National Football League

Report: Maroney faces marijuana charge

Published Mar. 31, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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Free agent running back Laurence Maroney was charged Wednesday with misdemeanor marijuana possession, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Maroney was arrested Jan. 17 near Chaifetz Arena (home of the St. Louis University basketball team).

A St. Louis police spokeswoman said at the time that officers saw three vehicles causing traffic to slow because the vehicles repeatedly stopped so occupants could talk to people on the street. Officers also suspected the people in the vehicles were smoking marijuana, she said. Two vehicles were pulled over; the third one fled.

The spokeswoman had also said that inside officers found three weapons inside one vehicle along with a substance believed to be marijuana.

Four people arrested along with Maroney were charged with a misdemeanor drug offense, the Post-Dispatch reported Wednesday.

The running back is planning to plead not guilty, his agent said according to the newspaper.

Maroney, 26, played for the Denver Broncos this past season after an in-season trade from the New England Patriots. He was a first-round pick of the Patriots in 2006.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.