Sean Taylor Charged with Aggravated Assault

[Schneed10]

PSU, great post man. It's nice to get the solid legal perspective. There's only so much Law & Order reruns can teach you!!

In your professional opinion, if Taylor pleads guilty to aggravated assault, how much time do you think he'll actually serve? I was wondering if he'd do less time if he just pled guilty than he would if he tried to fight it and lost.

On football matters, I'm on your side now man. If it's at all feasible to our salary cap, I say get rid of him through trade or release, either way, just get rid of him. I wonder if we'll have a claim to get back any signing bonus money.

[mooby]

Originally Posted by dirtbag2112

Great! I can't wait to see our reserve safeties miss tackles and slide off of ball carriers like water on a rain-x'd windshield.

are you forgetting how great our backup safeties did last year when matt bowen was injured. if sean taylor doesn't play this season, im sure we have solid backups who can play the position good enough for our defense, just not be playmakers in the secondary. ryan clark is good enough. pierson proleau (sp) is good enough, so are all the other safeties we have. we had a lot of key injuries to our defense last season and we finished third. i don't think our defense is gonna drop a spot because of taylor's absence. hell, remember the dallas game where we could've won 10-6 but sean taylor made a mistake that cost us the game.

[skinsguy]

We need Sean Taylor, but we can do without him if need be. I think our secondary will do just fine without him. I'm just curious to see what comes out of this situation.

[PSUSkinsFan21]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

PSU, great post man. It's nice to get the solid legal perspective. There's only so much Law & Order reruns can teach you!!

In your professional opinion, if Taylor pleads guilty to aggravated assault, how much time do you think he'll actually serve? I was wondering if he'd do less time if he just pled guilty than he would if he tried to fight it and lost.

On football matters, I'm on your side now man. If it's at all feasible to our salary cap, I say get rid of him through trade or release, either way, just get rid of him. I wonder if we'll have a claim to get back any signing bonus money.

Thanks Schneed.

As far as plea bargaining, if he were to plead guilty to aggravated assault, and there was a mandatory minimum in place for that offense, he would most likely be stuck with that mandatory minimum (I say most likely because a judge is always free to disregard any arrangements worked out between the parties and give more or less as long as it's within the sentencing guidelines......even if the prosecutor recommends the minimum, the judge could go higher). As for how long that is? That I don't know because I'm not intimately familiar with Florida law. I believe I saw in a prior post by RF that it starts at 5 years (gun charges are typically really tough).

Now, as a practical matter, ST probably wouldn't plead guilty to aggravated assault. Most likely his attorney would work out something with the prosecutor to get the charge dropped down to simple assault and then plead guilty to that (which is a misdemeanor). Then, it's up to the judge. If the judge is a prick, he could jail him for up to one year. More likely scenario (and here is where a clean record can help you): the judge will cut him some slack, give him a year probation, some community service, anger management courses, fines, etc., but no serious time. Whether the prosecution takes the deal to drop the charges down in exchange for a plea will, of course, depend on how strong the case is. If the alleged victims stole the ATVs, then expect a plea bargain because the victims would make poor witnesses (the type any lawyer would just love to cross examine on the stand). If they didn't steal the ATVs, then the prosecution has a strong case and may want to go forward with trial. So to answer your question, he can't get below whatever the mandatory minimum is for whatever crime he pleads guilty to. If that's aggravated assault, he'd be screwed. Of course, there is always getting out early for good behavior, and I'm not sure how Florida law works in that regard, but I'd imagine he'd be looking at at least a couple years before parole would be an option.

As for the contract and whether we could get any $ back? Same situation as Winslow right now. If there is a clause in there related to committing felonies or missing games/team events because of crimes, then certainly the Skins could sue for breach of contract and get some money back. I don't know if there are clauses in there like that or not though. Also don't know what, if any, effect that has on salary cap.

I'm willing to wait a little while to see if it's looking really bad for him before casting him off, but I agree, if he did this, or even if it just becomes painfully evident that he did something seriously wrong here, I'd rather not have him on my team than have him. I just can't cheer for guys that do things like this if even some of the allegations are true.

