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Ex-Hawk Antic on Sefolosha-NYPD incident: 'What happened that night wasn’t our fault'
After being cleared of all charges resulting from his April arrest in New York City — an incident that left teammate Thabo Sefolosha with a fractured right fibula that ended his 2014-15 season — former Atlanta Hawks center Pero Antic has spoken out about his treatment by the New York Police Department, saying "what happened that night wasn’t our fault."
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Antic and Sefolosha were arrested in the early hours of April 8 outside Manhattan nightclub 1 OAK, where fellow NBA player Chris 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 1Oak] 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:
Both Antic and Sefolosha were charged with three misdemeanors, including "obstructing governmental administration." They pleaded their innocence and said they planned to contest the charges. Sefolosha, who suffered a broken bone and ligament damage while in NYPD custody, said his "significant injury" was "caused by the police." The National Basketball Players Association, the union representing NBA players, launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident and the NYPD's conduct in the matter; the attorney for Sefolosha and Antic subpoenaed "personnel, disciplinary and arrest records of the four police officers involved in the arrests."
New York prosecutors dropped all charges against Antic earlier this month, but offered Sefolosha only a "conditional dismissal" of his charges. The Swiss national rejected that offer in favor of going to trial, determined to have his day in court and prove the innocence he and Antic have asserted since April.
His charges dismissed “in the interest of justice,” the 33-year-old Antic — who chose to return to Europe next season, signing a two-year deal with Turkish club Fenerbahçe — spoke via email with Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the resolution of his case and what transpired on that fateful April night:
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Q: Do you feel vindicated now that the charges against you in New York have been dropped?
A: I feel and I don’t feel at the same time. I’m happy that justice was done and people can finally see that what happened that night wasn’t our fault. I’ll just try to forget that and concentrate on the future and better things in life.
Q: What can you say about the way you were treated by police now that your case is over?
A: Not good to be honest. I know that they have the power and everything but at the end of the day we are all humans and we all have rights. Nobody has the right to hit you or even put your career in danger. But not all policeman are like that. I truly believe in that. But those few individuals are making the big difference of what and how people think about the police.
Q: Do you think that you were mistreated?
A: Yes, I don’t know what else to say. I’m happy that this is behind me now and hope soon that it will finish also for my brother Thabo. But again I will say, wrong place at a wrong time.
Antic evidently used stronger language to describe the incident in a recent interview with the Croatian newspaper Jutarnji list, as translated by Reddit user LoLz14:
"We were in a wrong place at the wrong time, but in the NBA, going out isn't forbidden. Thabo got out of the car to give $20 to a beggar and all of a sudden, the police started to push him violently. I went out to see what was going on [...] It was the pure racism that is spread around America. Thabo is a black man, and all the officers were white. I didn't want to leave him alone, so they arrested me as well. We never got an explanation for their behavior. Police there are killing people, and nothing happens."
Sefolosha's trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 5 in New York. More than five months after undergoing surgery to repair his broken fibula, Sefolosha has officially been cleared for basketball activities; he told Vivlamore during the Hawks' Media Day session on Monday that he's "about 75 percent ready" after months of rehabilitation, and that he "expects to be 100 percent" in time for Atlanta's 2015-16-opening contest against the Detroit Pistons on Oct. 27.
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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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