NFL botched Rice probe, report finds
NEW YORK— The NFL failed to investigate the Ray Rice case properly, former FBI director Robert S. Mueller has said in a report. “The NFL should have done more with the information it had and should have taken additional steps to obtain all available information about the Feb. 15 incident,” Mueller said in a statement after releasing his 96-page report.
Mueller also said he can find no evidence the league received the video showing Rice striking his fiancée before it was published online in September.
A law enforcement official showed The Associated Press videos of the incident and said he mailed a DVD to NFL headquarters in April.
The report said a review of phone records and emails of NFL employees showed no evidence that anyone in the league had seen the video before commissioner Roger Goodell initially suspended Rice for two games.
The private investigation, without subpoena power, did not include any contact with the law enforcement official who showed AP the videos.
The officer played AP a 12-second voicemail from an NFL office number dated April 9, in which a woman verifies receipt of the DVD and says: “You’re right, it’s terrible.”
The official, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to share the evidence, told AP on Thursday he didn’t speak with investigators.
“I took steps to ensure a call from any person at the NFL wouldn’t be traced back to me and I was never contacted by the team of investigators hired by the NFL to investigate the NFL,” he said. “I still don’t know who confirmed receiving the video and I don’t know what that person did with it.”
“We have reviewed the report and stand by our original reporting,” said Kathleen Carroll, AP’s executive editor.
“The Mueller team did ask us for source material and other newsgathering information, but we declined. Everything that we report and confirm goes into our stories. We do not offer up reporters’ notes and sources.”
Giants owner John Mara and Steelers president Art Rooney, the men appointed by Goodell as liaisons to the investigation, said the 32 team owners were briefed in a conference call Thursday morning.
They all expressed their belief Goodell told the truth throughout the investigation. Mara and Rooney said Mueller made six recommendations that the owners will review. They agreed that the league’s policy on domestic violence was insufficient.
“We were slow to react, and in the case of Ray Rice, the original punishment was insufficient,” their statement said.