FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas State Police will question Captain Lance King about his role in transporting Bobby Petrino to the hospital after the coach and athletic department employee Jessica Dorrell were involved in a motorcycle crash Sunday night.
The detail was revealed by the Arkansas State Police in a press release Friday. It came a day after Petrino was placed on paid administrative leave by athletic director Jeff Long after failing to disclose that the 25-year-old Dorrell was a passenger on his motorcycle when he crashed.
Petrino also admitted to a “previous inappropriate relationship” with an athletic department employee.
The Arkansas State Police have asked the trooper “to provide a detailed summary of his involvement with Coach Petrino and other individuals who’ve been identified within the crash investigation” after receiving public inquiries.
“While the inquiries have no direct correlation to the investigation of the motor vehicle crash, the questions are legitimate and worthy of answers,” the ASP said.
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King — who works security for Petrino and the Arkansas football team — became involved after Petrino and Dorrell told a passer-by not to call for help, according to the 911 call also released Friday. A white SUV took Petrino and Dorrell from the scene of the crash and transported them to an intersection in Fayetteville. Dorrell left in her own vehicle, while King arrived and transported Petrino to Physicians Specialty Hospital.
Petrino said Tuesday his first call after the accident went to Dr. Chris Arnold. Petrino then said he received a call from King and the drop-off was arranged.
“When I came out of the ditch there was a lady there that had flagged down the car,” Petrino said, admitting two days later that the lady was Dorrell. “The guy that was in the passenger seat said ‘get in, we will just take you right to the hospital.’ So I got in the car and we just headed toward Fayetteville. In the meantime, my cell phone had a call from Lance King, so we set up a place to meet him and he brought me from the hospital.”
The 911 caller, who identified himself as Larry Hedren, described Petrino as “walking” after the crash. But he added Petrino’s face was “bleeding quite a lot.”
Hendren said on the 911 call that the passenger, Dorrell, “did not look to be injured” after the accident.
“The rider and the passenger of the motorcycle declined us to call 911,” Hendren told a dispatcher. “They got into a vehicle and headed toward the hospital.”
Dorrell did not report any injuries. Petrino suffered four broken ribs, abrasions and a cracked vertebrae.
The new information surfaced while Long conducts a review that will determine Petrino’s fate at Arkansas.
The coach has enjoyed plenty of success in four seasons, going 34-17 with Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl berths. It includes a 21-5 mark the past two years, a stretch that has helped place Arkansas on the national map.
But he also has joined a list of coaches whose reputations have been damaged for high-profile mistakes.
Long said Thursday that he was “disappointed (Petrino) did not share to me when he had the opportunity to the full extent of the accident and who was involved.”
Petrino did not tell Long that Dorrell, a former Arkansas volleyball player who was hired as the football program’s student-athlete development coordinator on March 28 after working in the Razorback Foundation, was on his motorcycle until just before the details became public Thursday.
Petrino said it was “a serious mistake in judgment when I chose not to be more specific about those details.”
Long could not offer specifics of what he is reviewing regarding the situation, saying “I don’t know what I’m looking for until I find it.”
He hoped to have his review completed and a decision regarding Petrino made soon.
Petrino — who agreed to a seven-year deal that pays him an average of $3.6 million annually — can be terminated, suspended or face salary reduction for conduct “which negatively or adversely affects the reputation of the University or UAF’s athletics programs in any way.”
Long must examine whether Petrino is in violation of the university’s employee handbook, too. It stipulates “consensual sexual relationships between faculty and their students or between supervisors and their employees in some instances may result in charges of sexual harassment.” Supervisory staff could be subjected to “to formal action if a sexual harassment complaint is subsequently made and substantiated, and that they bear the greater burden of responsibility should it be proven that the power differential between them made the relationship other than fully consensual.”
Long also was asked Thursday night if Petrino was in violation of any state laws for hiring someone with whom he has had an inappropriate relationship.
Kay Terry, administrator of the state Office of Personnel Management, said Arkansas has no law prohibiting a state employee from hiring a romantic partner or having a romantic relationship with a subordinate.
Terry said the state does have laws prohibiting state employees from hiring or promoting relatives or serving in supervisory positions over relatives. If co-workers at a state agency or institution get married, they are required to complete and sign a marriage disclosure form, and if one is in a supervisory position over the other, one of the employees must accept a transfer or resign.
“All state law actually addresses is nepotism,” Terry said. “I don’t think we have anything specific when it comes to (romantic) relationships with employees.”
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John Lyon of the Arkansas News Bureau contributed to this report.