Transcript of Carroo's court appearance

[brodo_rivals]

Towards the end of the linked article is a transcript between LC and the judge.

http://www.app.com/story/sports/col...its-reinstatement-rutgers-practices/73499146/

 

[Jonas Grumby]

stigmatism? That would be bad for a receiver.

Honestly, I am kind of pissed at that judge. That was a crappy way to handle it.

 

[RUsojo]

Well handled by judge and Leonte.

 

[ruhudsonfan]

stigmatism? That would be bad for a receiver.

Honestly, I am kind of pissed at that judge. That was a crappy way to handle it.

He might need glasses...

 

[WhiteBus]

So we still don't know what really happened.

 

[FRA10Thunderbolt]

What that Judge did is so typical of the BS that men have to put up with in justice system. Carroo was found innocent of all charges. For whatever the reasons were...most likely because there was not enough evidence to even meet the "preponderance" standard. So even after Carroo was temporarily suspended, his reputation in tatters, and his career almost derailed, he still has to sit there and get a lecture by this pompous judge! How about the Judge say this instead, "Mr. Carroo, this court does not have enough evidence against you to get a conviction, There fore you are free to go." Short, Simple to the point. These Judges are so full of themselves.

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

Before Carroo walked away with a fresh slate, he received a pointed line of questioning from municipal court judge Dennis Fackelman. Here is the transcript of that interaction:

DF: Do you realize that if you had a restraining order that would have been a stigmatism on your life for the rest of your life?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: And if you were guilty of assault you would have had to carry that for the rest of your life?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Did you learn something from all this?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Did you consider that you are a lucky individual?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Do you realize that you’ve been given the benefit of the doubt by this victim and the Rutgers police department?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: You are young and you’ve already got yourself in an incident. Do you realize that throughout the rest of your life you are going to have to try to avoid these confrontations and incidents?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: I understand that you are going to playing football Sundays. Do you realize how blessed you are with that kind of talent?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Are you going to act accordingly in the future?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: I’ve read about some of the other players in the NFL getting in trouble. Do you understand that?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Do you have a respect for domestic violence and how prevalent it is in this society?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Do you understand that with your talent, your time, your income, you are going to be a benefit to society if you choose. Are you going to do that?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Do you realize that everybody in this courtroom is going to follow you the rest of your life to see which way you turn: For better or for worse?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Which way are you going to turn?

LC: For the better.

DF: I think you will.

 

[Scarlet16e2]

So we still don't know what really happened.

Once an accusation has been made, it's nearly impossible to completely clear your good name.
Accuser decides not to testify. No opportunity remains to cross-examine your accuser.
Especially with time being an enemy in terms of preparing a body of work for NFL scouts consumption.

 

[RU4Real]

So we still don't know what really happened.

Look, I know a lot of people on this board have been in "O.J." mode for the last 24 hours, but based on the judge's comments and the fact that having the charges dropped in exchange for mandatory anger management classes is not the same thing as an acquittal, I think we should all agree that Leonte had a good day yesterday. He should be thankful and he should go on living his life in as positive a manner as possible.

The bottom line is that the people who may have believed that he "picked up the recruiting hostess and threw her to the ground" were wrong.

But the people who have maintained that "Leonte did absolutely nothing wrong" were also wrong.

The truth, the actual fact of the case, appears to have been something in between.

So we move on.

 

[FRA10Thunderbolt]

Look, I know a lot of people on this board have been in "O.J." mode for the last 24 hours, but based on the judge's comments and the fact that having the charges dropped in exchange for mandatory anger management classes is not the same thing as an acquittal, I think we should all agree that Leonte had a good day yesterday. He should be thankful and he should go on living his life in as positive a manner as possible.

The bottom line is that the people who may have believed that he "picked up the recruiting hostess and threw her to the ground" were wrong.

But the people who have maintained that "Leonte did absolutely nothing wrong" were also wrong.

The truth, the actual fact of the case, appears to have been something in between.

So we move on.

Wrong! on many counts. Leonte was innocent...The charges were dropped so it is like it did not happen. No record, nothing. The only reason Leonte has to go to anger management classes(another little ruse the courts use to punish men who have done nothing wrong) is he entered into a Consent Order, He and the "Victim" came to agreement on the terms to drop the charges. The reason Leonte was willing to do that is so he could expedite the court proceedings that could take months to complete. It was a smart move on his part, even though he was not guilty of anything.

 

[BBMMTM]

Look, I know a lot of people on this board have been in "O.J." mode for the last 24 hours, but based on the judge's comments and the fact that having the charges dropped in exchange for mandatory anger management classes is not the same thing as an acquittal, I think we should all agree that Leonte had a good day yesterday. He should be thankful and he should go on living his life in as positive a manner as possible.

