Tennessee sophomore and Volunteer football player Coleman Thomas will not face theft charges, according to his attorney Donald Bosch.
Bosch confirmed in a press release that the felony charges filed against Thomas in March were dismissed Wednesday.
Thomas was arrested March 25 on charges of the theft of another student’s Xbox One and three video games in Reese Hall. Records showed that Thomas sold the stolen Xbox One to a GameStop on Clinton Highway. The stolen possessions were valued at $640 dollars.
Thomas was suspended from all team activities after his arrest and hasn’t participated in a spring practice since the incident.
According to the statement from Bosch, the charges were dropped after an investigation showed that Thomas didn’t know the Xbox One and the games were stolen when he sold them to GameStop.
“It appears that a rush to judgment was made charging Coleman Thomas with this offense,” Bosch said. “Mr. Thomas did not commit any crime and was unaware that the Xbox and three video games in question had been stolen. He fully cooperated from the first minute he was notified by law enforcement, and it was unfortunate that such a hasty decision to charge Mr. Thomas was made solely by the University of Tennessee Police Department.
“We are appreciative of the effort that the Knox County District Attorney’s office has made in likewise determining Mr. Thomas’s actual innocence. We look forward to Coleman doing great things in his future now that this issue is behind him.”
Bosch also included the results of a polygraph report conducted by Certified Forensic Polygraph Examiner Richard Quila. The report indicated that there was no evidence of deception from Thomas in his responses to the questions in the exam.
In the report, Thomas said he sold the Xbox at the request of his friend on March 13. Thomas was at a friend’s mother’s house when his friend received a call from another friend asking the friend to sell the Xbox and the three games.
Thomas said he had played the Xbox with this friend in the past and believed the Xbox belonged to him. Since the friend on the phone didn’t have the proper identification to sell the items, Thomas agreed to sell the Xbox and the games himself. Thomas claims he has never entered Reese Hall.
The name of the friends in the report were concealed.
Thmoas played in 11 football games and started in five in the 2014 season. Before the arrest, the was vying for a starting spot on the offensive line.
