A waste of time.
That is how I would summarize the press conference on Thursday, which featured Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg and Louisville Metro Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.
It lasted roughly 12 minutes, and the Mayor and the Chief took zero questions. I understand why, so the legal process can play out, but this case involves a high-profile defendant involving a bizarre incident.
Scottie Scheffler, who Officer Bryan Gillis placed under arrest early on May 17, called this a “big misunderstanding” after his second round at the PGA Championship.
Scheffler’s attorney, Steve Romines, insists that he did nothing wrong, too.
Despite this, Thursday’s press conference had three key takeaways:
First, the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) will not drop the charges against Scheffler. He will appear in court on Monday, Jun. 3, for an arraignment. Scheffler will then go from Louisville to Columbus, Ohio, to play in the Memorial Tournament, the event hosted by Jack Nicklaus each year.
Second, the LMPD announced that it would release two videos, along with a transparency report. One video is from the dashboard of a police cruiser, while the other is from a pole across the street from Valhalla Golf Club.
Both videos show that Scheffler did nothing wrong, which aligns with his attorney’s statement.
NEW: here is the relevant portion of the video released by the Louisville Metro PD this morning.
It shows Scottie turn into the lot and a police officer chase after the car and bang on the window. Scottie then stops the car immediately.
I cannot believe THIS is the footage the… pic.twitter.com/MgXKaNbeLg
— John Nucci (@JNucci23) May 23, 2024
Then, finally, the LMPD stated that because Gillis did not have his body cam footage on, the police would reprimand him internally.
Nonetheless, the LMPD and the Mayor of Louisville did not need to stage a press conference to release videos of what transpired. Nor did they have to speak about how they would let the legal process play out.
Instead, it was a waste of time, which—as the video evidence shows—somewhat aligns with this entire debacle in the first place.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
