New evidence suggests New York Giants cornerback DeAndre Baker allegedly paid off witnesses in his armed robbery case.
As of Friday evening, things weren’t headed in the right direction for DeAndre Baker.
The second-year New York Giants cornerback, who’s facing four counts each of armed robbery and aggravated assault (both with a firearm) stemming from an altercation at a May cookout, had evidence from a newly surfaced warrant — video footage and Instagram direct messages — suggest that he was allegedly part of a payoff to have the four apparent victims recant their initial statements. The payoff allegedly occurred on May 15 at the office of Michael Grieco, Quinton Dunbar’s attorney. The Seattle Seahawks cornerback was additionally involved in the supposed altercation and is facing four counts of armed robbery with a firearm.
But in spite of the evidence that could very much harm Baker’s case, the 22-year-old’s lawyers are still possessing confidence in their client’s innocence.
Per Paul Schwartz of the New York Post, attorney Patrick Patel claims Baker wasn’t involved in paying off any witnesses.
“They just made our case even stronger,” Patel said.
According to Miramar, Florida Police Department detective Mark Moretti, one of the direct messages portrays Baker speaking to Dominic Johnson, a witness who allegedly oversaw the payoff.
“Johnson is telling Baker to come to Dunbar Lawyer’s office,” Moretti wrote in the warrant. “Baker replied, ‘Yo, I’m in the city getting cash how much to bring ?? I’m tryna get there too u ASAP.’”
“There appears to be several phone calls between Baker and Johnson,” the warrant additionally stated. “Johnson appears to be nervous by telling Baker ‘Yooooo these people finna leave.’”
Patel addressed this, stating, “We wanted to flush them out to see what they were trying to do…We didn’t go to the meeting, we didn’t pay, purposely.”
“We were with DeAndre telling him, ‘Write him, ask him, what does he want, what times does he want to meet?'” he added. “We were the ones who controlled the narrative. Baker had no intention of ever going. He was just trying to solicit the information of the blackmail from [Johnson].”
Another one of Baker’s lawyers, Bradford Cohen, also spoke on the matter via his personal Twitter account, responding to the original report from Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News in regards to the new evidence.
This is utterly false and defamatory to Andre Baker. We do not have any affidavits from the alleged victims of this offense, nor did these "victims" change the story as to dre baker. We accused the "victims" of extortion and reported to authorities from day 1.
— Bradford Cohen (@bradfordcohen) July 11, 2020
Cohen also responded to the subsequent report from Leonard implying that sources close to Big Blue don’t believe Baker will be employed by the organization for much longer.
Andre Baker paid no one. The only statements we have are from several independent witnesses that were at the party. Mr. Baker also took a lie detector given by a nationally known examiner and was shown to be truthful. This is a smear tactic against Andre Baker.
— Bradford Cohen (@bradfordcohen) July 11, 2020
The legal matter itself has certainly entered a new chapter, and this might be the most eventful one yet. It may only be a matter of time until we find out the true legitimate fate of this situation, which could include a dismissal and Baker back with the team, or the exact opposite — a release after just one season in East Rutherford.