Lawrence Taylor, 51, stood handcuffed in front of a magistrate in Ramapo, New York. He was charged with third degree rape, a class E felony in the state of New York, as well as patronizing a prostitute, a misdemeanor.His alleged crime is having had unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who was identified as a prostitute. If found guilty on all charges he could serve up to five years in state prison.

According to his defense counsel, Mr. Arthur Aidala, the rape charge, without other facts that might not be known at this time, usually plea bargains down to a misdemeanor. Mr. Aidala did not state whether jail time is commonly served once that occurs.

The young woman, 16 years of age was brought to Taylor’s Holiday Inn hotel room at 1:00 am on May 6,in Montebello, New York, a section of Ramapo by another man, one Rasheed Davis, 36. Mr. Davis is in the custody of the New York City police department and is the subject of his own criminal investigation.

Mr. Davis’ relationship to the rape victim and the circumstances of how he happened to be in her company, as well as the facts surrounding his relationship with Lawrence Taylor are still being investigated.

The victim had been reported as a missing person in March of 2010 and has been reunited with her uncle, according to Ramapo Supervisor, Christopher St. Lawrence.

St. Lawrence was very careful to tell media at this afternoon’s press conference, that Taylor does not stand accused of physically harming the young woman who was bruised prior to her arrival at Taylor’s hotel room.

In the televised arraignment, Taylor was unable to effectively sign the papers put in front of him related to the bail arrangement because his hands were shackled in front of him.

Mr. Aidala ably argued for Taylor’s release without bail but ultimately lost the decision. The magistrate set his bail at $75,000, although the prosecution had asked for $100,000. Aidala said Taylor would make bail.

Because Taylor is a resident of Florida and is still a party to an open criminal investigation in that state, the judge seemed more inclined to err on the side of caution.

The Hall of Fame former N.Y. Giant linebacker was charged last fall with leaving the scene of an accident. Aidala told the magistrate that he expected Taylor to be exonerated on the charges which he claimed would be dropped.

Luckily for LT, although Mr. St. Lawrence announced there was a bottle of alcohol in the hotel room, he categorically stated that there were no drugs in sight or suspected to be part of the acitivity that occurred during the alleged crime.

While the Ramapo chief of police announced at the press conference that Taylor gave the victim $300.00 prior to her departure from his room, Mr. Aidala told the magistrate that all facts are now being denied and his client pleaded not guilty to both crimes charged.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – ESPN has announced that the 2010 X Games have centralized its events in downtown Los Angeles. No longer will ticket holders have to drive to the Home Depot Center in Carson to catch some of their favorite sports.The X Games will take place July 29 through August 1, 2010.

The Home Depot Center attracted fully 82,700 fans out of the 111,200 total who attended the 2009 games, according to the company’s press release.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will now host most of the events that were previously showcased in Carson in a return to that historic venue’s ties to the original motocross.

The general manager of the Coliseum and the LA Sports Arena, Pat Lynch said:

“We couldn’t be more excited to have the X Games back at the Coliseum.”

“As the original home to the precursor of the X Games, the original motocross, we truly appreciate and love showcasing this world-class action sports event.”

AEG’s entertainment complex, LA Live will host events within its Event Deck as well as the Nokia Theater. Other sports will remain at the Staples Center directly across the street from LA Live.

ESPN announced that it will almost double the TV broadcast time for this year’s X Games. The network expects to air 31 hours of coverage, four of which will be featured on Sports Center.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™ 

The Mayweather vs. Mosley countdown has begun. With six days until fight night, the participants will be at the mercy of their publicists for events and grand entrances.

One of those entrances occurs on Tuesday April 27, as the fighters get the red carpet treatment at the MGM Grand. Grand entrances at the grand entrance of the MGM Grand. Do they think they have to hit us over the head with how big this event is? Oops, sorry, how grand this is?

You too can be part of the spectacle. The public is encouraged to attend the walk-ins. Shane Mosley arrives at the hotel at 2 pm PDT and Floyd Mayweather follows only thirty minutes later at 2:30 PM.

Realize however, that this is all filmed for the final installment of HBO’s Mayweather-Mosley 24/7. Perhaps that is appealing and if it is, hustle on down there to mix it up with the fighters and their respective entourages.

