CAMBRIDGE, Md. -- Carlton Dotson spent 4½ hours Thursday meeting with a detective and an FBI agent, and he is not a suspect in the disappearance of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy, Dorchester County Sheriff James W. Phillips Jr. said Thursday night in an interview with ESPN.

"There will be no charges based on what happened here tonight," Phillips said after Dotson left.

Phillips told ESPN that Dotson contacted the sheriff's department Thursday morning to request a meeting and also requested that the FBI be present for his statement. Phillips said he was surprised that Dotson had asked to meet, as "people don't normally want to talk to us."

Phillips said that Dotson, Dennehy's former teammate and roommate, arrived at the sheriff's department at 3:30 p.m. ET and left at 8 p.m. with his high school basketball coach, Vic Burns.

Speaking outside his home late Thursday, Burns would not say where Dotson was, adding that he and Dotson have not discussed Dennehy's disappearance.

"I don't know what he said (to the authorities)," said Burns, of North Dorchester High.

According to Phillips earlier Thursday, the officers were not interviewing or questioning Dotson, who did not have an attorney with him. The sheriff declined to elaborate on Dotson's statement, saying that Dotson "claimed that he wanted to make a statement," and that the law officials were "basically listening."

"He's not under arrest," he said at that time. "He's free to leave at any point in time."

Phillips said he did not know why Dotson came forward. Earlier Thursday, Dotson contacted the sheriff's office and, accompanied by a family member, "voluntarily surrendered himself" to two sheriff's deputies, according to his attorney, Grady Irvin, Jr.

"Our office is unaware of what Mr. Dotson will say to authorities, but a family relative has stated that Carlton has not slept for several days,'' Irvin said in the release earlier Thursday.

"We are not aware of any wrongdoing which has taken place on his part in relation to the disappearance of Patrick Dennehy,'' he said, adding, "It appears that Carlton has opted not to have counsel present.''

Late Thursday afternoon, ESPN was told that FBI agents had taken over the questioning of Dotson and would be transporting him to their Salisbury, Md., office from the sheriff's office in Cambridge.

ESPN also was told that Irvin would be flying from Tampa to Baltimore Thursday night.

Sgt. Ryan Holt, a spokesman for the Waco, Texas, police, said they were aware Dotson had met with Maryland authorities.

"We're talking to authorities in Maryland and trying to figure out what's going on," Holt said.

ESPN.com's Andy Katz reported Thursday afternoon that the Baylor coaching staff had been unaware that Dotson had turned himself in for questioning.

"Right now, we can't do more than speculate and we're not going to speculate," Baylor sports information director Scott Stricklin said. "We're going to be patient with authorities and give them space and let them do their job."

Dennehy, a 6-foot-10, 230-pound forward, has not been seen since mid-June. His 1996 Chevrolet Tahoe was found abandoned June 25 in a Virginia Beach, Va., parking lot.

Irvin's office spoke with Dotson earlier in the day via cell phone and his attorney talked to him again "while he was sitting in one of the sheriff office's unmarked vehicles,'' Irvin said.

Dotson's family lives just outside Hurlock in an area under the jurisdiction of Dorchester County deputies. The 21-year-old returned home last month.

Dennehy's girlfriend, Jessica De La Rosa, of Albuquerque, N.M., said she was thrilled to hear Dotson was talking to authorities.

"Carlton probably holds the key to a lot of doors right now," she said from her home. "I'm hoping something positive is going to happen out of this."

De La Rosa last spoke with Dotson after Dennehy disappeared but before his disappearance was made public. In that conversation, she said she knew ``he was scared of something,'' although he wouldn't say of what or whom.

"I just kind of had the impression that he knows more than he's been telling," she said. "I think it was really eating on him so much. If he can help us find Patrick, that's what we want."

An unidentified informant notified Delaware police last month that Dotson told his cousin he shot Dennehy in the head when the two argued while firing guns in the Waco area, according to a search warrant affidavit filed June 23.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.