DENVER — Broncos legend and NFL Hall of Famer John Elway will not face criminal charges in the golf cart accident that killed his friend and former agent at a southern California golf resort back in April.
Scripps News Denver Investigates learned in the days after the April 26 accident that it was Elway who was behind the wheel when Jeff Sperbeck, a friend and former business partner of Elway's, fell off the back of the golf cart at golf course in La Quinta, located east of Los Angeles.
In an update Monday, deputies with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said they determined there was no evidence of criminal activity or intent in Sperbeck’s fall.
“Consequently, no criminal charges will be filed at this time, and the case will be documented as an accidental death,” a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said in a statement to Scripps News Denver.
Sperbeck died just days after what Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco described as a “tragic incident” when he fell from the golf cart at the resort. A coroner’s report in early May determined Sperbeck’s manner of death was from “blunt head trauma.”
Elway did not immediately comment on the findings by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
The Broncos legend said in a statement obtained by ESPN shortly after Sperbeck’s death that he was “absolutely devastated and heartbroken by the passing of my close friend, business partner and agent Jeff Sperbeck,” but did not address his involvement in the accident.
Sperbeck was a longtime business partner of Elway's, first serving as his agent and later taking over his business activities, according to Sperbeck's biography on the website for 7Cellars winery, which the pair started together in 2013.
He represented more than 100 NFL players over three decades as an NFL agent, according to the site.
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