MIAMI (Jan. 22, 2007) -- Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick won't face criminal charges after a water bottle was seized by security at Miami International Airport.
Lab tests on the bottle, which police said smelled of marijuana and contained a hidden compartment, found no evidence of drugs, according to a memo on Monday by Deisy Rodriguez, an assistant state attorney.
"Based on the lab's findings, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office is not filing criminal charges," Rodriguez said in the memo, adding the bottle no longer is considered evidence in an investigation.
Falcons spokesman Reggie Roberts applauded the swift action by the Miami authorities.
Vick's attorney, Lawrence H. Woodward Jr., said Vick wanted to put the matter behind him.
The 26-year-old Vick was forced to surrender the bottle when he attempted to take it through airport security on Jan. 17. He was not arrested and went on to board an AirTran flight to Atlanta.
A police report said the bottle appeared from the outside to contain water but had a compartment behind the label. That compartment contained a "small amount of dark particulate" and an odor consistent with marijuana, the report said. The memo did not say what the material was.
The decision not to prosecute followed a weekend report by ESPN based on anonymous sources that Vick was not carrying marijuana or any other illegal substance when he was stopped.
