Attorney Eric Hard Discusses Antonio Brown Allegations, The Patriots and the Law

0:00 Aisha with Fox 61 here with a preview on the story that I am working on so if you’ve been paying attention to the newscast just recently as of yesterday news broke that New England Patriots wide receiver Antonio Brown he’s right now facing a civil lawsuit that’s accusing him of rape.

0:19 So as you know Brown signed with the Patriots just recently and today we are trying to gather as much information as we can with the civil lawsuit but I’m also sitting down with a local attorney his name is Eric hard and he’s just giving us a perspective on some potentials here what can the NFL do about this how this will affect Browns contract if at all how long an investigation can take for a civil lawsuit and especially explaining the difference between a criminal lawsuit versus a civil lawsuit.

0:49 So I’m gonna flip the camera right now and face it towards Eric and you’re just gonna look over here at me so first of all those that are watching on Facebook right now who don’t understand what’s going on if you don’t mind just explaining I see that you have the lawsuit here right in front of you as a trainer for Antonio Brown who alleges who into that in 2017 and in 2018 that he sexually assaulted her including rape.

1:20 That is a federal lawsuit filed in Florida okay and we talked about this on camera but just to give viewers just an idea the difference between criminal versus civil when dealing with a case like this right in a criminal case a prosecutor has to make a determination that a case is provable beyond a reasonable doubt which is a very high burden of proof on the part of the state that has not occurred here instead this is a civil suit that’s been brought by the alleged victim herself and it seeks money damages it has a lower burden of proof it’s just more likely than not is the standard about 51%.

2:01 Likely a jury confined or a judge can determine liability and earlier today we heard from the coach during a news conference he was doing and when he was asked about Braun he pretty much just said you know we just have to wait and see how the details play out here that the NFL will do a thorough investigation from your expertise what is it what would you say is the next step when something like this is brought to a player if he thinks he’s gonna play him.

2:37 If he thinks that he isn’t he won’t play he’s not gonna have anything to do with this new allegation terms of the Patriots and what they can do with Antonio Brown pretty much every team has a morality type clause in their contract that they could invoke if they want to take them off the field it’s hard to envision them wanting to do that from a competitive standpoint but from the optics you never know.

3:01 Also Roger Goodell has the power to place this guy on what’s called the exempt list and what that means is they didn’t tell me who Brown would be paid but he would not be allowed to practice and he would not be allowed to play for the team and there’s supposed to be some sort of investigation before a player is placed on the exempt list but the investigation itself could be fairly abbreviated I know it’s supposed to commence today if I’m not mistaken and as far as Brown goes this is an accusation so we have due process how I guess from his and what can he do at this point him and his his agent is expected to speak at 2:00 p.m. today.

3:44 Almost doesn’t matter what people who kills you you can fling so much mud back in their direction that everyone is puzzled and confused and nobody knows what to believe I have no doubt that he’s gonna come up with some sort of defense along the lines of she’s already been trying to get money out of me this is what she’s doing because I wouldn’t give her money things of this nature are quite common retorts for a claim of this nature part of the problem that he has in terms of optics is that he is known to be an unstable person.

4:13 Has most recently caused so much trouble and a team lead just signed with a handful of months ago that he finally was let go by Gruden was a quite serious coach and who was gonna play him and then he demanded on social media to be released and they released him and of course the Patriots opportunistically as always snapped him up he’s got a problem with insisting on wearing a certain helmet he’s got a problem with he came with a foot injury because of some crazy cryogenic procedure he had there’s just never-ending problems with this guy.

4:48 However the Patriots from that standpoint do have a history of rehabilitating problem players Randy Moss being a prime example in 2007 Randy Moss led the Patriots to an undefeated season that was only ended by a rather improbable victory by the New York Giants thank you so much and I we have a lot more questions that we did not get in with this Facebook live and I will have that full story for you coming up later on in our newscast but for those of you that are just joining this Facebook live we are talking about the civil lawsuit that was filed against New England Patriots Weis receiver Antonio Brown.

5:27 We’ll have a lot more details earlier today we did hear from the coach he had a quick statement as far as Brown’s case goes and then we are also anticipating to hear from Browns agent at 2 p.m. and I’ll have all that wrapped up for you coming up in our four and five o’clock newscast as well as I’ve been talking to folks around the area just on their opinion on Brown being on the Patriots and with all that happened with Oakland and if they think he’s a good addition to the team and things of that nature so again I should well here with Fox 61 News just giving you all a preview of the story I’m working on so make sure you tune in today at 4:00 and 5:00 p.m.