Sports In the Courts Blog : New York Attorneys & Lawyers Specializing in Sports Law & Legal Analysis

According to Radaroline.com, Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin, are close to beginning the process of ending their ill-fated marriage by filling divorce papers in a Florida Court. Rumors are that Elin will receive a settlement that will pay her $750,000.00 and the children will live with their mother (although Tiger will have joint custody rights).

No matter how rich a person may be, a $750 million settlement in a divorce settlement is shocking, especially when Tiger’s soon to be ex-wife is a former model and certainly can work.

But that might be the problem, Tiger doesn’t want her working. There can be no doubt the Elin Woods could make her own fortune by writing a “tell-all book.” She could then hit Oprah and the other talk shows and really rake in the cash. There are rumors that a condition of the $750 million payout hinges on Elin’s agreement to be silent (or a confidentially clause). Elin’s silence would go a long way of putting Tiger’s “affairs” behind him and allowing him to remarket himself with sponsors (old and new). If there is no tell-all book, then “Team Tiger” can manage the press for this point forward. If Elin writes a book, the questions to Tiger will be endless, especially if she adds more scandal to the story.

In the end, while $750 million may be steep, if Tiger can buy his wife’s silence, then it’s a hole in one. 

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Today, The Rockland County District Attorney's office took a major step forward against former NY Giant star Lawrence Taylor by indicting him on a statutory rape charge and other misdemeanor charges.

While this scandal will be big news and give the local NY papers some outrageous headlines, let's use this opportunity to get "technical" on the legal process of what happens to LT next.

The DA has now had a grand jury accuse LT of certain sexual abuse crimes carrying a sentence of 4 years in prison. When this indictment is reported to the local criminal court, the judge will transfer the case to Rockland County's Supreme Court (not the highest court in NY - only the trial level). The Supreme Court hears cases after a defendant is formally indicted, Once the case is transferred, LT's will shortly have his first court appearance and the judge (now in Supreme Court) will set a discovery schedule, which will mostly involve police reports, witness statements and evidence tests.

After discovery is complete, the court will select a trial date. It is important to note that Rockland County is not a particularly busy county for serious felonies like this case. As such, LT could get a trial date right after Labor Day.

One more thing to keep your eye on in criminal procedure of this case is the DA's inclusion of misdemeanor charges on the indictment. This could give the DA some flexibility to plea bargain if this case goes bad. If the DA is concerned that he will not get a felony conviction, he can dismiss the statutory rape charge and plea LT to a misdemeanor. Under NY law, a misdemeanor plea can give the DA wide latitude to offer "non-jail" dispositions, like probation, community service and fines.

Although technical nature of the case won't make headlines, it good to have important things in mind as LT enters the fight of his life.

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Vince Young now says that he regrets his ill-advised fight in a Dallas strip club. Well, of course, he does. He also claims that he has magically "matured" in the hours following the incident. Young must think we are all stupid.

When a new player comes into the NFL, he is warned not to engage in behavior that will make him a easy target for lawsuits, bad press, and You Tube. Vince has accomplished all that in one ridiculous move. He has been charged with a minor misdemeanor (penalty up to $500) and the fight was caught on video.

More troubling, however, is Young's inability to engage in "mature" judgment when faced with a simple situation. Apparently, at the "Club Onyx", a person showed Young a downward facing Texas Longhorn sign, this is deemed to be disrespectful. Instead of doing nothing (not to mention realizing he was in a strip club at 3:30 in the morning where nothing good can happen), he flew into a rage and attacked the other individual. Obviously, disregarding the choice to leave before anything bad occured.

Although Vince likely never considered the ramifications of his conduct, he better change his ways. If a NFL QB, in top athletic condition, connects in the right way with a punch on some loser in a strip club, the result can be a one-punch homicide. If you don't think that can happen, you're wrong. I have seen it my work as a NYC prosecutor and the result is a manslaughter charge.

At a minimum, Young may be out $500 and facing an NFL suspension for this incident. Next time, if there is one, he luck may run out. 

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On Friday, the US Appeals Court ruled that the prosecutors in the Barry Bonds test cannot use certain evidence, including calendars showing the cycling on and off of steroids, because then documents were created by Bond's trainer Greg Anderson. Here's the problem, Anderson won't testify against Bonds. In fact, Anderson has spend much of the last 5 years in jail for failing to give evidence against Bonds. Anderson has taken loyalty to a new high or low, depending on how you view it.

Unfortunately, the Court found that Anderson is only person who can "authenticate" the calendars. At a trial, documents must be properly authenticated before they can be admitted to evidence and shown to a jury. Authentication is a fancy way of a having a person (usually who created the document) vouch for the correctness of a piece of evidence and tell the court it is accurate and not changed or doctored. Since Anderson won't authenticate the documents against Bonds, they can't go into to evidence.

The government must now scramble to get other evidence together against Bonds. The prosecution has stated that it intends to try to call Anderson at trial, if the pattern holds, Anderson will not testify and go back to jail. The Bonds' jury will then decide if he gets any company.
 

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In the small but important development category, the statutory rape case against Lawrence Taylor will be adjourned on Thursday to June 24, 2010 in criminal court.

The reason for the adjournment is simple, the district attorney's office has 5 years under NY law to indict LT for this crime. So why rush? The DA has indicated that he is waiting for certain lab results that will be needed to be presented to the Grand Jury.

In New York, the DA only must present sufficient evidence to show a crime was committed and the defendant committed. To do this, only a small amount of evidence is needed. The alleged victim's testimony and lab results are more than enough. This can be easily accomplished by June 24 if the lab tests are in hand.

The factor to watch is whether LT will exercise his right to testify before the grand jury. In one of strangest aspects of NY's criminal procedure, a defendant may speak directly to a grand jury. However, during the defendant's testimony, his defense lawyer may say NOTHING. The defense attorney can ask no questions or offer no objections. After the defendant is done testifying, he is then cross-examined by the DA.

For these reasons, most defendants don't testify before a grand jury. Most times, the defendant gets indicted anyway and all the accused has done is give the DA a preview of his trial testimony. The grand jury is no place for a shaky defendant, who never has to testify before any jury, ever.

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A recent poll found that 64% of respondents think MLB Commissioner Bud Selig should reverse umpire Jim Joyce's incorrect call that ruined Armando Galarraga's perfect game. The majority here is wrong.

As a lawyer, I work in a profession where "human errors" can be corrected by the filing of appeals. But, its not that easy. The appeal process can be long, expensive and unpredictable. An appeal judge can follow the law, make new law (in some circumstances) or do something in the middle. None of this is good for baseball.

Yes, baseball now uses limited replay on home runs but that is it. Beyond this, where would replay end? Would the commissioner review balls and strikes? How about every close call? Every fan of every team has some bad call that they have always been angry about, that is part of sports.

Baseball has been referred to as the "perfect game." We know that Jim Joyce's call was less then perfect. But, without appeals and with the acceptance of human error what followed the bad call was more than perfect. An umpire apologizing for a mistake, the young pitcher acting with grace, a tearful moment when Galarraga brought up the lineup care the next day, and the crowd in Detroit cheering for all of them.

All of this is better then the Commissioner Selig acting as an appeal judge from his office and all this sportsmanship should find its way to Cooperstown where it belongs.  

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