The bottom line is that the people who may have believed that he "picked up the recruiting hostess and threw her to the ground" were wrong.

But the people who have maintained that "Leonte did absolutely nothing wrong" were also wrong.

The truth, the actual fact of the case, appears to have been something in between.

So we move on.

How are they wrong? Everything his lawyers did yesterday were procedural to get the case done quickly. They even said they agreed to things just to get the case resolved. The anger management is a standard thing in DV cases. They still maintain he never touched her.

 

[scarlet night]

Yes, your honor.

 

[RUScrew85]

Before Carroo walked away with a fresh slate, he received a pointed line of questioning from municipal court judge Dennis Fackelman. Here is the transcript of that interaction:

DF: Do you realize that if you had a restraining order that would have been a stigmatism on your life for the rest of your life?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: And if you were guilty of assault you would have had to carry that for the rest of your life?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Did you learn something from all this?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Did you consider that you are a lucky individual?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Do you realize that you’ve been given the benefit of the doubt by this victim and the Rutgers police department?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: You are young and you’ve already got yourself in an incident. Do you realize that throughout the rest of your life you are going to have to try to avoid these confrontations and incidents?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: I understand that you are going to playing football Sundays. Do you realize how blessed you are with that kind of talent?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Are you going to act accordingly in the future?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: I’ve read about some of the other players in the NFL getting in trouble. Do you understand that?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Do you have a respect for domestic violence and how prevalent it is in this society?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Do you understand that with your talent, your time, your income, you are going to be a benefit to society if you choose. Are you going to do that?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Do you realize that everybody in this courtroom is going to follow you the rest of your life to see which way you turn: For better or for worse?

LC: Yes, your honor.

DF: Which way are you going to turn?

LC: For the better.

DF: I think you will.

Judge is a condescending dick. But that's not all that rare in my experience.

 

[ScarletKnightRider]

I agree that that was screwed up and low of the judge. If i'm Carroo I would be livid. I maintain my innocence, I claim I did NOTHING because I didn't. There is virtually no evidence that proves she is not lying. She dropped the charges on her own free will. But now I have to lick your boots and call you daddy and tell the world how "lucky" I am? I didnt do anything. Why should I be "lucky" that the criminal justice system actually worked the way it was supposed to? If he actually plead guilty and got a slap on the wrist then I'm all for it. But the guy was found guilty of NOTHING he shouldn't have to be badgered and lectured like that as if he's a criminal. What a prick, seriously.

 

[RBS05]

What that Judge did is so typical of the BS that men have to put up with in justice system. Carroo was found innocent of all charges.

No he wasn't.

 

[Rokodesh]

DF: You are young and you’ve already got yourself in an incident. Do you realize that throughout the rest of your life you are going to have to try to avoid these confrontations and incidents?

LC: Yes, your honor.

The bold is the part I don't like, saying he's got an incident sounds like he was convicted of something. Carroo is no criminal.

 

[WhiteBus]

DF: You are young and you’ve already got yourself in an incident. Do you realize that throughout the rest of your life you are going to have to try to avoid these confrontations and incidents?

LC: Yes, your honor.

The bold is the part I don't like, saying he's got an incident sounds like he was convicted of something. Carroo is no criminal.

You do understand he wasn't found innocent. A deal was made.

 

[ScarletKnightRider]

You do understand he wasn't found innocent. A deal was made.

You do understand he wasn't found guilty. And no a "deal" was not made, otherwise he would have plead guilty.

 

[RU1977]

He wasn't just lucky (as the judge notes), he was innocent!

 

[WhiteBus]

You do understand he wasnt found guilty. And no a "deal" was not made, otherwise he would have plead guilty.

You do understand he wasnt found guilty. And no a "deal" was not made, otherwise he would have plead guilty.

What??? No, that's part of the deal!! My word.

"As part of the agreement, the woman dropped her request for a permanent restraining order against Carroo – she had obtained a temporary restraining order – and decided not to testify in criminal court, effectively ending the case for the prosecution."

 

[Knight Shift]

Sounds like he took it out of the Caddyshack script:

Judge Smails: You know, despite what happened, I-I'm still convinced you have many fine qualities and I... I think you can still become a gentleman some day if you understand and abide by the rules of decent society.
[pats Danny on his shoulder]
Judge Smails: Danny, Danny, there's a lot of, uh, well, badness in the world today. I see it in court today. I've sentenced boys younger than you to the gas chamber. Didn't wanna do it, but felt I owed it to them. The most important decision you can make right now is what do you stand for, Danny? Goodness... or badness?
Danny Noonan: I know I make some bad mistakes in the past. I'm willing to make up for that. I wanna be good.
Judge Smails: Good. Good, very good. You know, I... I know how hard it is for young people today and I wanna help.