And speaking of 24/7, the third episode aired this past weekend. Where was the beef in that sandwich? The show seems to have run out of fresh material. Perhaps it is because Floyd Mayweather has been featured four times and the folks at HBO think we all have seen the previous series.

Shane Mosley’s back story has not been explored in any true depth. Viewers have not been treated to much film footage about his family, particularly his father Jack.

It was Floyd Mayweather who introduced the topic of Jack Mosley during episode 3. He was offended that his opponent didn’t give enough props to his dad who Floyd claims to admire.

Unlike other 24/7 look-ins, we haven’t seen more than token stories featuring the fighters’ children, the women in their lives, their hometowns and those that helped them early on to become who they are today. It resulted in rehashing old information during this latest episode.

Here are the scheduled fight week events to watch out for:

Tuesday April 27, grand entrances at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Beginning at 2 pm PDT the fighters will arrive at the hotel. The public is invited to attend.

Wednesday April 28, the final press conference featuring the fighters commences at 1 pm PDT.

Thursday April 29, the undercard press conferences begin at 11 am PDT. Later that day, the trainers, Naazim Richardson and Roger Mayweather will meet with press at a round table event that kicks off at 12:30 pm PDT.

Friday April 30, the official weigh-in is scheduled for 3:10 pm PDT. The finale of 24/7 Mayweather-Mosley will be screened for credentialed press at 6:30 pm PDT.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

The NFL Draft’s first round wrapped up pretty quickly. Teams knew who they wanted but more so who they didn’t want. Tim Tebow celebrated at his home in Florida as he put on a Denver Broncos cap after being taken with the twenty-fifth pick.He said what many were thinking when he told Jeremy Schaap of ESPN that the Broncos knew that by picking him they were getting a guy who won’t get in trouble.

The word “character” was thrown around all night just as it has been for the entire episode involving Ben Roethlisberger. The media or perhaps the NFL began using character a few years back as a euphemism for words like, good behavior, discipline, lack of ego and law abiding citizen.

Despite being a first round pick in mock drafts from the likes of Mel Kiper and Mike Mayock, Jimmy Clausen was left sitting in his home in California without a phone call from any NFL team.

Generally acknowledged as the easiest of the available quarterbacks to fit into an NFL offense, Clausen had trouble with one of the meanings behind the use of the word character.

He is called arrogant and cocky. He admitted this week on the Dan Patrick radio program that he was asked about that on interviews with teams that showed interest in him.

His answer to the question was to send the clubs to his coaches and teammates, leaving draft watchers to wonder if those worries were being confirmed as Clausen went undrafted in round one.

Character is in the eye of the beholder of course and just to prove that point, Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys gleefully plucked wide receiver Dez Bryant out of the pile.
Bryant was considered worthy of the #4 pick by Kiper and #11 by Mayock but came perilously close to being left out of the fun.

Jones, known as a guy who loves turnaround projects, (TO, Tank Johnson, Adam Jones) saw the glass half full when it came to the subject of Bryant.
Rather than seeing his run-in with the NCAA as a reason to ignore his obvious talents, Jones traded up to get him at #24. You think he had Deion Sanders whispering encouragement in his ear?

The Cowboys gave New England their third round pick at #90 in exchange for a chance to get Bryant and the Pats fourth round pick. But without the intervention from Jones, Bryant would be sitting in the same spot as Clausen.

It used to be that legal trouble, drug use or team suspensions were the hot buttons for NFL draft experts. Not any longer. If you’ve got an iffy personality or one that can’t be deciphered and considered manageable you better prepare yourself for getting overlooked. Rounds two and three kick off tonight at 6 pm EDT.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. – The Los Angeles Dodgers have a .500 record after 14 games, but if their pitching were worthy of their hitters, the team would be on top of its division.

A glance at a box score from last night’s 14-6 victory against the Cincinnati Reds can get you giddy when you see the batting averages of their starting lineup.

