Former Georgia receiver Zachariah Branch was arrested early Sunday on misdemeanor charges of obstructing public sidewalks/streets-prowling and obstruction of a law enforcement officer.
A portion of the police report has now emerged. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network has posted a portion of it.
“A male, later identified as Zacharia[h] Branch, continued to stand on the sidewalk without making an attempt to move,” the report explains. “I continued to give Zacharia[h] Branch verbal commands to move from blocking the sidewalk and advised that if he did not, he would receive a citation for blocking the sidewalk. Zacharia[h] Branch smirked, then stepped backwards and to the right, then remained standing upon the public sidewalk, so as to obstruct, hinder, and impede free passage upon the sidewalk as well as impede free ingress/egress to or from the adjacent places of business. Due to those actions and Zacharia[h] Branch’s failure to comply with multiple verbal lawful commands, he was placed under arrest for misdemeanor Obstruction of [a law enforcement officer] and received a citation for Obstructing Public Sidewalks.”
Branch is projected to be a second-day pick in the upcoming draft. It’s unclear whether any of this will impact Branch’s draft stock.
The timing gives interested teams an opportunity to get to the bottom of the situation. It looks pretty simple. The officer didn’t like Branch’s reaction to “verbal commands,” and the officer arrested him.
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