Correction On Talib
April 16th, 2011
UPDATE 9:56 a.m.: Earlier today JoeBucsFan.com published a post that stated the felony assault case against Aqib Talib was reduced to a misdemeanor charge and he was headed for a sentence of probation.
Joe jumped the gun.
Joe had talked to sources in Dallas on Thursday and, in conjuction with the case being assigned to a judge Friday and further follow up, Joe reached the wrong conclusion, though that’s the resolution Joe expects in the case.
Mistakes happen, and Joe will not hide from his error.
This morning, Talib’s Dallas attorney Frank Perez told JoeBucsFan.com that he “expects to take the case to the grand jury and have it resolved there,” meaning Talib would not be indicted. “We’ve interviewed 17 or 19 witnesses and none of them say Aqib Talib had a gun. He wasn’t handling a gun,” Perez said.
April 16th, 2011 at 10:13 am
Mistakes happen, glad to see you own up to them… love this site
April 16th, 2011 at 10:17 am
If they fail to indict Talib on these charges, it’d be unreasonable for the NFL to suspend him. The Grand Jury burden of proof is usually a prosecutorial rubber stamping… so if the GJ can’t establish that he committed ANY crime, then what is the justification for the suspension? The Court of Public Opinion and Reactionary Media Outrage shouldn’t be the source of the NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy.
April 16th, 2011 at 10:21 am
Nice to see you “own up.” Well done.
Hopefully this is even better news although I suppose it could end up being worse.
We’l see.
Again, mistakes are made, not enough owning up to them IMO.
April 16th, 2011 at 10:22 am
Wait…that’s the first I’ve heard that. So, not only are they claiming he didn’t shoot the gun…now they are saying he never even handled one?
What about the supposed “pistol whipping”? Did that never happen then? Was it all just Billings making the claim?
April 16th, 2011 at 10:27 am
Alex, the DA in the Big Ben case dropped all charges against him, stating lack of sufficient evidence. Ben was still suspended for 6 games, later reduced to 4. The justification used by the NFL is “damaging the image of the NFL” simply by being in the situation to begin with, even if not found guilty.
April 16th, 2011 at 10:30 am
Thanks for the correction joe
Now can all the Talib haters please stfu …
No gun, tons of witnesses, and he was there to help his sister. This guy is a star on our football team, but for whatever reason many Bucs “fans” turned on him in a heartbeat. I hope you morons who were against talib have a change of heart after these witnesses’ interview.
April 16th, 2011 at 10:38 am
@BamBam Very good example. I think we’d agree that the Big Ben case grabbed more headlines, as a 2x Superbowl Winning QB was accused of Sexual Assault for a 2nd time in a year. Despite all the witnesses and accusations, the Prosecutors wouldn’t have met the burden of proof for a jury to establish that he did it.
Here, we have a situation where (taking the best case scenario from Talib’s lawyer), they will have almost 20 witnesses saying that Talib didn’t commit a crime. The only story that everyone has gone off of thus far has been a two-time domestic abuser who was running AWAY from the scene. Hard to see who’s shooting at you with your back turned.
I dont doubt the NFL will strike Talib with a mighty backhand because its the NFL, but still, they are 2 different scenarios.
April 16th, 2011 at 10:49 am
Joe what’s going on man? First you jump the gun on the Talib story you and second your starting to recycle the morning cup of joe pics.
April 16th, 2011 at 11:08 am
17-19 witnesses. Here’s a thought…if charges are dropped, would not Billings be charged for lying?
Also…could not Talib sue Billings for slander? The man’s unproven accusations have certainly damaged Talib in the workplace.
17-19 witnesses…hmmmn…we’ve all been so focused on whether Talib shot a gun that we glanced over one thing about those witnesses…if they saw Talib commit no crime, they likely saw Billings doing something.
It’s possible this whole scenario could do an about-face onto Billings.
I think it’s disgusting…
That so many in the media and the public turned on Talib INSTANTLY, without bothering to get the full story. I said all along that we should wait before we judge, and I was told how wrong I was, that I was blind…whatever. Now we see a situation where Talib might actually be innocent of the charges…
…but I know many will try their best to ignore that. They will state something like “What about next time?”