Leading off, shortstop Raphael Furcal sports a .356 BA. The outfielders are all contributing with CF Matt Kemp batting .333 to go along with his seven home runs, RF Andre Ethier killing at .400 and Manny is still Manny with a .421 average. First baseman James Loney is holding his own with a .317 average, 3B Casey Blake is handling his business with a .313 average and even C Russell Martin, who is a notorious slow starter is batting a sizzling .317 this season.

So why are they 7-7 at this point of the season? It’s the pitching, stupid.

What was a concern throughout the off-season is now a reality, even this early. Without having picked up an additional starter, the rotation looks thin already unless everyone comes through with a solid 6-7 innings.

Ned Colletti, the team’s GM held the line, presumably on orders from ownership and failed to snag someone like Joel Piniero. The right-hander now pitching in Anaheim for the Angels was still available three weeks prior to spring training. He signed a two-year $16 million deal and has already paid dividends for his team with a sizzling 1.77 ERA in three games.

In some respects you could almost sympathize with Colletti since he hoped that Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda would return to form. The team also banked on Vincente Padilla continuing to pitch like he did when he arrived last summer as a cast off from the Texas Rangers.

So far Billingsley has been unable to pitch past the fifth inning, even in his only win and is struggling with an ERA over 7.0. No one can pinpoint what his problem is and his future contributions can only be considered iffy.
Padilla sports a 1-1 record but a whopping 8.04 ERA and has pitched a total of 15.2 innings in his three starts.

Kuroda is doing much better leading all starters with a 2-0 record and an ERA of 2.18, although he coughed up six runs last night against the Cincinnati Reds.

Clayton Kershaw has a win under his belt, but still needs too many pitches to achieve an ERA of 3.18. And therein lies the problem for the starters.

They can’t pitch deep into the game with an occasional exception and the middle relievers as well as last season’s darling, set-up man George Sherrill, have given up runs at a record pace.

Five of the team’s seven losses were recorded by the bull pen. Jonathan Broxton is the only exception. The young closer hasn’t given up a run in 5+ innings.

No one is running away with the NL West. The Giants got off to a hot start but have come down to earth losing 6 of the last ten, leaving the small market San Diego Padres atop the standings with a 9-6 record. And as they like to say in a sport that has a 162 game schedule. it’s still early.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

Shane Mosley, his attorney Judd Burstein and Golden Boy Promotions’ CEO Richard Schaefer held a media conference call on Tuesday. The only topic seemingly out of bounds was the video of Mosley posted last week by Victor Conte.With open questions about what it might mean for Shane Mosley’s claim that he didn’t know what he took in 2003 when he used banned substances supplied by Conte’s business BALCO Labs, neither the fighter nor his lawyer were in the mood to discuss it. The video is posted on my Examiner sports column here.

Burstein’s only comment when asked about it was this: “There is no point in talking about it. It happened in 2003. The video was edited and taken out of context. Shane will be victorious in court. I have nothing more to say about this.”

Moving on, Mosley was asked if he might have a post-fight relationship with Floyd whether business or personal. Shane told us: “Yeah, of course. This is nothing personal for me. It’s business. It’s a competitive sport.” He added, “We could go out to dinner, families and all that.”

Of course, Shane Mosley is not unfamiliar with being in business with former foes. He is a VP at Oscar De La Hoya’s company, Golden Boy Promotions. But a family dinner? Ok then.

Asked if having fought at 154 lbs. will help him against a guy who uses speed and defense, Mosley told us, “It helps with the power. I can walk him down better. I feel good about being in the ring with bigger guys.”

Repeating what he has said for weeks now, Mosley insisted that the taunting and talk from Floyd means nothing to him. “I don’t know what he says about me. I don’t look at any of it. I’m focused on being the best in the ring.”

Shane wasn’t as clear when asked if the Mayweather fight is the biggest fight of his career. He said it was big, if for no other reason than it is what the public wants to see. However, he considers his first fight with Oscar De La Hoya had its significance too.

As you would expect, Mosley was tight lipped about how he and trainer Naazim Richardson have planned to deal with Mayweather’s techniques. The fighter was not shy about showering praise on Richardson. Despite what some might see as an in-your-face style, Mosley said he welcomed it.

“That makes it so much better going into a fight,” he said. “I can rely on him telling me the truth and not holding back. It gives me more confidence when I get into the ring.”

