Local News

Owens: 'There Was No Suicide Attempt'

DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ― At a Wednesday afternoon news conference, Terrell Owens answered questions about his trip to the hospital Tuesday night. Owens flatly contradicted information in the Dallas Police Department's incident report from Tuesday, saying "There was no suicide attempt."

The DPD officers who responded to Owens' house wrote in their report that he told them he had tried to kill himself by overdosing on pain medication, even putting two more pills into his mouth after a friend intervened.

CBS 11 News broke the story of Owens' trip to the hospital in our 10 p.m. newscast Tuesday night.

At the news conference, Owens told reporters that he had gone home Tuesday after practice and taken "a couple of pain pills." He said the medication made him groggy.

Later, when he was taking nutritional supplements, he said took more of the pain medication, which he identified as hydrocodone. He said the combination of pills made him unresponsive.

Owens said that he had separated some of the hyrdocodone and put it in a drawer, but left the bottle on a counter with the supplements. Owens said that when his publicist, Kim Etheredge, saw the empty bottle on the counter, she became concerned and called 911. He said, "She made the call out of her judgment for my well-being."

At his previously-scheduled news conference Wednesday, head coach Bill Parcells said he didn't learn of the incident until mid-morning Wednesday. But shortly after that news conference, the Cowboys released a statement on the matter in which the team said it learned of the incident Tuesday night. It's not clear why Parcells was not notified earlier.

That statement read, in part, "Last night we became aware of the fact that Terrell Owens was admitted to the hospital. Since that time we have been in the process of trying to determine the facts regarding his medical condition. Our concerns right now are for his health and well being."

A Dallas police report released Wednesday morning said Owens told his friend "that he was depressed." But at his news conference Wednesday, Owens denied that he is depressed.

Police Lt. Rick Watson said during a brief news conference Wednesday morning that he could only confirm that paramedics called police to say they were taking Owens to the hospital. He said no more details would come from the police because no laws were broken.

"This is a high-profile person. We looked into it and we determined it is not a criminal offense," Watson said. "This a medical type of situation that occurred."

Watson and fire department spokesman Joel Lavender cited privacy laws for the lack of information they could provide. Lavender said more details could come from the 911 call. The Associated Press filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to get the contents of the call.

"Let's just look at the tape, review the tape," Lavender said. "I'll give you an honest answer once I know something."

The friend, who is not identified in the report, "noticed that (his) prescription pain medication was empty and observed (Owens) putting two pills in his mouth," the police report said.

The friend attempted to pry them out with her fingers, then was told by Owens that before this incident he'd taken only five of the 40 pain pills in the bottle he'd emptied. Owens was asked by rescue workers "if he was attempting to harm himself, at which time (he) stated, 'Yes.'"

CBS 11's Gina Miller first reported the Dallas Cowboys wide receiver was wheeled into Baylor Medical Center Tuesday night.

According to the Dallas Police Department incident report, Owens told police he took more than 30 pills in a suicide attempt.

Sources tell CBS 11 News Owens was taken to Baylor Hospital by Dallas Fire Rescue and that emergency room doctors attempted to induce vomiting.

Baylor Hospital officials continue to deny Owens received treatment, however, federal privacy laws allow people to block their name from being released.

According to the police report, Dallas Fire and Rescue was called regarding someone "attempting suicide by prescription pain medication." Officers arrived to find Owens being stabilized by ambulance workers, who then took him to Baylor University Medical Center.

Owens broke the bone leading to his right ring finger during a game a week ago Sunday. The next day, doctors screwed in a plate so the bone could heal without fear of further damage. Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said last week that the pain medicine made Owens ill.

Owens had not practiced since the injury, but because Dallas had a bye this past weekend he did not miss a game. He was expected to practice Wednesday, and Parcells had said there was a chance Owens could play Sunday against Tennessee.

Earlier Tuesday, Parcells said he expected Owens to rejoin his teammates at practice Wednesday and would start Sunday in Tennessee if he proves he can play.

"It's just, can he withstand the pain of catching the ball?" Parcells said. "When he can stand it, he can play."

The Cowboys had a bye last weekend, so Owens has yet to miss a game because of this injury. He's repeatedly said he'll play Oct. 8, when he gets to face his former team, the Eagles, in Philadelphia -- the team that dumped him midway through last season only months after he helped them nearly win the Super Bowl.

Owens was seen laughing and joking on the practice field Tuesday morning. He chatted briefly with reporters in the locker room in the afternoon and seemed fine. A 2-inch scar on the top of his hand was puffy but not wrapped, and he said the swelling was doing down.

While in the locker room, he took a pill from a white paper bag and looked at another medicine bottle that was in the bag. He also called a business partner about a towel-wrap venture they're starting and joked to TV cameras that he wasn't talking until Wednesday and today was only Tuesday.

"My little boy knows better than that," he said, laughing, as he plopped onto a sofa in the middle of the locker room.

Also Tuesday, Owens was involved in launching a national campaign for the National Alliance to End Abuse, an organization aimed at helping at-risk youngsters. He appeared at a high school Tuesday morning and was scheduled to visit others but had to cancel because of changes in the team's practice schedule.

He missed most of training camp, and three of four preseason games, because of a hamstring injury. He was late for work during his recovery and was fined for it, but Owens laughed it off, saying he overslept. He said it had happened before, though not with Dallas, and would probably happen again.

When the Cowboys signed him to a $25 million, three-year deal in March, they said their background checks indicated no red flags. In fact, team consultant Calvin Hill — who mostly deals with troubled players — said during training camp that his department was not involved with Owens because he didn't have a history of those kinds of problems.

Owens has played two games for the Cowboys, catching nine passes for 99 yards and a touchdown.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)