ABCnews: Ex-NFL Star Lawrence Taylor Charged With NY Rape.Former NFL star Lawrence Taylor charged with raping 16-year-old runaway in NY hotel room
Pro Football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor was charged Thursday with raping a 16-year-old runaway who police said was forced into prostitution by a man who had beaten her up.
Taylor, a 51-year-old former New York Giants star who has faced drug and tax evasion charges in the past, paid the girl $300 for sex in a Holiday Inn, where he was arrested early Thursday, said Christopher St. Lawrence, supervisor of the town of Ramapo.
The man who'd beaten the girl drove her to Taylor's suburban hotel room, police said.
Ramapo Chief of Police Peter Brower said Taylor was cooperative when police woke him up around 4 a.m. Taylor was arraigned Thursday on charges of third-degree rape and patronizing a prostitute.
His attorney, Arthur Aidala, said Taylor is a "loving family man" who did not have sex with the teenager.
"My client did not have sex with anybody," Aidala said. "Lawrence Taylor did not rape anybody."
Brower would not comment on whether Taylor knew the girl's age; third-degree rape is a charge levied when the victim is under the age of consent, which is 17 in New York.
Of course, this man is innocent until proven guilty. But if convicted, it once again points to the fact that anyone -- you, your family member, or loved one -- could end up as a "sex offender" one day only to have their life crushed under these draconian sex offender laws. Sex offenders are not just the homeless monsters stereotyped by public perception.
