The case against Atlanta Hawks player Thabo Sefolosha went to the jury Thursday, after Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer took the stand in his player’s defense and defense attorney Alex Spiro told the court the police officers arresting Sefolosha were the ones who were guilty.
“You know what the public disturbance is? It’s when they’re smashing [Sefolosha] to the ground,” Spiro said in his summation, before accusing the officers of lying on the witness stand.
Spiro turned the three misdemeanor charges Sefolosha is facing against the officers who arrested him, saying New York City Officer JohnPaul Giacona was “guilty of disorderly conduct,” that other officers obstructed governmental administration and that “they’re all resisting each other” as they attempted to put Sefolosha under arrest.
Prosecutors countered by saying Sefolosha disobeyed a direct order to leave a crime scene outside the 1OAK nightclub and then resisted when police officers tried to arrest him. They accused Sefolosha of believing laws don’t apply to him because he’s an NBA star.
“Nobody is above the law in this courtroom,” assistant district attorney Francesca Bartolomey told the jury.
The prosecution and defense presented drastically different versions of what happened in the early morning hours of April 8, after Indiana Pacers player Chris Copeland and two other people were stabbed in an incident that didn’t involve Sefolosha or any members of his party. While prosecutors painted Sefolosha as uncooperative and accused him of “lunging at” or “moving aggressively towards” a police officer, the defense said the officers provoked the trouble and said Sefolosha was actually attempting to hand a $20 bill to a homeless person.
“His crime was philanthropy,” Spiro said.
The defense presented several videos taken that night and shortly after beginning deliberations, the jury asked to review those tapes. Judge Robert Mandelbaum called a recess about 30 minutes later and deliberations will continue Friday morning.
Even when a verdict is reached, the larger case could go on, with the likelihood Sefolosha, should he win the case, eventually filing a civil case against officers he has accused of breaking his right leg during the arrest. Sefolosha suffered a broken right fibula and ligament damage, wasn’t able to play for the Hawks in the playoffs and has said he still isn’t 100 percent recovered.
Both Spiro and Bartolomey encouraged the jurors to watch the videos. Spiro asked them to focus on people asking why Sefolosha was being placed under arrest and on Sefolosha repeatedly saying, “Relax.”
Spiro also encouraged jurors to think back to Thursday morning, when Sefolosha took the stand to be cross-examined by Bartolomey.
“Did you notice Thabo’s cross?” he asked. “That’s what truth looks like. When you don’t lie, it’s very tough to get caught in a lie.”
The cross-examination lasted more than an hour and Bartolomey was never able to shake Sefolosha from his version of the events. The prosecutor did seem to anger the judge, who chastised her for repeating questions Sefolosha had already answered.
“Do you have any questions to ask that you haven’t asked already?” an exasperated Mandelbaum said at one point. “Ask those.”
Later, Budenholzer testified to Sefolosha’s strong character.
“All teams do things differently, but character is our most important thing,” Budenholzer said. “Thabo was someone I personally very much wanted and sought. I felt he was exactly the type of person and player we wanted in Atlanta, that I wanted in Atlanta.”
Prosecutors then brought two of the police officers back to the stand to testify that the man who appeared in court Wednesday and goes by the street name “True” wasn’t the same man Sefolosha tried to hand money to that night. The man had been standing next to Officer Daniel Dongvort and Officer Richard Caster said he reacted because he saw Sefolosha “lunging” towards Dongvort.
Bartolomey saw the mistaken identity as proof Sefolosha wasn’t credible. Spiro denied there was any mistake and said that it hardly mattered, anyway.
In his view, the case was much more about what the police had done.
“They arrested him,” Spiro said. “They broke his leg, out of eyeshot and earshot of an unrelated crime scene, because he was trying to give a homeless person some money.
“That’s what happened.”
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