Lawrence Taylor's Latest Mishap

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright May 8, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

             Arrested Thursday night May 6 for allegedly raping a 16-year-old runaway prostitute, former New York Giant Hall of Fame linebacker 51-year-old Lawrence Taylor was arrested by Ramapo police and charged with third-degree rape and patronizing a prostitute.  Rapapo’s police chief Peter Brower alleges that Taylor paid $300 for sex at a local Holiday Inn in the early morning hours of May 6.  Police received a call from the girl’s uncle, after getting a text message from his niece that night.  She apparently was beaten by her 36-year-old parolee pimp Rasheed Davis, someone she met in the Bronx a few weeks earlier.  How Davis made the connection with Taylor is anyone’s guess.  Prostitution scandals are nothing new to New York, where its then 49-year-old governor and likely Democratic presidential candidate Eliot Spitzer was forced to resign March 17, 2008 for soliciting prostitutes.

            While Spitzer’s love-object, 22-year-old Emperor’s Club VIP call girl Ashley Dupré, was not a minor, he was never charged with solicitation, resigning his office March 17, 2008.  Taylor, a 1987/1991 Super Bowl XXI/XXV champion linebacker, has had other scrapes with the law, mostly tax and drug-related charges, before and after his 1993 NFL retirement.  “My client did not have sex with anybody,” said Taylor’s attorney Arthur Aidala.  “Lawrence Taylor did not rape anybody,” denying the charges that Taylor solicited a prostitute.  Taylor finds himself caught in the murky zone of New York’s age-of-consent law, requiring consenting adults for sex acts to be at least 17-years of-age.  Charging Taylor with third-degree rape carries far worse penalties than only solicitation.  “Ignorance is not an excuse to an individual’s age,” said Brower, seeking the more serious charge.

            When you compare Taylor’s crime with Spitizer’s, it’s far more outrageous that the state’s governor, a former attorney general, faced no criminal charges, despite betraying his office as the former chief law enforcement officer of New York.  While New York state attorney general, Spitzer showed no mercy prosecuting  prostitution.  Having sex with an under-age-minor is certainly unfortunate but it only constitutes a “statutory” rape, defined as rape because of the age-limits.  Ramapo officials should reconsider the charge of rape because it distorts the simple sex-for-payment transaction, if it, in fact, occurred.  Police officials say that Davis beat up the 16-year-old and insisted that she have sex with Taylor.  Davis, a former convict, was charged with unlawful imprisonment, assault and endangering the welfare of a child for his role in the Taylor prostitution episode.

            Pro athletes have had their run-ins with the law in over the years.  When heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was accused of raping 18-year-old former Miss Rhode Island Desiree Washington in an Indianapolis hotel room July 19, 1991, there were racial overtones.  He was eventually convicted Feb 10, 1992 by a white jury and sentenced to 10 years in prison.  He was released in 1995, insisting he never “raped” the young woman.  NBA and Los Angeles Lakers’ star guard Kobe Bryant was accused July 2, 2003 of raping 19-year Ketelyn Faber in his Cordillera Spa & Resort hotel room, prompting a criminal investigation and eventual out-of-court civil settlement.  More recently, Pittsburgh Steelers’ Super Bowl XL/XLIII Champion 2006/2009 28-year-old quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was accused of sexually assaulting 20-year-old Georgia a College & State University coed March 5, 2010.

            While no charges were filed by the Milledgeville prosecutor, Roethlislberger was disciplined by the NFL, suspending him for six games without pay for the 2010 season.  Roethlisberger had been accused before of sexual assault in Lake Tahoe back in 2005.  Neither incident resulted in criminal prosecution.  Prosecuting Taylor now for “third-degree rape” doesn’t serve the interests of justice when the state’s former governor was never charged with solicitation.  Convicting Taylor of statutory rape and imposing jail-time serves no purpose other than political grandstanding.  Taylor should be allowed to negotiate a civil judgment, much the same way Kobe and Roethlisberger resolved their problems out of criminal court.  Tyson’s conviction spoke volumes about failures in the criminal justice system to deal fairly with sexually-related crimes involving the African American community.

            Throwing the book at Taylor in rural New York smacks of the same differential justice that lets white elected officials and pro-athletes off the hook, while making examples of blacks.  While the 10-time Pro-Bowler should pay some price for solicitation, should that be the case, he shouldn’t face statutory rape charges given the victim’s age and circumstances.  Taylor’s past tax and drug problems have nothing to do with the commonplace occurrence of soliciting prostitutes.  If prosecutors show he was responsible for the victim’s injuries, then they should prosecute him to the fullest extent for sexually-related violence.  If Taylor made the mistake of soliciting a prostitute, he should be entitled to the same kind of rehab as other misguided individuals, including high-profile politicians and men of the cloth.  Prosecutors should rethink the charges and consider other options.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.