DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Deshawn Watson News/Issues

Doesn't read like that at all...

"Thus, the Commissioner continues to have full and final say over all discipline under the Personal Conduct Policy. The Commissioner’s powers become short-circuited only if/when the Disciplinary Officer concludes that the player should experience no discipline. If any discipline is imposed, the Commissioner can change it in any way that he wants. With no appeal rights beyond that."

Here is the link again: https://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/NFL_domestic_violence_policy.pdf

Don't be surprised if it is 17-34 games.

Thats cool. I don't know what method had you irritated. The team moved on with a better option. At least what they felt was a better option. I guess only time will tell if that proves out or not.

To me it was pretty evident that it wasn't all roses between the two camps once we didn't extend him and exercised the 5th year option.

Bakers big mistake was not opting for surgery when he first got hurt, or shortly after. Yes, it probably helped in the sense it made him look tough and dedicated, but it didn't help him at all in getting another contract.

Or 24 games for his 24 "possible" victims.

Lisa Friel is heading the investigation on behalf of the NFL. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Friel

In her role as the NFL's special counsel for investigations she also oversaw the domestic violence investigation of Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott. In a lawsuit filed by the NFLPA, Friel is accused of withholding "critical information which would completely exonerate Elliott" in allegations of domestic violence.[10] Friel reportedly barred lead investigator Kia Roberts, who recommended no suspension for Elliott, from attending a meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell where Friel recommended a six-game suspension for Elliott to Goodell and other NFL executives.[11] Friel was also accused of withholding evidence when she was implicated for prosecutorial misconduct in the alleged rape case of former New York police officers Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata.[10]

I know you are making a joke, but the process has changed. Here is an article about it.

The METHOD of dumping a kid that wasn't horrible,,, They way they did it.. In other words... THE METHOD... What's so hard to figure out?

j/c...

This part of her bio worries me.

Six games... he wasn't reprimanded by the league between any of these incidences, was he? Then he's not a repeat offender.

That is concerning. Why would the NFL hire someone with those black marks on their resume?

That is concerning. Why would the NFL hire someone with those black marks on their resume?

I don't know the whole enchilada - but because it's on Wiki does not make it true and who knows if this is a biased/untrue or partially true take? I can't see any benefit for the NFL to be using anyone who has a tarnished history.

Ezekiel Elliott case: This isn't first time NFL's Lisa Friel was accused of withholding evidence

Charles Robinson
Charles Robinson·NFL columnist
September 1, 2017
In this article:

Ezekiel Elliott

The NFL Players Association’s lawsuit stemming from the investigation of Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott did not go unnoticed in at least two Manhattan high-rises on Friday.

Inside the NFL’s offices at 345 Park Avenue, executives were confronting allegations aimed at the league and investigation czar Lisa Friel, who (among others) stands accused in the union’s federal filing of concealing “critical information which would completely exonerate Elliott” in allegations of domestic violence. But in a law firm just six blocks away on Park Avenue, civil and criminal attorney Eric Sanders could muster only a disrespectful laugh. Only three years ago, Sanders tangled with Friel and others in a failed $175 million lawsuit. Among the allegations: Friel’s office failed to turn over evidence in a criminal trial involving his client.

“I’m not shocked at the allegations [against Friel],” Sanders said Friday. “… It sounds familiar.”

Ezekiel Elliott's appeal of a six-game suspension is in the hands of arbitrator Harold Henderson. (AP)
Ezekiel Elliott’s appeal of a six-game suspension is in the hands of arbitrator Harold Henderson. (AP)

Sanders’ stance isn’t a surprise. He has taken shots at Friel’s conduct as a prosecutor in the past, most notably when the NFL announced her hiring in 2014. After NFL commissioner Roger Goodell appointed Friel as the league’s top investigator, Sanders tweeted: “How can the @nfl hire Lisa Friel, she was implicated for prosecutorial misconduct in the Moreno alleged rape case?”



