IS TAKING DOC TO SEE THE DOC
William Bender, of the Daily News, reporting:
Styles Beckles, the convicted Delaware County pot dealer, has issued a statement claiming that he “never sold marijuana to Correll Buckhalter,” the former Eagles running back who signed with the Denver Broncos last month.
Beckles, 36, also denies selling drugs to Keita Crespina, the former Philadelphia Soul receiver/defensive back who is now the defensive coordinator at George Washington High School.
“I hope Correll and Keita will accept my apology. You do not deserve this,” Beckles wrote in a statement issued through his attorney. “My life has been a real life version of ‘Enemy of the State’ since my arrest on Feb. 1, 2006, and my life has been a real life version of ‘Training Day’ since I was re-arrested on April 24, 2008.”
It’s probably worth mentioning here that Beckles personally initialed the typed statement he gave to police before his trial in which he told them that he dealt drugs to Buckhalter, Crespina and other members of the Soul.
He also said that the 600 vials of high-grade weed called “Kush” that were found in his car and Clifton Heights apartment were not his. That’s because he was denying that he was a drug dealer altogether – as defendants tend to do when they’re on trial.
Furthermore, Beckles’ phone was tapped between December 2005 and February 2006 and police testified that, based on those conversations, both Crespina and Buckhalter were buying weed from Beckles.
“I want (sic) coerced and manipulated into making a statement implicating these two gentlemen as purchasers of marijuana, which they are not,” he said in the statement issued by his attorney.
State Police Cpl. Todd Harris testified last week that Beckles carefully reviewed his statement to police implicating Buckhalter and Crespina, made some minor corrections, then approved it by signing his initials.
Beckles was convicted Friday of drug possession with the intent to deliver. Neither Buckhlater nor Crespina have been charged.
Here is the full text of the statement issued by attorney Kevin M. Wray and sent to the Daily News:
Please be advised that Styles Beckles has authorized the following statement:
“I want to apologize to Correll Buckhalter and Keita Crespina for any personal or professional embarrassment I may have caused them. I want coerced and manipulated into making a statement implicating these two gentlemen as purchasers of marijuana, which they are not.
“The State Police wire-tapped my phone, listened to every phone conversation I participated in during the months of December 2005 and January 2006. The conversations were twisted out of context to convince a judge I was a drug dealer. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“I never sold marijuana to Correll Buckhalter. The police listened to one conversation I had with Correll and decided it was about marijuana. That is simply not the truth. I have never sold, talked about selling or given marijuana or anything else illegal to Correll Buckhalter, nor have I ever been a witness to him ever engaging in any illegal activity.
“I went to Temple University with Keita Crespina. Again, the police listened to a lot of private phone conversations I had with Keita, twisted the conversations into something they were not and used erroneous conclusions about those conversations to convince a judge and a jury that I was a marijuana dealer. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have never in my life sold or given anything illegal to Keita. Nor have I ever been a witness to him ever engaging in any illegal activity.
“I hope Correll and Keita will accept my apology. You do not deserve this. My life has been a real life version of ‘Enemy of the State’ since my arrest on February 1, 2006 and my life has been a real life version of ‘Training Day’ since I was rearrested on April 24, 2008.”
Thank you.
*
For Paul Domowitch's report from the NFL owners meetings and a conversation with John Harbaugh, click here.
Les
Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News
since 2002.
Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les
only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no
penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite
what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News
from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much
lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their
two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with the paper covering the
Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a
selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre
and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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