Lions president: Laws kept us from learning of Patricia case
Federal and state laws prevented the Detroit Lions from discovering the sexual assault case Matt Patricia was involved in 22 years ago before they hired him as their head coach in February, team president Rod Wood said Saturday.
Patricia and a friend were both indicted on one count of aggravated sexual assault in 1996, but the case never made it to trial. Instead, it was dismissed after the accuser refused to testify.
"We always err on the side of hiring a firm who understands all the laws, follows them, state and federal, so that we don't happen upon something that we're not entitled to have nor would we be able to use," Wood told ESPN's Michael Rothstein.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, felony arrests that don't result in convictions cannot be considered in potential employment. Therefore, search firms - such as the one the Lions hired to screen Patricia - typically exclude such information in the background checks they submit to employers.
The Lions have publicly backed Patricia, who maintained at a press conference Thursday that he was falsely accused of the crime, since the case was brought back to light by a report in The Detroit News.
"There's been a lot of criticism of people interviewing and questions that were asked that are inappropriate, at the (NFL Scouting Combine) and et cetera," Wood said. "And we're not one of those teams that are going to do those kind of things, whether it's a player, a coach or an employee. We're following the rules, and I'd rather follow the rules and maybe end up where I'm at, although we're not happy to be dealing with this, there's no doubt about that.
"But I'd rather be doing that than have broken the rules and had an issue that we were in an unlawful position by having some information. So there's no doubt it's a tough spot to be, but I'll take the tough spot by following the rules versus not following the rules and being in an unlawful position."
Copyright (C) 2018 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.