Jay Mariotti says he has moved on with his life. He writes that he is happy doing a daily web radio show at Mariottishow.com. Naturally, he also pumps out columns for the site.
Yet Mariotti confronted his past today in a column about Darren Sharper. It turns out he has first-hand experience with Sharper’s attorney.
Mariotti writes:
I will not pretend to know if Darren Sharper raped as many as nine women in five states, as charged. But I do know that his Los Angeles-based attorney says the former NFL star is innocent.
And I do know, from personal experience, that his attorney is a ruthless liar.
Keep my narrative in mind as a jurisprudence-weary sports world examines the latest legal entanglement involving a high-profile football name. Sharper, a five-time All-Pro who is accused of drugging women in most of the alleged rapes, is represented by Leonard Levine. He is best known as a criminal defense attorney, recalling his successful 2006 defense of Mark Sanchez when the current New York Jets quarterback was accused of sexual assault as a USC student-athlete. But curiously enough, in August 2010, Levine chose to reverse roles and represent a troubled plantiff who’d lost her full-time job, had little money to her name and chose to tell lies and press charges against an innocent man who’d simply tried to help her.
Me.
Mariotti details what happened to him in the domestic abuse case that derailed his career. Then he writes:
Lawyers lie — it’s a redundancy — but Levine recklessly disregarded the truth and severely damaged my reputation in a retaliatory Los Angeles Times story. Because I didn’t want my family exposed to further one-sided media coverage and rampant lies being told by the plaintiff, I chose not to pursue this winnable case in a very expensive trial. By pleading no contest to a low-level misdemeanor, I would proceed with my life and remove an assortment of money-grubbers and headline-seekers from my daily existence. With the drama over, my attorney issued a statement to the media. Levine, who did not like my Orange County-based attorney and squabbled with him during the process, was incensed by the statement.
So, to retaliate, he invented a sick lie. He told the Times that I’d punched his client in the face. I haven’t punched anyone in my life, much less a woman in the face. He didn’t tell the Times that she was a heavy drinker, didn’t tell the Times that she was the one abusing me, didn’t tell the Times she had fallen twice on a drunken boat excursion off Marina del Rey — with several witnesses around — and sustained bruises that Levine conveniently blamed on me. No, Levine wanted to get back at my attorney. So he fabricated a horrible image of me for public consumption.
Mariotti writes about further problems he had with Levine’s client. Things, though, have been quiet for a while, and as he said, he is on to the next phrase of his life.
He concludes:
In the coming weeks and months, you’re going to read quotes from Levine defending Sharper. This is what he told a judge last week:
“All of these were consensual contact between Mr. Sharper and women who wanted to be in his company, who voluntarily ingested alcohol and drugs in many cases.”
All nine cases were consensual. That’s what Levine is saying.
And this is what he said when agreeing to a judge’s edict that Sharper not go to bars or clubs: “If he goes to a bar and meets women, he’s putting himself in a position of being accused of misconduct whether it’s true or not.”
Levine would know. He used that strategy against me.
May the better lying lawyer win. Such is the American legal system, 2014.
Good morning. I won’t be the first or last to comment on this. I liked your article about the broadcasters over 70. However, Vin Scully was conspicuously missing from the list.
Thanks,
Paul Balthrop
Tallahassee, Florida
Jay Mariotti “victim” LOL…now THAT’s rich.
There’s an old saying Jay, “you reap what you sow…”
Glad Mariotti has moved on. Or something.