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CBS News
Used to remember seeing this guy play when I was a kid.
Can't believe a public defender was representing him either.
NBC SportsFormer NFL runningback David Meggett, who played for the Giants, the New England Patriots and the Jets, was sentenced to three decades in prison yesterday in South Carolina for a January 2009 .....![]()
Meggett was active in the NFL from 1989 through 1998, when he retired. In court, his public defender argued that the sex was consensual, but Meggett did not testify on his own behalf about the incident. According to local news sources,the victim did speak in court about the incident:
The victim, whose teary testimony lasted more than one hour Monday, appeared more serene Wednesday after the verdict. Assistant 9th Circuit Solicitor Culver Kidd hugged her afterward and told her she was very brave.
Meggett is also facing charges for an incident in September 2008 in which he allegedly forced a teenage girl to have sex with him “after inviting her to breakfast.” Prosecutors have said that they’re not sure they intend to follow through with that case, as it is “weaker” than the case that just concluded.
Meggett was sentenced by Circuit Judge Kristi Harrington to 30 years in prison, and will not be eligible for parole for at least 25.
Pretty messed up.Former NFL running back Dave Meggett, who spent six years with the Giants, three with the Patriots, and one with the Jets, will be spending three times the duration of his NFL career behind bars.
A jury convicted Meggett Wednesday of burglary and criminal sexual conduct. He was sentenced to 30 years in jail.
Meggett allegedly raped a college student at her North Charleston, South Carolina home in January 2009. Though he didn’t testify, Meggett’s lawyer told the jury during closing arguments that Meggett admitted to having sex with the woman, “but the two were friends and had a sexual agreement as repayment for debt.” (It sounds like a rejected Seinfeld story idea.)
The victim testified that the pair previously had a drunken sexual encounter, that she indeed owed Meggett (she knew him as “Mike”) $200, and that she awoke one night to find him at the foot of her bed.
He asked for the money, she said she didn’t have it, and “he told me he was going to take a down payment now.”
She said that Meggett “grabbed her throat, pinned her arm behind her back and had forcible intercourse with her.”
With many .... cases involving a he said/she said conflict of facts, Meggett’s decision not to rebut her testimony was disastrous. If he claims that the victim offered to have sex as a partial down payment on the debt, Meggett needed to take the witness stand and say so. The fact that they’d previously had consensual sex would have helped create reasonable doubt.
Though Meggett’s lawyer says an appeal will be filed, this one looks to be open and shut.
That said, the sentence seems excessive; it’s possible that an appeal could reduce the total time behind bars.
Until then, we predict that multiple inmates will be breaking out their best Chris Berman voices in the shower room.
Used to remember seeing this guy play when I was a kid.
Can't believe a public defender was representing him either.