 

[ScarletKnightRider]

What??? No, that's part of the deal!! My word.

"As part of the agreement, the woman dropped her request for a permanent restraining order against Carroo – she had obtained a temporary restraining order – and decided not to testify in criminal court, effectively ending the case for the prosecution."

Ummmm Thats not a "Deal" man. She agreed to drop the charges. Thats what that means. This quote is irrelevant and doesn't mean that Carroo is guilty.

 

[Blitz8RU]

yes sir
no sir

 

[WhiteBus]

Ummmm Thats not a "Deal" man. She agreed to drop the charges. Thats what that means. This quote is irrelevant and doesn't mean that Carroo is guilty.

Ok, ok...if that's what you think it means keep believing that. And remember to stay on your meds [eyeroll]

 

[ruhudsonfan]

How are they wrong? Everything his lawyers did yesterday were procedural to get the case done quickly. They even said they agreed to things just to get the case resolved. The anger management is a standard thing in DV cases. They still maintain he never touched her.

Where you been hiding?

Takes one of your guys smacking a chick around to resurface?

I kid I kid...

Stick around for awhile...

 

[Veiox]

You know who was 100% spot on with the final result of this case? The 21 year old college student.

 

[KJRU]

Ummmm Thats not a "Deal" man. She agreed to drop the charges. Thats what that means. This quote is irrelevant and doesn't mean that Carroo is guilty.

He wasn't found not guilty, that would require a trial. Both sides agreed to specific terms to avoid a trial, it was a deal. The 'both sides agreed' part is the dead giveaway, that's what it takes to make a deal.

 

[ruhudsonfan]

You do understand he wasn't found guilty. And no a "deal" was not made, otherwise he would have plead guilty.

You understand he wasn't "found" anything?

He was NEITHER guilty nor not guilty. That would have required a trial.

And I'll ask again, why hasn't Shane been arrested yet? LC's attorney stated on the record, in court documents and in the press, that Shane would testify he did it.

 

[ScarletKnightRider]

He wasn't found innocent, that would require a trial. Both sides agreed to specific terms to avoid a trial, it was a deal. The 'both sides agreed' part is the dead giveaway, that's what it takes to make a deal.

When did I say that he was "found innocent"? I'll wait...

The backpedaling here is hilarious. LOL at these keyboard prosecutors trying to save face.

 

[ArminRU]

Look, I know a lot of people on this board have been in "O.J." mode for the last 24 hours, but based on the judge's comments and the fact that having the charges dropped in exchange for mandatory anger management classes is not the same thing as an acquittal, I think we should all agree that Leonte had a good day yesterday. He should be thankful and he should go on living his life in as positive a manner as possible.

The bottom line is that the people who may have believed that he "picked up the recruiting hostess and threw her to the ground" were wrong.

But the people who have maintained that "Leonte did absolutely nothing wrong" were also wrong.

The truth, the actual fact of the case, appears to have been something in between.

So we move on.

Bwahaha STILL insisting Carroo is guilty. You are one pathetic little man

 

[JPhoboken]

Judge acted like a pompous condescending idiot. That gratuitous lecture was quite ridiculous and unnecessary.

My goodness, he was charged with a disorderly persons offense with little or no evidence to try him. The judge acts like he got away with murder. Do you think this judge gives the same lecture to every person who has charges dropped.

 

[RU4Real]

Bwahaha STILL insisting Carroo is guilty. You are one pathetic little man

You have issues. Comprehension issues, emotional issues... Lots of issues.

You should work on all that.

 

[JPhoboken]

You understand he wasn't "found" anything?

He was NEITHER guilty nor not guilty. That would have required a trial.

And I'll ask again, why hasn't Shane been arrested yet? LC's attorney stated on the record, in court documents and in the press, that Shane would testify he did it.

I never read anywhere where Shane said he committed a criminal act, he said he was the one who pulled her off. Since the victim swore it wasn't him, why would they arrest him?

 

[Best7Years]

You do understand he wasn't found innocent. A deal was made.

You understand that no one is ever found "innocent". There's only guilty and not guilty, but neither apply here. LC had all charges against him dropped.

 

[miketd1]

Judge acted like a pompous condescending idiot. That gratuitous lecture was quite ridiculous and unnecessary.

