Just Like Steven Seagal, Donte Stallworth is Above the Law
June 18, 2009 – 8:00 am by Lance ZimmermanYou can hang Christopher Lyons picture next to Johnny Cochran’s in the lawyer’s Hall of Fame. Lyons is representing Donte Stallworth in his DUI manslaughter case and somehow got the judge to sign off on a sentence of one month in jail, followed by two years of house arrest.
If you’re not familiar with the particulars, Stallworth was driving at 7 a.m. in Miami on March 14th and struck and killed Mario Reyes, who was crossing the street trying to catch a bus. Stallworth’s blood alcohol level was 0.126, well over the .08 legal limit.
Obviously money came in to play here, and the Reyes’s family was more concerned with dollars than justice. Stallworth has already reached a settlement with the family and one can assume the amount being forked over is no small sum.
How this effects Stallworth from a playing standpoint has yet to be determined. Commissioner Goodell could possibly suspend Stallworth for the entire 2009 season. I’m sure many Cleveland Browns fans would just assume be done with him after the lousy 2008 he had.
Christopher Lyons joined 790 the Ticket in Miami on Wednesdayto discuss how he was able to strike this deal that basically allows Stallworth to get away with murder. Further below, ESPN’s Legal Analyst Lester Munson’s take on the settlement of this case:
On what he thought was the best case scenario once he gathered all of the facts:
“Well, what happened yesterday I thought was very much a likely scenario. Donte and his family from day one told me that they wanted to take responsibility for this tragedy and they told me to get this case resolved as quickly and as fairly as possible. We worked very hard over the past 90 days to find a result that all the parties thought was fair and just, and yesterday you saw that play out in the court room with Judge Murphy accepting the plea deal.”
Lyons’ response to people saying Stallworth got off way too easy:
“A lot of people I think don’t know the facts and the evidence of the case. The people that were involved in the case all thought this was a fair result, and if they were in the court room yesterday, I think those people would agree.”
On how much money Stallworth had to cough up to achieve this settlement:
“I can’t comment on the specific amount. The agreement is confidential. I will tell you that the agreement was reached weeks ago. It appeared that reports had it that this was something that happened Monday of this week, but that had been done weeks ago.”
Lyons was asked how at fault the victim was in this case:
“The Reyes family throughout this process, and their attorneys, were great. They certainly did not want to see this case be relived with a trial. Obviously I think the prosecutor in the case yesterday informed the judge that this case had a unique set of facts and evidence, like every case does in our system. Part of that was obviously about the fault issue in this case which some people called the causation element, and certainly among many factors that was an issue.”
ESPN’s Legal Analyst Lester Munson joined Mike and Mike on ESPN Radioto discuss his analysis of the job Lyons did and what he thinks would happen if this were an average person in Stallworth’s situation.
On if he feels Stallworth got some kind of preferential treatment due to his financial situation and fame:
“Because of his financial situation, because he was able to hire the best in lawyers, because those lawyers were able to work for him full time for the last three months since the incident, yes, he came up with an incredible outcome. It was a brilliant piece of work by his lawyer Christopher Lyons, there is no question about it, and in a way, Stallworth contributed here very significantly. From the moment he hit the guy, he was admitting responsibility. He did not try to flee the scene. He went strait to the police. He told them exactly what happened. He agreed to the blood test. He accepted responsibility from the very moment he had realized he had done something very wrong. This is highly unusually among ball players to except responsibility in so significant of a way.”
Munson was asked what an average Joe would be looking at if he were in the same situation as Stallworth:
“He’s not going to do as well. Money makes a big difference. I know that lawyers and judges around the United States would like to say that everybody is treated equally in the court system. That simply is not the case. Big money in the court system produces big results and this is an obvious example of that. An ordinary guy, lets say he does exactly the same thing, on exactly the same causeway, with a blood/alcohol of .12, at 7 a.m. in the morning. He’s going to face more time. It’s going to be harder for him to settle with the family because he’s not going to have hundreds of thousands of dollars to add to the pot that will cause the victims to say ‘Ok, lets make a deal’.”
On how Michael Vick gets two and a half years in jail, and Stallworth escapes with less than 30 days:
“There is something really unique about Michael Vick’s prosecution. Michael Vick went to jail for abusing dogs. Yes it was a terrible thing. Yes it went on for seven years. There were a couple of hundred dogs involved over that period of time. There was this incredible response for what he did, leading to a very aggressive prosecution. He did more time than the average person who beats up on his wife or girlfriend. There is something strange about a dog case in our culture.”
Listen to Christopher Lyons on 790 the Ticket in Miami with Dan LeBetard
Listen to Lester Munson on ESPN Radio with Mike and Mike (14:20 into podcast)
Tags: Cleveland Browns, Dan LeBetard, Donte Stallworth, Donte Stallworth gets jail time, ESPN Radio, Mike & Mike, NFL
