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Defense: NYPD profiled Sefolosha as 'black man in a hoodie' in April arrest
Atlanta Hawks forward Thabo Sefolosha appeared in a New York court on Tuesday, kicking off his trial on charges of misdemeanor obstructing government administration, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest stemming from an incident that followed the stabbing of NBA forward Chris Copeland and two women outside a Manhattan nightclub. In their opening statements, the defense and prosecution presented "sharply different descriptions" of the April 8 arrest, which left the 31-year-old Sefolosha with a fractured right fibula that ended his 2014-15 season, according to Colin Moynihan of the New York Times:
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Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office said that Mr. Sefolosha had exhibited truculent behavior at the time, grudgingly following [New York Police Department] orders to move farther from where a stabbing had occurred, disparaging one officer for his height and then charging at another.
“He doesn’t think the rules apply to him,” Jesse Matthews, an assistant district attorney, told the jury. “Defendant displayed a sense of entitlement and disdain.”
But Mr. Sefolosha’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, portrayed him as a “quiet, introspective” person who was wrongfully arrested and brutalized after questioning seemingly arbitrary orders from an officer who had used profanity while telling him to leave a block.
“I think he saw a black man in a hoodie,” Mr. Spiro said of the arresting officer, JohnPaul Giacona. “They grab him, they pounce on him, they pull him limb from limb, they smash him on the ground.”
Sefolosha and then-teammate Pero Antic were arrested outside Manhattan nightclub 1Oak, where fellow NBA player Copeland — formerly of the New York Knicks, then of the Indiana Pacers — was stabbed in the abdomen. (Copeland has since recovered from his injuries, and signed a one-year veteran's minimum deal with the Milwaukee Bucks.)
A police report claimed that NYPD officers asked Sefolosha and Antic "six times [...] to clear the area [in front of the nightclub] to establish a crime scene before they were arrested"; that the players moved a couple of feet away, but did not "clear the area;" and that, after refusing to clear the area, "Sefolosha then charged officers in an 'aggressive manner.'"
A video later released by TMZ seemed to show multiple NYPD officers encircling Sefolosha, with one officer seeming to grab Sefolosha by the back of the neck before the group brings him down to the street, with one officer appearing to swing his baton at Sefolosha's lower body:
After being charged with three misdemeanors, both Antic and Sefolosha pleaded their innocence, with Sefolosha claiming the "significant injury" he suffered was "caused by the police."
Prosecutors dropped all charges against Antic last month, but offered Sefolosha only a "conditional dismissal" that would have seen his charges dropped if he agreed to do one day of community service and subsequently stayed out of trouble for six months. The Swiss national rejected that offer in favor of going to trial, determined to have his day in court.
The prosecution opened its case by claiming the nine-year NBA veteran "acted entitled and disdainful" to the officers on the scene, including 5-foot-7 officer John Paul Giacona, whom Matthews said Sefolosha called a "midget," according to Jake Pearson of The Associated Press: "The defendant does not think he needs to obey the law. He does not like being told what to do."
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Giacona, one of four NYPD officers to testify Tuesday, said that after hearing a commotion and seeing Sefolosha "struggling with two officers, he "came in from behind, leg-swept him and placed him in handcuffs."
Antic — who chose to return to Europe for next season, signing a two-year deal with Turkish club Fenerbahçe — said last week that "what happened that night wasn’t our fault." He also recently told a Croatian newspaper that he believed the treatment Sefolosha, who is black, received from white police officers was the result of "the pure racism that is spread around America."
From Danny Knobler of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Both sides agree that Sefolosha eventually moved to the end of the block and car waiting on 10th Avenue. It was then that Sefolosha began speaking to the other unnamed person, who Spiro suggested was a homeless man looking for a handout. Spiro suggested that Sefolosha was moving to give the man some money, but police officers said they believed Sefolosha was “lunging” in the direction of Officer Daniel Dongvort.
“Officer Dongvort was in a vulnerable position,” Officer Richard Caster testified. “I didn’t know what the defendant’s intentions were. I think the defendant’s actions were irrational. He should have left by that point.”
The officers testified that Sefolosha "was hurt before he ever encountered the police and that he was walking normally in the minutes after the arrest," according to Knobler. Spiro questioned how it was possible that Sefolosha — who had played 19 minutes and 34 seconds of Atlanta's victory over the Phoenix Suns hours earlier — injured his leg before the encounter.
Testimony will continue throughout the week. Sefolosha's been cleared to resume basketball activities for the Hawks, who enter the season looking to build off a stunning 2014-15 campaign that saw Mike Budenholzer's club set a franchise record for wins and make the Eastern Conference finals for the first time.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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