[dirtbag2112]

mooby, I agree that our back ups are good, but I was more or less referring to Bowen who in the previous years couldnt make a tackle to save his life. No, we're not screwed if we lose Taylor but our secondary will get torched.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by skinsguy

We need Sean Taylor, but we can do without him if need be. I think our secondary will do just fine without him. I'm just curious to see what comes out of this situation.

I agree that Sean is needed because he has so much talent and can make the big plys we need from him. Last year though we did prove that Williams can find the right player to fill in for an injured or Jailed player. LOL They may not be of the same caliber but will get the job done. The only positve to this is that it came up before training camp has started and that will give us the extra time needed to make the adjustments.

[That Guy]

he wont plead guilty to agravated assault, cause then all his options go out the window... the only thing he'd plead guilty to would be a lesser charge in the context of a plea bargain.

they can't convict for AA with reasonal doubt, so he said/she said might be enough to keep him clear (might because of his track record)... if there are recorded witnesses (ie, making a 911 call) then he could be done (in studies witnesses are notoriously bad at remembering details even a couple days after an event, so basing an entire legal system off the validity of eye witness testimony is a generally bad idea... but recording 911 calls and taking same day statements (and making sure their story matches up in court) do alleviate some of the concerns (and liars tend to be very bad at keeping made-up details straight)).

[celts32]

My only concern in this is the #1 draft pick the Redskins will be losing on this guy becasue frankly I am not sure I want this guy on my team anymore. How can we possibly root for this thug?

[PSUSkinsFan21]

Originally Posted by That Guy

he wont plead guilty to agravated assault, cause then all his options go out the window... the only thing he'd plead guilty to would be a lesser charge in the context of a plea bargain.

they can't convict for AA with reasonal doubt, so he said/she said might be enough to keep him clear (might because of his track record)... if there are recorded witnesses (ie, making a 911 call) then he could be done (in studies witnesses are notoriously bad at remembering details even a couple days after an event, so basing an entire legal system off the validity of eye witness testimony is a generally bad idea... but recording 911 calls and taking same day statements (and making sure their story matches up in court) do alleviate some of the concerns (and liars tend to be very bad at keeping made-up details straight)).

In practice, thousands of defendants are convicted on a daily basis entirely because of eye-witness testimony. Eye-witness testimony is really only questioned when the defense is trying to show mistaken identity. That's not likely in the case of a well-known athelete. As for recorded 911 calls and "same day statements", those statements are inadmissible hearsay (i.e. out-of-court statements offered for the truth of the matter asserted), unless they fall under one of the hearsay exceptions. In this case, there are likely not any exceptions. Furthermore, a witness's testimony is to be based entirely on their recollection of the events as of the time they take the stand.

As for reasonable doubt, I can't stress this enough that his past record, or lack of record, cannot be considered by the jury in determining guilt. The only time his clean record helps him is in the sentencing process. Prior acts (or lack thereof) are generally not admissible in determining guilt.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by celts32

My only concern in this is the #1 draft pick the Redskins will be losing on this guy becasue frankly I am not sure I want this guy on my team anymore. How can we possibly root for this thug?

The big thing is how his teammates feel about him, and going by Cooley's recent comments in the Post he has the support of his team.

Fans are quick to forgive, especially once he starts smacking people around on the field, it won't be too long before fans are cheering for him again.

[RedskinRat]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Fans are quick to forgive, especially once he starts smacking people around on the field, it won't be too long before fans are cheering for him again.

September 19th, Taylor crushes Drew Bledsoe on a saftey blitz, the love fest continues.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by RedskinRat

September 19th, Taylor crushes Drew Bledsoe on a saftey blitz, the love fest continues.

I'd like it better if Matt Bowen or Ryan Clark crushed him.

[PSUSkinsFan21]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

I'd like it better if Matt Bowen or Ryan Clark crushed him.

I'll second that.

[dirtbag2112]

I think "uh oh Jimoh" is about to make an appearance.

[Gmanc711]

I'm ready to burry my Sean Taylor jersey, right next to my Coles jersey for this offseason. This guy is done, if you ask me. He is a huge distraction right now, and he is just making some of the stupidest decisions, and I think this one really is going to get him in some trouble. I think we need to think about life after Sean Taylor right now.