Richard Schaefer alerted media on the call to the fact that the WBA belt cannot be won by Floyd Mayweather if he defeats Shane Mosley. At the present time, Schaefer said it was unclear if Shane could lose it. Nonetheless, it is not a WBA title fight.

Schaefer went on to announce that there are still some tickets available in the $600 and $1,250 category for the May 1 bout in Las Vegas. All others are sold out. The $50 closed circuit seats on the MGM/Mirage properties go on sale tomorrow and 25,000 will be made available.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

Reggie Bush, pride of USC, Heisman Trophy winner and the second overall pick in the 2006 NFL draft has lost his bid to be tell his tales in a private arbitration. And guess who is most interested in what he has to say? The NCAA, that’s who.

The deposition testimony in a civil lawsuit will create a public record about Bush’s side of a story that is more than four years old. Did he and his parents receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and goodies while he went to college, in exchange for a promise that he would become a client of Lloyd Lake and Michael Michaels after he jumped to the NFL? A promise he did not keep.

The NCAA hasn’t finalized its recommendation about whether there should be punishment meted out after its far reaching investigation into USC’s adherence to NCAA rules. It got lucky that a judge recently ruled that Bush’s testimony cannot remain secret.

The Associated Press reported that the college governing body has asked for a full transcript of Bush’s testimony and that of Mr. Michaels. Presumably it is only after reviewing all that material that USC’s fate will be determined.

In the meantime, the NFL Draft, televised on ESPN will serve as a reminder of what all this is about. Round one is scheduled for prime time on Thursday evening April 22, rounds two and three will go off on the next night and it will all wrap up on the weekend.

Bush sits down under oath on that Friday, April 23. Think those Sports Center updates won’t be have film of Reggie walking in and out of Lake’s attorney’s office surrounded by his team? Why wouldn’t they? Bush is considered one of the biggest recent success stories of a college athlete making it big in the NFL.

If his ability to stay in school and afford the things he needed or wanted was contingent on receiving financial assistance in a way that breaches NCAA rules it is news.

Not big news mind you because you and I already believe that this is a common practice.

The big news will be if USC gets punished in the present for what it might or might not have known about in the past. The school already made an admission of wrongdoing, without actually making one when it sacrificed its men’s basketball team on the altar of being a good citizen in the world of the NCAA.

But that was only about the recruiting of basketball star O.J. Mayo. While he was news out here in LA during his time at USC, he doesn’t move the meter on public interest the way the on again-off again boyfriend of Kim Karashian does.

If the stench reaches the vaunted football team it will taint former coach Pete Carroll and of course the seemingly untouchable and Teflon-like Mike Garrett, the school’s Athletic Director. Bush will go about his business without any cares unless there is something more to hide than allegedly receiving free rent for his parents and goodies for himself.

This isn’t criminal wrongdoing so don’t expect Commissioner Goodell to get involved. Reggie can write a check and make this all go away if he wants to settle the case with Lake. In the meantime, other young men will wait for their names to be called for their chance to make millions playing football. No matter what it took to get them there.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

AUGUSTA, GA. – At the Masters on Friday, Tiger Woods was spared the exposure of more airplane banners chiding him for his recent behavior.

The FAA grounded the light airplane that had dragged banners across the sky above Augusta National.

On Thursday, those banners highlighted Woods’ sexual escapades with slogans like:

“Sex Addict? Yeah. Sure. Me Too.”

“Tiger, Did You Mean Bootyism?”

Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a minor mechanical problem kept the airplane grounded on Friday.

During his radio program on Friday, Dan Patrick said he had been told that a banner was to go out on Friday that ridiculed Stevie Williams, Tiger’s caddy. Williams had denied knowing a thing about his boss’ exploits in an interview with 60 Minutes.

According to Patrick, the banner would have mocked that assertion.

By the way, golf was played and the feel-good stories of Fred Couples and Tom Watson got pushed aside on Friday. Both men shot over par to slip down the leader board, making way for others who surged ahead.

The golf course was tougher on Friday with faster greens, difficult pin placements and wind gusts that disrupted everything from tee to green.

