Tom GantertLas Vegas, NV – The Las Vegas Raiders’ Nate Hobbs was arrested for drunk driving early on Monday morning after police found the rookie cornerback passed out behind the wheel of his Mercedes on a parking ramp just hours after the Raiders beat the Indianapolis Colts.
The police report released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) on Jan. 6 said that police responded to the parking garage at The Cromwell at about 4 a.m. on Jan. 3, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Police were called by Cromwell security who reported a “possible impaired driver” who appeared to be “passed out behind the wheel of a black Mercedes SUV in the exit lanes to the southeast parking garage,” according to the report.
When police arrived on the scene, they woke up the National Football League (NFL) player and an officer could smell that he had been drinking, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
“I could smell a slight odor of an unknown alcoholic beverage emitting from his person as well as I observed Hobbs to have glassy watery eyes,” the officer wrote in the police report. “While talking with Hobbs, his speech was mildly mumbled.”
The police report said that the 22-year-old NFL player told officers that “he was just tired and that is the reason he fell asleep behind the wheel in the parking garage,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Officers administered field sobriety tests to Hobbs and determined that he was impaired.
Hobbs was arrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center at 6:38 a.m., according to TMZ.
He is scheduled to appear in court for a status hearing in May.
Attorneys for Hobbs have urged the public not to form an opinion on the cornerback’s guilt and said that what the rookie did wasn’t actually a DUI, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
“The facts and circumstances related by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to the news media leave serious concerns that this does not qualify as a DUI under Nevada law,” defense attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld said in a statement.
Hobbs, who signed a four-year contract for $3.8 million with the Raiders, has made $963,052 in salary so far in his first year, according to Spotrac.
The Las Vegas Raiders have said that they are aware of the incident, according to ESPN.
“The organization has been in communication with local law enforcement and is in the process of gathering more information,” the team said in a statement. “We will have no further comment at this time.”
The Raiders also said that Hobbs was expected to play in Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Hobbs’ arrest was an inauspicious beginning to the New Year for an NFL team that was plagued by bad press surrounding another player’s 2021 DUI that left a woman dead.
The team fired wide receiver Henry Ruggs III on Nov. 2, 2021, the same day he slammed his Corvette into the back of a Toyota Rav4 while allegedly under the influence.
The SUV Ruggs smashed into burst into flames and the 23-year-old woman who was driving, and her dog, were killed in the blaze.
Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Eric Bauman said Ruggs was going 156 mph about two seconds before the crash, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Investigators determined the Corvette was traveling at 127 mph when the airbags were triggered to deploy.
Bauman said that Ruggs’ blood alcohol level was .16 percent, or twice the legal limit, and that officers had recovered a loaded gun on the driver’s side floorboard of the car, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Holly Matkin