It was a bombastic tweet by Sanders that ultimately wasn’t supported by court decisions. But it reached back into one of the more eyebrow-raising moments in Friel’s career. A moment that saw her Manhattan Sex Crimes Unit controversially involved in an HBO documentary that would ultimately prompt allegations of withholding evidence from defense attorneys.


Friel was the head of the unit at the time in 2011, which was participating in a documentary relating to the group’s work. During the course of filming, two of Friel’s investigators were recorded discussing the active rape prosecution of former New York police officers Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata. While the footage never made it into the documentary, Friel’s office failed to turn the footage over to the defense prior to the investigators taking the witness stand, which could’ve been a violation of state law. Defense attorneys would later argue the footage could have been beneficial to their clients’ defense.

Moreno and Franklin were ultimately acquitted of the rape charges, but each was dealt prison sentences for official misconduct convictions. That’s where opposing lawyers attempted to seize on the documentary footage that hadn’t been provided to the defense. But attempts to overturn the misconduct convictions on the basis of concealing evidence ultimately failed, as appeals courts ruled the footage was immaterial and hasn’t illustrated prosecutorial misconduct.

Friel would step down from the Sex Crimes Unit in July 2011, after the evidence flap and rape acquittals. It has been reported by multiple outlets that she was asked to resign for a handful of reasons – among them engaging in the HBO documentary and also internal prosecutorial differences with her then-boss, New York County district attorney Cyrus Vance.

The NFLPA is questioning the conduct of NFL executive Lisa Friel, pictured here in 2014, in her handling of Ezekiel Elliott's suspension. (AP)

Whatever the reasons, she was eventually targeted by Sanders, who filed a $175 million lawsuit against the district attorney’s office, HBO, Friel and multiple district attorney staffers stemming from the handling of the Moreno case. The suit ultimately ended in failure, but Sanders remains adamant on one point: Friel’s office failed to turn over what he believes is untold raw footage from the documentary that might have been beneficial to Moreno’s defense. And Sanders says Friel will always bare responsibility for that.

“She was the main prosecutor,” Sanders said. “It was her office. Sex Crimes was her office. That was her responsibility. She was intimately involved. She can’t push it off to the underlings. She was the supervisor. She had direct involvement in that prosecution.”

Whether the past incident speaks at all to the Elliott case is debatable. But the NFLPA went directly at Friel with a damning allegation: that she withheld key conclusions of Kia Wright Roberts, the lone NFL investigator to interview Elliott’s accuser Tiffany Thompson. Roberts testified that she produced a memo raising questions about Thompson’s credibility and ultimately didn’t feel there was corroborating evidence to support Thompson’s claims or to suspend Elliott.

The league denies the NFLPA’s allegations and says all of the evidence, including Roberts’ analysis, made it into the hands of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. The players union is ready to argue otherwise, suggesting that Friel and others conspired to conceal evidence that would help Elliott’s case. Somewhere in that space is the truth. And unquestionably, Friel’s reputation is tied to it. For now, an NFL spokesperson told Yahoo Sports that she will not be made available for comment.

Sanders has been down this road and lost. He still disputes that the withheld documentary footage was irrelevant to his client’s case and believes Friel’s Sex Crimes Unit acted inappropriately. And he says that his loss shouldn’t stop anyone from questioning the motives of prosecutors who are in control of vital pieces of information.

“Prosecutors cover things up all the time,” Sanders said. “It’s just there’s never any recourse. Prosecutors do cover things up. It happens. It’s not about justice. It’s about winning. It has nothing to do with the public. It has to do with their own personal agendas and their egos.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/ezekiel-el...used-withholding-evidence-232701902.html

Which time?

NFL commish Roger Goodell could become witness if Ezekiel Elliott case goes to court

Charles Robinson
Charles Robinson·NFL columnist
September 1, 2017
In this article:

Ezekiel Elliott

By accident or design, the NFL turned commissioner Roger Goodell into a material witness to a federal lawsuit that the NFL Players Association filed on Thursday. In comments to Pro Football Talk and NFL.com, league spokesman Joe Lockhart denied union allegations that the league engaged in a conspiracy to conceal evidence in the Ezekiel Elliott suspension case – adding that Goodell was aware of credibility concerns raised by lead league investigator Kia Wright Roberts.

