Felony case closed for former Miami safety Avantae Williams. He wants to return to team
Prosecutors have declined to file charges against former University of Miami safety Avantae Williams, who was dismissed from the team July 22 after allegations of domestic violence against his former girlfriend.
Court records show the case was dropped Friday by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. Police had originally charged him with three counts of aggravated battery on a pregnant victim, which is a felony. According to the original police report obtained by the Herald, Williams’ arrest stemmed from an argument with his child’s mother, who at the time was 31 weeks pregnant with his baby.
It was not immediately clear Saturday if Williams would be reinstated to the team by coach Manny Diaz.
Williams had entered the NCAA transfer portal in late July.
“Thanks be to God that the truth came out and all charges against me were dropped,’’ Williams posted Saturday afternoon on Twitter. “As the father of a daughter and son I will always focus on my responsibility to set the right example of how women should be treated. In the future, i want to help others who face false charges.’’
Williams added in his next post: “More to come... #MakeADifference #FamilyFirst”
Williams’ attorney Michael Etienne told the Miami Herald on Saturday night, “I cannot overstate that the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office did the right thing here. Now our priority is to get Avantae back into school playing the sport that he loves.
“We reached out this morning to the University of Miami to see if they could get him reinstated. Compliments to Coach Edwin Pata, the assistant recruiting director, who cared enough to reach out to me and ask me to do everything I can to give Avantae a fighting chance.
“We’re still waiting to hear back from UM.”
The Hurricanes’ second fall scrimmage was scheduled for Saturday night.
Williams, 20, was the nation’s No. 1 safety by Rivals.com in the 2020 recruiting class. He sat out his first season in 2020 because of an undisclosed medical issue, but was set to play this season.
Diaz told reporters when fall camp began Aug. 6 that he had talked to his players about the incident. “It can be just one poor decision, one poor choice,’’ Diaz said. “Unfortunately, it has consequences. I hate to just trivialize it as just a learning incident, but we spoke to our team about it and what it means, and hopefully we all can learn from it going forward.’’
This story was originally published August 21, 2021 at 7:39 PM.