My goodness, he was charged with a disorderly persons offense with little or no evidence to try him. The judge acts like he got away with murder. Do you think this judge gives the same lecture to every person who has charges dropped.

Carroo isn't your average guy. Judge basically goes out of his way to acknowledge it.

Yes, it was platforming. It's up to the viewer to decide if it's for Leonte's sake or his own ego's. I'd like to think it's a bit of both, which makes me 'ok' with it.

 

[RUsojo]

All athletes would benefit from following Derek Jeter's example.

 

[ruhudsonfan]

All athletes would benefit from following Derek Jeter's example.

Banging a stable of super models?

Where do I sign?

 

[ruhudsonfan]

I never read anywhere where Shane said he committed a criminal act, he said he was the one who pulled her off. Since the victim swore it wasn't him, why would they arrest him?

How did she get hurt? slipped on a banana peel?

 

[Veiox]

I think you don't know how any of this works.

This is not true.

You only need victim testimony if there is no other evidence.

In this case there is the eyewitness testimony of numerous other people.

And since this is a DV-initiated case, the charges cannot be "dropped by the victim". That's what the DV laws are all about. The charges have been filed, the only person who can "drop" them is the prosecutor.

And if there is no victim or witness testimony it will be dropped by the prosecution.

Ugh.

Have some of you guys NEVER been to court?

Clearly there is a victim. Duh. That's not even debatable.

And since this is a simple assault charge (**for now) and as such is a misdemeanor which will be adjudicated in municipal court, you don't really need "witness testimony". The only direct testimony that's required is that of the arresting officer, who will present the witness STATEMENTS that have already been collected.

Again - it's municipal court. There's no jury. It's basically traffic court. If the charge isn't upgraded, the likely scenario here is that Carroo strolls into court with his attorney, they have a chat with the prosecutor and, based on the fact that Carroo intervened in an ongoing altercation involving members of his family who may have been at risk, the prosecutor will agree to step the misdemeanor assault charge down to a petty misdemeanor (as permitted by the statute), Carroo will pay a fine, get 6 months probation and walk out the door. At the end of the 6 months he can have the petty misdemeanor charge expunged from this record.

That's assuming, of course, that the victim doesn't turn out to be seriously injured and / or the P'way prosecutor isn't a dick about it. If either or both of those things turns out to be the case, then the prosecutor will bounce the case to the county prosecutor and there will be an arraignment on an upgraded charge. Personally, I don't see that as being likely.

As I said before - "gift". Take it, pay the man, apologize to the people and move on.

Read what I said victim or witness testimony...i.e., no victim testimony or witness testimony in court. Witness and victim statements mean nothing when in court in front of a judge. The defense has the right to cross examine them and prosecutor usually will not proceed without one or the other. I am speaking from personal experiences. One was facing the exact charges as LC and another as a victim of a separate simple assault. I will take my personal experience over your blather. Period. I know first hand as a relative of a former municipal judge what can or cannot happen.

No, not really. That's why the DV laws exist. They exist solely to prevent victims of domestic violence from showing up 24 hours after a "lesson in paying attention when I tell you to get me a beer" and convincing the cops to drop the charges.

DV arrests and charges are automatic. By law. The judge gets to sort it out. The only way the prosecutor can stand in front of the judge and say, "Your Honor, the State has some question about its ability to prove the charges against the defendant and ask that they be dismissed at this time." is if that's actually true - if there's no way they can prove the charge.

Under the circumstances, there's almost no likelihood that happens.

What you say is technically true if he decides to plead not guilty and demand a trial.

I'm saying there's little to no chance of that happening. I'm willing to bet that the prosecutor is, at the very least, sitting on the aggravated assault charge just in case the defendant wants to go the distance on this.

And I've been there, too. So your experience is no more valuable than mine.

Which is what happens when you have no victim or witness testimony in court. Been there and done that.

The thing that sucks a huge one with that statute is a gf who you just dumped can go and file some made up ******** to try and get back at you. Thankfully, sometimes they realize that completely lying under oath in court is not a smart thing to do and the whole thing gets dropped. Just saying.

My experience turned out to be pretty valuable...

 

[RU4Real]

I think it's fair to say that the judge knows a LOT more about the facts of the case and the circumstances, thereof, than anybody here.

So if the judge suggests, ON THE RECORD, that Carroo caught a break, it would make sense to take that at face value.

As I said in my previous post, there's clearly no evidence that Leonte Carroo inflicted any serious injury upon the alleged victim. But there is also no evidence to suggest that he did nothing at all. Something happened, and all parties agreed that the best way to resolve the issue was to handle it precisely as it was handled.