Filling out the top 9 places after 36 holes are:

Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter are tied for first at -8. Tiger Woods, K.J. Choi, Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim and Ricky Barnes are tied for third at -6. Y.E. Yang ended the day at -5. Tom Watson, Fred Couples, and Soren Kjeldsen are tied for 9th at -2.

Because of the difficult conditions on Friday there were only a few golfers who made any sort of big move. Poulter carded a 68 after going -4, Lee Westwood shot a 69, 3 under par while Woods, Kim and Barnes came in at -2 for a 70 on the day.

The cut is projected to be +3 leaving many big time players out of the weekend play. Some of those projected to miss the cut at +4 and above are Padraig Harrington (+5), Stewart Cink (+8), Vijay Singh at +10 and Jim Furyk at a whopping (+12).

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

It has been reported that emails threatening the life of ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews surfaced this week and were brought to the attention of the FBI.TMZ.com initially broke the story about the emails, some of which dated back to September 2009.

They were sent to the Dan Patrick radio program and characterized as sexual in nature. Lately the messages became threatening and specific. That is when the federal authorities were notified.

SportsbyBrooks.com reported that Directv, which simulcasts the radio program on its Channel 101 was being criticized by Andrews’ attorney Marshall Grossman for failing to alert him when the messages were first received.

Brook’s discussion with a Directv source made it clear that the emails weren’t even reviewed until this week, which Brooks claims is not unusual for a national show that gets buried in mail. There was no delay once they were discovered.

Grossman told media his client is “having a rough time” and ABC which broadcasts Dancing With the Stars has added to its security for Andrews.

Andrews was victimized by Michael David Barrett, a stalker who followed her while she traveled on business, checked into hotel rooms adjacent to her and videotaped her through holes in the room walls.

Some of that video was posted on the Internet. After his capture it became known that Andrews was only one of multiple women who were victimized by his crimes.

The ESPN personality spoke at Barrett’s sentencing hearing and detailed for the judge how she lives in fear of it happening to her again. She also spoke about the vulgar taunting she now absorbs in public while performing her job at college sporting events. Barrett was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.

Some of her fears seem to have been realized with these latest developments.

There were critics of her decision to appear on the wildly popular ABC program who thought she should keep a lower profile or at least one that didn’t entail dancing in outfits that titillate.

As far back as last spring, Andrews talked about how much she wanted to appear on the dancing program. “I want to do it, because I think I’d be good at it,” she told Dan Steinberg for The Sporting Blog.

She apparently decided to live her life in a manner that wasn’t dictated by the effects of Barrett’s crime, which she has every right to do. Emails sent prior to Dancing With the Stars are evidence that there are people, or at least one person, who needed no further provocation for what he did.

It’s anyone’s guess if Andrews’ attitude will remain the same as a result of the latest news, but it’s clear that she has entered that realm of celebrities who contend with stalking and violent threats.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™        

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Los Angeles Lakers just announced a three-year contract extension with Kobe Bryant. This is the companion piece to a four-year extension for Pau Gasol announced in December, 2009.

The Lakers press release quoted General Manager Mitch Kupchak as saying:

” Kobe has been a cornerstone of the Lakers for well over a decade…and in the process developing into one of the greatest players in basketball history.”

The lack of an extension for Bryant was creeping back into sports analysts’ conversation as a result of the Lakers’ uneven performance since the All-Star game (13-8), most particularly the just concluded 2-3 road trip.

The level of uncertainty rose a bit more after coach Phil Jackson’s mysterious comments about returning next season. Kobe’s return was rumored to be tied to Jackson’s only adding to the paranoia of Lakers fans.

Despite Kobe being as clear as he could be after the team won the 2009 NBA Championship, the anxiety in Los Angeles was fueled by the memory of that horrible time in the summer of 2007 when Kobe demanded a trade.

Bryant told the assembled 100,000 people at the Lakers victory celebration last June, when asked if he was going to re-sign with the team: “Where am I going to go? This is my home.”

The team now has four of its starting five signed through the 2012 season. Ron Artest took a multi-year deal last summer and Andrew Bynum was given his big money contract at the beginning of the 2008 season.

Sixth man, Lamar Odom is under contract for the same time period after last summer’s mysterious standoff.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™