Except this isn’t a movie where people can be tried for future crimes or acts.
It STILL might come out that Talib is guilty. But until we know for sure, we should give the benefit of the doubt…innocent until PROVEN guilty. It’s the American Way…we all expect it for ourselves, but tend to want to deny it to others.
April 16th, 2011 at 11:24 am
Pete,Talibs a thug how can you defend him with his long criminal history,you have to believe the child molester that runs with a gun in his hand and can see behind his back.Like ive been saying all along Billings told a lie to keep from getting charged with the gun,breaking a restraining order with a pistol is a very serious charge,maybe after everything comes out we will be men enough to see that he might have saved his sister from some serious injury.
April 16th, 2011 at 11:52 am
Actually, the witnesses DID see Billings commiting a crime now that I think about it. They saw him present…which means they saw him breaking hte restraining order.
April 16th, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Thats whats nice about having a blog right Joe? You can just trow any info out there and it dosnt matter if its fact or not, gotta love the internet.
April 16th, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Well, at least no one jumped the gun on Talib….
April 16th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Joe you are not the only one ‘jumping the gun’. Fans had media have already prosecuted the guy and have him packing his bags. That’s ridiculous. Talib deserves his right in court and it should not matter what’s happened in the past. If found innocent, which with a shady defendant I’m sure this will happen, nothing should happen to Talib especially by the warden of the NFL.
April 16th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Since when does a defense attorney get to make a case to a grand jury? I’m no attorney but it’s my understanding that a grand jury is the purview of the prosecutor. It’s designed to determine probable cause, not to decide the full merits pro and con. Any attorney out there to bring some clarity?
April 16th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
@TrueBlue You are correct- the Prosecution is the only party in a Grand Jury room, which is why I mentioned before that GJ’s usually rubber stamp indictments for the State/Feds.
Not sure why Perez framed it that way. It was an odd quote as well since I thought Talib has already been charged– which would eliminate any need for a Grand Jury indictment. The only reason for Texas to go to a GJ is for politics- GJ is an independent body so the Prosecutor maintain credibility if the suspect is or isn’t charged.
In all honesty, I was assuming it was a misquote or taken out of context.
April 16th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Roger:
You are absolutely right. Some 15 minutes after Joe realized he may have had a wrong story, Joe ran a correction and pulled down the incorrect story. How horribly irresponsible!
April 16th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Nice to see people are realizing that they were wrong about Aqib. I defended him ever since this happened, Bucs cut Talib they lose a young season ticket holder. Meaning I’m only twenty six, they would have about forty good years of sales out of me. If Talib is gone, I’m done however.
April 16th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
It doesn’t look like they have much of a case against Talib. Although he may still be guilty, the facts that are now coming in are starting to show otherwise. Again, this is another lesson for people to stop convicting people before they know what really happened. You would think after the Mike Williams incident, people would learn. It also looks like the Geno Hayes situation may have been overblown as well. Things aren’t always what they seem. let things run their course before you jump to conclusions.
Now the issue with Talib is going to be will Goodell suspend him? I think smart money says he will, which I just don’t get. If they can’t prove he even handled a gun, how can they suspend him? As an NFL player, are you now not allowed to defend your family? I know Talib has a history, and there is very little probability he is completely innocent, but how can you suspend him if there is no proof of any guilt? I know that has never stopped the warden in the past, but it just doesn’t seem right (especially during a lockout). I truly hope that if he does suspend Talib, he sues the NFL, because the warden is out of control. He runs this league like a dictator, even though I’m sure his intentions are good and he normally gets it right, However, you can’t just go around suspending people because you have a hunch he did it. Hell, why don’t we let Thomas 2.2″ run the league if we are going to go off of a hunch?
April 16th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
@Roger — Some of us still read a newspaper and they must publish 400 or 500 corrections a year.
April 18th, 2011 at 8:50 am
Goodell is going to have a hard time justifying a suspension if the only thing he is found guilty of is “being present at a party where shots were fired”. If nobody can place the gun in his hand, it’s open and shut really. There is no way Goodell suspends him.