Dawan Moss was kicked off the MSU football team Sunday after he was arrested early Sunday morning at the Fake the Funk After Party at the Lansing Center.
The senior tailback and captain was charged with second-offense drunken driving, fourth-degree fleeing and eluding and resisting and obstructing a police officer, said Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III.
Fleeing and eluding is a felony, and Moss could face up to two years in prison if convicted, Dunnings said. He was taken to Lansing City Jail and was released on a $500 bond. He must appear before a Lansing district judge in the next two weeks.
Moss could not be reached for comment.
MSU head coach Bobby Williams responded quickly and dismissed Moss from the team on Sunday afternoon.
“Dawan Moss has been dismissed from the team following his arrest this weekend,” he said in a statement. “This type of behavior will not be tolerated in this football program, regardless of the player’s status. I’m disappointed in Dawan’s actions because he was seen as one of our team leaders.”
Problems began when Moss stopped his car in the middle of traffic as Lansing police officers tried to direct people out of the Lansing Center, 333 E. Michigan Ave. in Lansing. He was asked several times to move his vehicle, but wouldn’t, Dunnings said.
Eventually, he did move his car, but it was still blocking traffic. At that point, a Lansing police officer approached the car and smelled alcohol on Moss’s breath, Dunnings said. Moss tried to drive away, and the officer reached into the car to grab the shifter. The car then dragged the officer an unknown distance, he said.
Another officer blocked Moss’s path with a police car. Moss was then removed from his car and arrested. Dunnings said he wasn’t sure how much Moss resisted the arrest and said there might have been damage to the police car.
The officer was treated for scrapes and bruises at St. Lawrence Hospital in Lansing and was released Sunday.
There was also one unknown passenger in the car who fled the scene, Dunnings said.
The arrest extended a string of negative incidents for the Spartan football team.
It came 11 days after junior quarterback and captain Jeff Smoker was suspended indefinitely for violating unspecified team rules, four days after senior defensive end Greg Taplin was handed a one-game suspension for violating training rules and hours after the Spartan’s 49-3 loss to Michigan in Ann Arbor.
But Dunnings said despite Moss’s arrest and rumors about other team disciplinary problems, that Williams has been “refreshing” as a head coach at keeping his players out of trouble.
He said he used to have more incidents every year involving athletes and that each would usually involve multiple players. Dunnings said he would joke that one prosecutor had to be assigned solely to MSU athletics. But those days are over, he said.
“It is blown out of proportion,” Dunnings said. “You know, college kids sometimes have trouble with the law. And I’m not condoning it, but when you get 50,000 college kids together, some come into the attention of prosecutors. But the number of football players to come to the attention of the prosecutor’s office since Coach Williams began coaching is literally nothing compared to what it was before.”
Dinisha Robinson, a marketing junior, attended the after party and said she saw two fights as people were leaving, but didn’t know if Moss was involved in either.
“Everyone was just trying to run to get out of the way,” she said. “I saw the police were after someone but didn’t see who.”
Moss, a converted fullback, started all nine games at tailback this year. He had 592 rushing yards on 125 carries and four touchdowns.
Freshman tailbacks David Richard and Jaren Hayes are the likely candidates to fill Moss’s position.
