Buffalo Bills fan charged for upper deck fall

A Buffalo Bills fan’s defense case folded quickly amid a surveillance video offered as evidence by the prosecution, as reported by WGRZ in Buffalo. Robert Hopkins will face up to a year in jail after being convicted of misdemeanor assault and reckless endangerment for sliding down a rail and dropping from the upper deck of Ralph Wilson Stadium and onto an unassuming fan, who suffered critical injuries.

The video (seen below) is damning evidence for someone who was hoping for a not-guilty verdict.

Previous pieces written on this case last fall didn’t include this latest video, which shows Hopkins sliding down the rail not once, but multiple times. Hopkins admitted to drinking ‘vodka and ice tea and beer’ before the game (i.e. he was Ralph Wilson Stadium Drunk). Add up all the given elements and you have a jury that produced a guilty verdict in ‘under an hour’.

Ralph Wilson Stadium has long been notorious for wild tailgating and partying both inside and outside of the game. The stadium is flanked by long stretches of parking lots and fields dedicated to the art of smashing as much beer and food in one’s face as is humanly reasonable, then staggering inside the stadium to buy more beer and food. Oh, and they play football somewhere in there.

The Bills’ tailgating scene is closer to what one would find in the SEC than it is in the NFL. It should come as no surprise that someone attending a game acted more like a college student than a professional. If anything positive comes of it, one can hope that the precedent set in this case will serve as a deterrent to future insanity.

Hopkins and his attorney have not decided yet if they will appeal the decision, but they maintain this was an accident, and not a criminal act.