All charges dropped against golf champ Scottie Scheffler in Louisville case

• All criminal charges against Scottie Scheffler, the world’s top-ranked golfer, were dismissed by a Kentucky prosecutor.
• Scheffler was arrested on May 17 on a charge of felony assault on a police officer and reckless driving.
• A Louisville police detective arrested him as he tried to drive around traffic into the golf club hosting the PGA Championship.

Kentucky prosecutors on Wednesday dropped all criminal charges against golf champ Scottie Scheffler related to his controversial arrest on May 17 as he tried to drive into the club hosting the PGA Championship in Louisville.

“Based on the totality of the evidence my office cannot move forward in the prosecution of the charges filed against Mr. Scheffler,” Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell told a judge.

O’Connell also said, “Mr. Scheffler’s characterization that this was, quote, ‘a big misunderstanding,’ unquote, is corroborated by the evidence.”

While the arresting officer, Louisville police detective Bryan Gillis, was concerned about public safety at the scene when he stopped Scheffler, the prosecutor said, “Mr. Scheffler’s accounts and the actions surrounding the exchange during this exchange do not satisfy the elements of any criminal offense.

The 27-year-old Scheffler, who is the world’s top-ranked golfer, had faced charges of felony assault on a police officer and reckless driving in the case.

The charges were dropped a week after videos were released by Louisville authorities that captured the moments around Scheffler’s arrest by Gillis who objected to him driving around a line of traffic to enter the Valhalla Golf Club. Gillis claimed in his arrest report that Scheffler initially refused to stop

The arrest, which was witnessed by an ESPN reporter, was immediately controversial because Scheffler had been waved around the cars by security at the scene, where police were responding to an earlier accident involving a shuttle bus that struck and killed a pedestrian.

Scheffler was not aware of the accident when he was told to drive around the backup, O’Connell told a judge.

Scheffler’s attorney Steve Romines told reporters after the court hearing where the charges were dismissed, “We are obviously … pleased with the result.”

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