Police say Seahawks FB Coleman admitted to smoking 'Spice' before crash; defense attorney fires back





BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Police say Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman admitted to smoking 'Spice' an hour before a violent car crash that injured one person in Bellevue, a police report released Monday showed.

Police are recommending charges of vehicular assault and hit-and-run against Coleman related to an October 2015 car crash in Bellevue.

Investigators with the Bellevue Police Department handed the case over to the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office on Monday for review. A final charging decision is expected to take a week or more.

Police claim Coleman was speeding when he smashed his pickup truck into another car on Southeast 36th Street on October 14, 2015. Coleman's truck pushed the Honda Civic up an embankment, turning it upside down and seriously injuring the driver inside.

Coleman then left the scene of the crash without rendering aid, police said at the time.

Coleman was arrested on suspicion of vehicular assault and hit-and-run, but later released pending further investigation, The Seahawks temporarily suspended Coleman, but reinstated him after his release from jail.

In a report released Monday, police said that Coleman admitted to smoking Spice an hour before the crash, and police said they found several packets of Spice in Coleman's truck. However, the police said a blood test did not find Spice in Coleman's system, although the blood test took place nearly seven hours after the crash.

In response to the report, Coleman's attorney, Stephen Hayne, said, "He was not under the influence of anything. They know it, they knew it when they published the report, but the intention is to prejudice the public against him to deny him a fair trial."

Shortly after the accident, defense attorneys for Coleman claimed he fell asleep behind the wheel on his way home from practice. Another suggested he could have suffered a head injury in the collision, explaining why he wandered away.

Shortly after the incident, his lawyers released video of them interviewing Coleman at the police station.

Calls seeking comment from the Seahawks organization were not immediately returned.