cause was the open-air alert. The K9 was already on the scene and used only because of the type of detail being conducted that day. When there was an alert, there was probable cause to conduct the search.”
But commencement speaker and NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Fitzgerald Smith was struck by the video and said he had to alter today’s speech because of what he saw.
"It struck me that it was a weird twist of irony to have a group of women playing America’s oldest sport confronting America’s oldest sin," Smith said.
Sheriff Bowman denies any racial profiling and that the search was part of the job:
“This was part of a commercial interdiction detail on the interstate. There were several other commercial vehicles that stopped that morning, including another bus where contraband was located.”
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings has referred this to the federal Department of Justice for review, but it is unclear what that review will entail.
During Thursday's graduation ceremony, Bethany Hall-Long said Delaware has DSU's back and credited Jennings for requesting that review.
WRDE spoke to the owner of the bus company which is based in Delaware. The driver is not ready to do any interviews about the encounter.