Palm Beach Gardens Police cleared tennis player Venus Williams of guilt in the June accident in which a passenger in the other vehicle was killed, the driver of which was also cleared of charges, according to a report released today.
“Based on this investigation and relevant Florida state statutes, no charges will be brought in this case,” concludes an 18-page report from Palm Beach Gardens Police released today.
The document alleges that in the fatal car accident, a third unidentified vehicle crossed the path of the car the tennis player was driving as she sought to cross a busy six-lane highway near her home on a green light.
This “unleashed a sequence of events” that resulted in the sedan driven by Linda Barson hitting Williams’ truck, adds the police investigation, which states that neither driver violated the other’s right of way.
As a result of the accident, Jerome Barson, 78, a passenger in Linda’s vehicle, had to be taken to a local hospital, where he died 13 days after the accident.
The former world number 1 was not injured in the accident, and always alleged that a vehicle crossed her path and forced her to stop in the middle of her journey, in the middle of the intersection, and just when the traffic light changed to red.
Later, a video recorded by a video surveillance camera strengthened the tennis player’s thesis by showing how a third car interrupted the movement of Williams’ truck.
The Barson family sued the American tennis player at the end of June for “negligence” while driving, a lawsuit seeking compensation for the damage caused.
The seven-time winner of Grand Slam tournaments, five of them at Wimbledon, lost weeks after the accident the final of that tournament in London against the Spanish Garbiñe Muguruza. EFE