The off-duty police officer who confronted Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson used "vulgar language" and was "disrespectful" when asking him to leave a downtown Houston club last weekend, Peterson's father said.

"From what I've gathered, he was very disrespectful to Adrian," Nelson Peterson said in a phone interview Monday, July 9, adding that his understanding is that his son did not push the officer.


"Adrian Peterson did not resist arrest this past Saturday morning and any suggestion that he pushed, struck or shoved a Houston police officer is a total fabrication," according to Hardin's statement.




A statement later Monday from Peterson's lawyer, Rusty Hardin, proclaimed the running back's innocence.







Peterson's father also was confused by the charges.

"The officer said he pushed him, shoved him, then why is he not charged with assault?" he asked.

Adrian Lewis Peterson, 27, charged with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor, in Harris County Criminal Court #3. (Courtesy Houston Police Department)
"Only charged with resisting arrest. Doesn't make sense."

According to the Texas Penal Code's definition of "resisting arrest, search or transportation": "A person commits an offense if he intentionally prevents or obstructs a person he knows is a peace officer or a person acting in a peace officer's presence and at his direction from effecting an arrest, search, or transportation of the actor or another by using force against the peace officer or another."

Attempts to reach Peterson by phone have been unsuccessful. On Sunday, Peterson tweeted a quote from former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."


Club manager Daniel Maher told that Peterson was drunk during the incident and looked "really scary" when confronting police.

"Adrian is kind of frustrated because he's the kind of guy who's tried to do the right things in society and he cares about being a high-character guy," Nelson Peterson said. "He has a 9-year-old daughter, so he doesn't want her hearing in the news about how he's being perceived."


"At the time, I didn't realize the impact my actions can have on my kids," Nelson Peterson said. "He knows that his actions affect him and his kids also."