Goodell’s level of awareness would be a key aspect of the federal lawsuit, particularly where it involves Roberts’ analysis. If the players union advances into litigation seeking to prove conspiracy claims, Goodell could be subject to a deposition, be compelled to turn over pertinent communications and testify under oath in federal court. That’s a significant development for the NFLPA, which in its initial finding alleged that Roberts expressed credibility concerns with Elliott’s accuser but later had that opinion concealed from Goodell and the league’s domestic violence commission.

Lockhart said that allegation is not true, squarely placing Goodell and the commission at the crossroads of a decision to suspend Elliott despite reservations from the lead investigator on the case.


“It’s categorically false that the information was kept from the commission,” Lockhart told Pro Football Talk.

League spokesperson Brian McCarthy echoed Lockhart’s statements to Yahoo Sports on Friday. Specifically that Goodell was fully aware of what Roberts had contributed to the investigation and made his decision after weighing all the analysis – including the reservations Roberts had expressed after interviewing Elliott’s alleged victim, Tiffany Thompson.

A league source told Yahoo Sports on Thursday that Roberts testified in Elliott’s appeal to having written a memo raising interview inconsistencies from Thompson, who has accused the running back of multiple acts of domestic violence. Roberts further testified that she was the only NFL investigator to speak with Thompson on six different occasions and determined there was insufficient evidence to corroborate her claims or suspend Elliott.

The NFLPA followed that testimony up by filing a lawsuit against the NFL on Thursday, alleging that NFL senior vice president of investigations Lisa Friel concealed Roberts’ concerns about Elliott’s accuser and engaged in a conspiracy to withhold information favorable to Elliott.

According to the union’s lawsuit, “Elliott and the Union were subjected to an arbitration process in which, among other things, there was a League-orchestrated conspiracy by senior NFL executives, including NFL Senior Vice President and Special Counsel for Investigations Lisa Friel, to hide critical information, which would completely exonerate Elliott.”

For all intents and purposes, the lawsuit was a preemptive strike aimed at vacating potential punishment upheld by arbitrator Harold Henderson, who is weighing information gathered at the appeal. If Henderson vacates Elliott’s six-game suspension, it’s believed the lawsuit will be withdrawn.

It is hoped by the Dallas Cowboys that Henderson will have his response to the arbitration by Monday, when the first practice week of the NFL’s regular season is slated to begin.

https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-commis...l-elliott-case-goes-court-183603666.html

I guess if you look at it from a criminal court system where each time you commit the same crime the penalty increases you would be correct. But acting as if an independent body such as the NFL won't judge it as multiple incidents of the same infraction and punish it as such is wishful thinking. They may not in the end, but you do realize that each time you do the same thing over and over you repeated what you did in the first place, right?

I don't know the whole enchilada - but because it's on Wiki does not make it true and who knows if this is a biased/untrue or partially true take? I can't see any benefit for the NFL to be using anyone who has a tarnished history.

I could see the league saying (rightfully so, because it's true) that he was made aware that his actions were not welcome by several accusers and continued the same behavior. And since it is sexual behavior they may point out the continued behavior and tack on a couple games besides the six. That's about it though.

I will only say that can be taken two different ways. If it is found that several violations of the same offense are found to have happened, the first one could be considered the first offense and everyone there after could be considered as repeating that same offense on multiple occasions. I have no idea which way they will look at that. It could go either way.

I don't understand how the NFL is still using her if these allegations have any substance.

It seems that if posters want to give Watson the benefit of the doubt as he has not been prosecuted - but want to cast significant shade on Friel who is sort of in the same situation ... doesn't seem consistent. Not saying that's exactly what's going on, but the situation made me ponder.

Who are these posters? I haven't seen one person say she should be in jail. I haven't seen one person say she should be punished. Meanwhile, there are posters who are openly campaigning for Watson to be severely punished while completely overlooking other things.

Btw--------the removal and lock-out of the lead investigator in the Elliot case is not an allegation. It actually occurred.