DALLAS — An attorney handling Johnny Manziel’s domestic violence case expressed doubts about the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback’s ability to stay clean and said he was given a receipt that shows Manziel may have spent more than $1,000 at a drug paraphernalia store just 15 hours after he was involved in a hit-and-run crash, according to a lengthy text message accidentally sent to The Associated Press.
Defense attorney Bob Hinton’s text indicated Manziel’s legal team was seeking a plea deal with prosecutors, but suggested that could be tricky.
“Heaven help us if one of the conditions is to pee in a bottle,” the attorney wrote.
Hinton also wrote that he had been emailed a “heads up” receipt “which purports to reflect” that Manziel made a purchase of $1,018.77 at a Gas Pipe store at 12:03 p.m. on Tuesday, less than a day after his crash. A manager at a Gas Pipe location not far from where Manziel’s crash was reported declined to discuss whether he bought anything there. A sign in the store says ID is required for purchases above $200.
“I don’t know if the receipt is legitimate or not,” Hinton responded when asked about it by the AP. “I just know that it doesn’t say Johnny’s name on it anywhere that I can see. It’s just that somebody in that store, I guess, circulated that to the other store managers and employees saying, ‘Guess who was here today and spent this amount of money.’ That’s all I know.”
The errant text was sent Wednesday after the AP sought comment via text about Monday night’s crash. When asked about the text, Hinton said he had meant to send it to co-counsel Jim Darnell and was unaware the AP had received it instead. He insisted the contents were protected by attorney-client privilege and threatened to sue if certain details were published.
Manziel’s spokeswoman, Denise Michaels, said in a statement to the AP that Hinton “has always only operated on the periphery of this case.”
“Lead counsel Jim Darnell has told me from the beginning that he would never have Johnny plead guilty in this and that position has not changed,” Michaels said.
The text shows that Manziel’s attorneys are pushing for leniency, even as they grapple with indications he could still be struggling with substance abuse more than a year after his stay in a rehab center. The charges the former Cleveland Browns quarterback is facing come amid heightened scrutiny of legal cases involving professional athletes following domestic violence accusations against NFL players Ray Rice and Greg Hardy.
The 23-year-old Manziel is accused of hitting and threatening former girlfriend Colleen Crowley during a night out in January. He faces a misdemeanor assault charge that carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
As the case has played out, the 2012 Heisman winner at Texas A&M has been photographed partying from Hollywood to Las Vegas to New York in recent months, and his own family has expressed concern about his well-being after he was cut by the Browns this year after two underwhelming seasons.
Hinton’s text said the Gas Pipe receipt was sent to him by an attorney who is involved in a federal case accusing two people affiliated with the chain of making and selling synthetic marijuana. Michaels called the purchase “a rumor.”
“We don’t know for sure whether the receipt does or doesn’t represent a purchase he made since there are always unfounded stories flying around, but we all make it a policy to keep each other up to date on them,” she said.
Hinton also wrote that he had met Wednesday morning with Jerry Varney, an administrative chief in the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office.
“He is very interested in working with us to arrive at some agreement” in the case, he wrote. A spokeswoman for the DA’s office did not comment.
Dallas police said Manziel reported that his car had been struck Monday night in a hit-and-run, but Hinton said in the text that there was “conflict as to whether Johnny reported it or not.” Manziel was not seriously injured.