The trial of Hawks player Thabo Sefolosha began Monday with jury selection. Defense attorney Alex Spiro declared that his client is “completely innocent.”
Opening statements are set for Tuesday morning, with Sefolosha facing charges of obstructing government administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct in a case stemming from a dispute outside a New York nightclub in April. Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Robert Mandelbaum dismissed a fourth charge of harassment.
A jury of four women and two men was chosen to hear the case, which is expected to conclude by the end of the week.
During jury selection, attorneys for both the state and for Sefolosha raised the issue of race, with Spiro suggesting that police actions towards Sefolosha could have been influenced by his race.
“I can’t have a referendum, but my client is black,” Spiro said in court.
Assistant district attorney Francesca Bartolomey said she expects to call six witnesses, all police officers. Spiro said he would call six to eight witnesses in Sefolosha’s defense. Former Hawk Pero Antic, who was with Sefolosha and was originally charged in the case, is on the witness list.
Prosecutors offered Sefolosha an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, without the day of community service they asked for last month. But he turned it down in favor of a trial in which he hopes to prove his innocence.
Sefolosha suffered a broken right fibula and ligament damage during the incident and said the police caused the injuries. He missed the final five games of the 2014-15 regular season and was unable to return for the playoffs after under going surgery.
While he hasn’t yet filed a civil suit in the case, he could still do so once the criminal charges are dealt with.
Sefolosha was arrested in the early morning hours of April 8, after Indiana Pacers player Chris Copeland was stabbed in the abdomen during a dispute at the nightclub 1OAK. Sefolosha was not involved in that incident, but was later confronted by the police who responded to it.
Spiro has claimed that Sefolosha was far away from the actual crime scene and was not in a position to even see it at the time of the confrontation with police.
Spiro asked for a subpoena of police records, but Mandelbaum turned down most parts of that request Monday.
While there is some video of Sefolosha’s arrest — it was obtained and shown by TMZ — the case will likely turn on whether jurors find the police officers’ stories credible. Both sides asked potential jurors how they would feel about a case made up entirely of testimony from police. Spiro told prospective jurors that not everything the police say should be believed.
“Officers, like all humans, lie,” he said.
Spiro also asked potential jurors whether they could separate whether Sefolosha had talked back to the police.
“At the end of the trial, the question isn’t whether he was perfect,” Spiro said. “It’s whether he committed a crime.”
