Shai Werts does not tweet frequently. Or at least the Georgia Southern quarterback didn’t until recently.
In the weeks before George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police, Werts’ Twitter timeline consisted of a few retweets and updates on his number of followers. Floyd died on May 25. Three days later, as protests in Minnesota and elsewhere continued to grow, Werts posted his first public thoughts on it.
so imagine what was going through my head on July 31st, 2019…
— SW 1️⃣ (@_shaiwertss) May 29, 2020
He could have been like Floyd. Or Eric Garner. Or Michael Brown. That’s what was going through his head when he was pulled over last summer for speeding and handcuffed, arrested and charged with possession of cocaine, which he didn’t have.
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“It’s brought back some memories I don’t really want,” Werts said.
A few days after his first tweet on the topic, Werts posted a longer message about standing up for what he believes in, and he shared a few organizations he felt people should donate to, including bail funds in Philadelphia, Chicago and Minnesota. He wanted to put words into action, and that’s continued. He later tweeted about qualified immunity, which can protect government officials such as police officers.
Werts is one of many college athletes who have recently spoken out about injustices, often sharing their own experiences. Werts wanted to use this moment to educate others about police and the criminal justice system. He saw how it can work up close and knew his status as a college quarterback and his ability to hire a top lawyer made a difference.
“I feel like, a lot of times, things like this become a trend or a fad and people don’t continue on when the media attention dies down,” Werts said. “Something I’ve been trying to do is stay vocal but also be behind the scenes and do my due diligence.”
Last July, Werts was driving from his home in South Carolina back to Georgia Southern for preseason camp when he was asked to pull over in Saluda County, S.C. He drove for another four minutes and called the dispatch center, telling them he would like to pull over in a well-lit area instead. “You know what’s been going on in the world, no offense to you,” he explained to the officers after pulling over. He was ordered out of the car and handcuffed.
The officers, including Saluda County sheriff’s deputy Charles Browder, searched the car, pulling out his bags of Georgia Southern gear. They asked him about a white substance on the hood of his car, and Werts said it was bird poop he’d tried to wash off at a gas station. A field test indicated a positive test for cocaine, and a lab sample was collected.
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He spent 18 hours in the Saluda County Detention Center and was charged with speeding and cocaine possession. Georgia Southern suspended him. He thought his career was over, or even worse.
Werts’ family hired W. Townes Jones IV, a criminal defense lawyer who spent 20 years as the solicitor (chief prosecuting attorney) in South Carolina’s eighth judicial circuit. He went to work quickly.
“They all were convincing each other that any African American kid in a car this nice with a Yeti cooler in the trunk and nice clothes and luggage he was carrying back to Georgia Southern had to be a drug dealer,” Jones said. “He explained, ‘I’m a football player. I don’t even do drugs.’ … The alleged evidence that was on his car, this is ridiculous.”
Jones convinced the prosecuting authorities to put Werts’ lab test “at the front of the line” because it was such a small incident. The lab test was completed in less than two weeks and showed the substance was indeed bird poop. The charges were dismissed, and Georgia Southern reinstated Werts to the team.
Those lab tests can often take months because of a long backup. Werts’ was completed in days. He might not have been cleared so quickly if not for a lawyer who pushed it and a case that was so public. And as for that field test? Studies have shown they routinely result in false positives.
“They’re unreliable,” Jones said. “They shouldn’t even be used. But they’d find another reason to arrest somebody if they thought it looks like cocaine or looked like heroin or looked like ecstasy. Probable cause is all they need, and a field test just gives some support to that probable cause, but no evidence that would stand scrutiny in a criminal courtroom.
“Quite frankly, it’s used more often than not just to lock some kid up, getting them to try to confess to something to get out of jail to try to get back to work or to get a plea out of a lawyer that doesn’t insist on a (lab) analysis being done.”
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This all happened despite Werts handling himself properly, doing what his family had told him to do. He pulled over in a well-lit area, he told the dispatch center he would do so and he spoke respectfully to the officers.
“When I watched that video of him, I was just like, wow, man, I just don’t know he held that much composure,” Georgia Southern head coach Chad Lunsford said.
Those are the kinds of tactics and situations Werts wants to educate people about right now. Those are the things that go through his head when he hears about Floyd, how something minor can turn into something tragic.
“I started playing that night over and over again,” Werts said. “What if I would have been disrespectful? What if I really said what was on my mind? What if I hadn’t done some of the things I had done? Could that have gone a different way? Then I’m on T-shirts, I’m a hashtag. It could have easily been me. Thank God it wasn’t. That’s why I’ll continue to push this and stand up for this.”
Werts and his lawyers are looking into civil action against Browder, though it’s not yet finalized. Browder resigned in February when news station WRDW looked into his past and found he’d resigned from a previous law enforcement job for conduct unbecoming of an officer.
Werts has continued to read up on various laws and protocols, such as field tests, lab samples and qualified immunity for officers. If he hadn’t hired such an aggressive lawyer, if he didn’t have a spotlight on his case or this platform as a major college football player, how would it have turned out? How many other people have been put in jail or worse for something small or nonexistent like that?
“Anytime I have a conversation like this, a lot of people don’t know why the police do get away with it,” Werts said. “Even in my situation, I learned a lot of stuff, laws that protect police officers when they do what they do. Sometimes, there’s a genuine mistake. A lot of times recently, these people are committing senseless acts of murder.”
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On June 6, several Georgia Southern players and coaches participated in a protest march through Statesboro. The national conversation has had a profound impact on Lunsford, who admitted it has put Werts’ situation in an ever greater context for him. The two spoke about it a few weeks ago.
“We can sit here and say, ‘He’s had plenty of time to get over what happened.’ That’s not accurate,” Lunsford said. “That was a life-changing event that night because he didn’t lose his life, but he almost lost the way his life was going to go. If we wouldn’t have been able to get it figured out that it was false accusations, he could still be in jail today. When all this stuff started coming up, it obviously brings back things and things that he hasn’t let go and nor should he. As a head football coach, I’ve got to be in tune to that, and I got to make sure that I know that we’ve gotta be having some really good conversations.”
Werts is still home in South Carolina and couldn’t attend the march in Statesboro, but he was proud of his teammates for speaking out and turning words into action. He’s not yet sure what other actions the team could take when everyone is back on campus, but he has talked to administrators about diversity programs the athletic department or school could implement to help students of different races learn from each other.
As difficult as the past few weeks have been in reliving what he went through last year, Werts is optimistic change can come from the protests. Already, some cities have changed police protocols for certain situations. Werts has also vowed to vote and help convince others to do so, and Georgia Southern announced that it will not have football-related activities on Election Day.
It wasn’t just a trend or fad, let’s keep making progress! #BlackLivesMattters
— SW 1️⃣ (@_shaiwertss) June 8, 2020
He’s continued to share his thoughts and resources on Twitter, tweeting on June 8 that the momentum for change coming from these protests will move forward.
“I just hope people continue to stay with it and stand for what they stand for so there will be change,” Werts said. “So people like me will be comfortable, jogging, going to a store, all that kind of stuff the people who don’t look like us don’t have to worry about.”
(Photo: Bobby McDuffie / Getty Images)
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